Scarlet. 353 



lay for full a minute' on his horn, which he invariably 

 carried in his breast for convenience, or a cold which 

 had been lingering about him, laid him low at last, 

 just at daybreak, on the third anniversary of that very 

 May-day on which the Hunt had presented him with 

 its memorable tribute, and the Grantham inn had 

 rung again with the chorus, "■ Bill Goodall is the boy /" 

 They took his horn to his bedside some days before 

 he died, and he showed them exactly how he fell ; 

 and half-sitting up, took it with all the animation of 

 health, as if it revived him to lay hold of it again. He 

 had only once risen from his bed during his ten days' 

 illness, and that was to show Lord Henry Bentinck 

 his young Rallywoods of the third generation in the 

 new entry. As if with a sort of melancholy prescience 

 that it was not to be, he often said how he " should 

 love to see them at two-years-old ;" but they only 

 swelled that strange mournful requiem for him which 

 arose from the kennel, and fairly thrilled through the 

 mourners as the hearse moved away. He lies not 

 many paces from lom Goosey, just within the church- 

 yard gate at Knipton, and under the shade of that 

 bold chain of woodlands in which his cheery voice had 

 been heard, early and late, for seventeen seasons. By 

 all, from " my kind Lord DukeJ' as he called him, when 

 his Grace bent over him to bid him farewell, down 

 to the humblest labourer, for whom he always had 

 some pleasant greeting or other, his memory will ever 

 be cherished. Among his brother huntsmen he had 

 long lived down all jealousy, and they freely accorded 

 to him that high position which he had so fairly won 

 both in the field and the kennel, and which he so un- 

 assumingly maintained. Those who knew more of his 

 inner life, or saw him on his death-bed, could trace to 

 its true source that consistently gentle firmness which 

 made him all-powerful in managing a cloud of horse- 

 men ; and it would be well if many who love the sport 

 as dearly as he did, would ponder, now that he is gone, 



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