2 HUNTING REMINISCENCES 



hunting shapes our life's course, and the annals of 

 any great pack keep ever green the sayings and 

 doings of a long line of sporting ancestry of whom 

 we may be justly proud. The ardour with which 

 sport is pursued defies the hand of time, and 

 though the leaden wings will eventually cramp 

 even fervour, nothing can rob us of the pleasant 

 memories of the past. The subject of this memoir 

 might well echo the old Latin sentiment, 



Be fair or foul, or rain or shine, 



The joys I have possessed, in spite of Fate, are mine. 



Not Heaven itself upon the past has power, 



But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour. 



For on the scroll of illustrious huntsmen the 

 century has seen, no name stands out in clearer 

 relief than that of Frank Gillard, whose privilege, 

 business, and we may unhesitatingly say, pleasure, 

 it was to hunt the famous Belvoir hounds for the 

 sixth and seventh Dukes of Rutland during a 

 period extending over a quarter of a century. In 

 these days of keen competition, when the utmost 

 skill and attention is bestowed upon the breeding 

 of foxhounds, it was no small attainment on Frank 

 Gillard's part that he kept the pack up to that 

 concert pitch of excellence, so that they are 

 acknowledged by all the premiere pack of the 

 day. We may appreciate the respect in which his 

 fame was held by all houndsmen, when we note 

 the fact that in one month during the summer as 

 many as twenty-five masters of hounds paid their 

 yearly pilgrimage to the ducal kennel at Belvoir. 



