THE MISSED MEET 



( A Ballad of the Chase ) 



Tho' hoar-frost lingered in the shade, and rime lay white 

 in copse and glade, 

 Upon the winter landscape played 

 A sun as mild as May. 

 With tramphng hoof and stirrup-clink 

 The lanes beneath them rang ; 

 Whole hamlets ran to watch them prink in brown and 

 yellow, black and pink ; 

 Bhthely they laughed and sang : 

 So for the meet rode Harbottle, Sillitoe, 

 Griggs and Briggs and Buller-Brown, and Grumby 

 on the grey : 



To meet the hounds at Hare Park Gate; the road was 

 long, the time grew late, 

 And still they rode, serene, inflate. 

 The unfamiliar way. 

 The road divided left and right, 

 No signpost there to guide ; 

 The right-hand road lay cold and white ; the left-hand, 

 bathed in sunshine, bright, 

 And fair, and smooth, and wide : 

 So to the left rode Harbottle, Sillitoe, 

 Griggs and Briggs and Buller-Brown, and Grumby 

 on the grey. 



