Melton : Its Manners and Customs. 225 



going into prosy detail of that most admirable menu ; 

 I simply desire to remark that well-made lootage au 

 gibier, taken after a day's hunting, leaves little to be 

 desired; and that the c/ie/who conceived and executed 

 that rare and happy combination of tete de veau and 

 Oriental pickles should, in the very fulness of time, 

 have his name recorded on a mural tablet in the 

 venerable church of the "Metropolis of Hunting/' 

 similar to that which tells us '' This is the Lord Hamon 

 Beters, brother to Lord Mowbray ; " for he at least 

 has contributed to the pleasure of others, whereas I 

 cannot find that the knight whose recumbent e^gy 

 occupies a niche in the wall ever did anything remark- 

 able — at least history does not record it ; for I care- 

 fully searched through the venerable, not to say musty, 

 tomes which I found chained to an oaken table placed 

 in the aisle. 



But it must not be supposed that merely selfish 

 enjoyments occupied my time. Society has its duties, 

 I am aware, as well as its pleasures; and therefore 

 I occupied myself on ofi" days in studying the manners 

 and customs of Melton, visiting the handsome cattle 

 market, making a bid for half a score of fat wethers — 

 being quite sure they would not be knocked down to 

 me — j)^'^^^' encourager les aiitres, handling the fat oxen 

 in the usual bucolic style, and generally taking a truly 

 rural interest in things in general. Then, having 

 learnt by chance that the widow of Dick Christian, 

 whose name — once familiar to every hunting man 

 — occupies so large a portion of one of the Druids' 

 admirable works, ' Silk and Scarlet,' to wit, and who 

 was first made famous by Nimrod, in his celebrated 

 description of a run with the Quorn, was a bed-ridden 



15 



