LORD MANNERS 85 



always wrote the Duke an account of the day's 

 proceedings. 



Every master and huntsman in England con- 

 sidered it a duty as well as a pleasure to visit the 

 Bel voir kennels, but no one ever arrived there 

 except to find hounds and kennels in first-rate 

 order. 



Gillard never spared himself, and though he was 

 always considerate of the men under him, they had 

 plenty of work to get through before they went to 

 bed. As a huntsman he could not, of course, com- 

 pare with Tom Firr, but I have never yet seen 

 anyone who could. Still, I had many happy days 

 with him, and have seen him hunt a fox very skil- 

 fully, more particularly in the late afternoon. 



In those days the Belvoir — I am speaking of the 

 Melton side — had what I consider a very bad prac- 

 tice. Every small covert had an artificial earth 

 which was never " stopped " on hunting days, with 

 the result that foxes almost invariably ran frdm 

 one covert to another. This fact was probably 

 responsible for the habit Gillard acquired of casting 

 to a covert, when, if it was unsuccessful in hitting 

 the line of his own fox, he was fairly sure of finding 

 another in the earth. 



When I say the earths were not " stopped," 

 that, of course, means overnight, but they would be 

 " put to " in the morning, so that any foxes using 

 them would be underground. It is perhaps a 

 custom that ensures a find, but it is not productive 

 of real sport. 



I have delved more than I intended into my 

 Field contributions to show that this season had a 

 very fair average of good runs, and, to continue, 



