MELTON MOWBRAY. 

 I. 



If wliat Congreve said be true^ " that uncertainty and 

 expectation are the joys of life/^ I must have had 

 rather a good time of it of late, having been in great 

 doubt as to where fortune might next direct my 

 steps ; and now finding myself once again at Melton^ 

 I have great expectations of enjoying myself exceed- 

 ingly during my visit to the metropolis of hunting, 

 unless things have greatly altered since I last set foot 

 in '^ that excellent inn, called the George Hotel/^ 

 I take leave, however, to difi'er with our distinguished 

 author in thinking " that the overtaking and possess- 

 ing of a wish discovers the folly of the chase. '^ For, 

 in my early days, when Osbaldeston hunted the Quorn, 

 and the field was composed of such men as Sir Harry 

 Goodricke, Sir James Musgrave, John White, Val 

 Maher, Lord Brudenell, the Earl of Wilton, Lord 

 Gardner, Lord Alvanley, Little Gilmour, Mr. Maxse, 

 and others of that stamp, a visit to Melton was the 

 dream of my life ; and when I did realise this much- 

 cherished vision, and overtook and possessed my wish, 

 I did not realise the folly of the chase ; but, on the 

 contrary, I was never on better terms with myself 

 than when I was sailing over the splendid grass en- 

 closures of Leicestershire, at the tail of the Cottesmore, 



