Melton Mowbray. 205 



followed her ladyship I was bound to go straight, I 

 pounded after her, and put in an appearance as early 

 as other and better men. 



After this merry little spin, the hounds were trotted 

 back to Gartree Hill, a fox was soon on the move, a 

 holloa was heard, and we went away at a rattling pace 

 straight up the Burrow Hills, and, bending to the left, 

 ran him for some fifteen or twenty minutes, finally 

 losing him in the vicinity of Easthope Grange. 



Having got away on to the high ground, and the 

 hounds running for some distance towards me, I had 

 full opportunity of seeing how the Melton division 

 spin along ; and there can be no doubt that when 

 hounds go a clinker they are hard to beat, and it 

 would require a good man out of any hunt in the 

 kingdom to show them his heels. 



As a close to the week^s sport, I went on the 

 following day to Hose Grange, where the Duke of 

 Rutland^s hounds were appointed to meet on the 

 Saturday. The morning was brilliant, a sharp white 

 frost covering the grass lands and glazing the puddles 

 with sheets of ice ; but as we made our way through 

 the celebrated Belvoir-vale, the country assumed a 

 less wintry appearance. After a pleasant canter of 

 some nine or ten miles, leaving the castle and wood- 

 lands to the right, and passing over another line of 

 railway now in the course of construction, the meet is 

 reached, and I have time to notice the nags. A group 

 of six trotting together were a very desirable lot, and 

 I mentally valued the string at £2000. After that my 

 attention was directed to a brown horse, clipped, with 

 a hogmane, a perfect picture, with beautiful head and 

 neck, and I find he is the property of the Earl of 



