GRAND MEET AT ROLLESTON. 99 



the invitation, and it would be vain to endeavour to com- 

 memorate adequately the scene which took place when he 

 met tlie field at Shankton Holt on Friday the 20th of 

 March. IMore than two thousand horsemen were assembled 

 on the occasion. Men of the highest birth and station, 

 men who had served their country in deeds of most daring 

 gallantry by sea and land, men who in political or social 

 life were the most brilliant in repute, thronged to do 

 honour to the first fox-hunter of the day. They had come 

 from remote counties, and were pouring in along the grassy 

 slopes and vales, or skirting the well-known gorse covers. 

 As Dick Christian remarked, " the first lot were at Shank- 

 ton Holt when the tail end wern't out of Rolleston gates." 

 Cold must have been the heart of him who could behold 

 without emotion the crowds of grey-headed horsemen 

 hurrying forward to shake hands with their old friend and 

 fellow-sjjortsman, each calling vividly to memory some 

 scene where he had acted the most conspicuous part. More 

 than twenty years had rolled away since he had resigned 

 the lead in that magnificent country. There had been 

 splendid riders since his day ; and while time had thinned 

 the ranks of the veterans, younger men had either achieved 

 or were achieving fame — Frank Holycake, now Sir Francis 

 Goodricke — well known for his splendid feats on Brilliant 

 — Colonel Lowther, Lord Wilton, Lord Archibald St. Maur, 

 George I^yne, Little Gilmour, Lord Gardner, George 

 Anson [nemo ex hoc nnmero mihi non donatus ahihit), and a 

 host of sportsmen well deserving of the reputation they had 

 won in many a fearless exploit by " flood and field," but 

 who were strangers to the doings of this hero of the Quorn, 

 except through anecdotes familiar to them as " household 

 words." 



Of Sir Francis Goodricke, the first mentioned of these 

 distinguished sportsmen, the author of " Silk and Scarlet '* 

 thus speaks : — 



" He was first man at one time for a twenty minutes* 

 h2 



