MELTON: ITS HOESES AND 

 HOUNDS. 



Looking back on tlie pleasant days spent at Melton ; 

 reviewing tlie different packs of hounds and their 

 huntsmen, the horses and their riders, I can see no 

 trace of degeneracy in any shape or form on the part 

 of either. It is a very usual remark of those who have 

 fallen into "the sere and yellow leaf^^ to pronounce 

 the things of the present time unworthy of comparison 

 with those of bygone days. In no such spirit shall I 

 speak of hunting as now to be enjoyed in the Shires. 

 I see no symptom of any falling-off in style, no trace 

 of inferiority in the horses, their riders, or the hounds 

 they follow ; and I will back the men of the present 

 day to ride as hard, go as fast, charge as big a brook, 

 as stout a gate, as high an ox-fence, or as stiff a bull- 

 finch as ever did the renowned Captain Ross, on 

 Clinker, in the glorious times when the Quorn were 

 hunted by Osbaldeston, now exactly fifty-one years 

 since. To say that the hunting to be enjoyed from 

 Melton is as good as ever it was is to say suflBcient ; 

 comparison is almost needless ; at all times it has been 

 excellent, and is so at this date. He would be a diflS- 

 cult man to please who could find fault with Neale, of 

 the Cottesmore, and his fine-drawn and fine-condi- 

 tioned hounds ; Frank Gillard, of the Belvoir, and his 

 blooming beauties ; or Tom Firr, of the Quorn, and hia 



