146 Life and Times of " The Druid." 



and fields were won. Dick Christian was 

 seated by a comfortable fireside in Chapel 

 Street, Melton, when "The Druid" pulled 

 forth his trusty steel pen to report the old 

 man's " Lectures." " I had never seen him 

 before," he adds, "and came to the conclusion 

 that seventy-eight winters had dealt gently 

 with the veteran. There he sat, the same 

 light-legged, sturdy, five-foot-six man, with 

 nearly all the muscular breadth of chest and 

 vigour of arm left which had enabled him, 

 in his heyday, to lift a horse's fore-quarters 

 as high, if not higher, over a fence than any 

 man that ever rode to hounds. He seemed 

 to be anxious to jump off at score upon his 

 great Marigold feat, the account of which had 

 just been cut out of an old newspaper, and 

 sent to him by a friend ; but I called him 

 back, and asked him what sort of a boy he 

 was, and got him well away on that theme 

 at last." 



I do not think that in the whole of " The 

 Druid's " writings there is a more creditable 

 specimen of his unrivalled powers of ingra- 

 tiating himself with men of low degree and 

 getting them to unfold their thoughts and 



