28 HUNTING REMINISCENCES 



ated with some brilliant episode in hunting history. 

 The topmost turrets of Belvoir Castle command views 

 on every side over the far-famed fields of Leicester- 

 shire and Lincolnshire, where the mightiest Nimrods 

 of modern days have delighted to disport themselves. 

 The county hunted by the Belvoir embraces every 

 description of ground, extending on the west from 

 the Trent to the German Ocean on the east, reach- 

 ing from Leadenham on the north to Melton 

 Mowbray on the south, distance across as the crow 

 flies, thirty miles. The past history of the Belvoir 

 Hunt can be summed up in a very few words, a fine 

 old Conservative institution, hunted for over two 

 hundred years at the expense of a succession of 

 Dukes of Rutland, under the management of hunts- 

 men who have been acknowledged as the best of 

 their day. In a little under one hundred years but 

 four huntsmen have been at Belvoir kennel, viz. 

 Goosey, Goodall, Cooper, and Frank Gillard, filling 

 the post successively from 1816 to 1896, all follow- 

 ing the same system of breeding in the kennel, 

 maintaining the high traditions of the pack. 



We find Frank at Quorn in the spring of 1870, 

 and scarcely had he settled himself in the saddle 

 under the mastership of Mr. John Coupland, than 

 the Belvoir were in want of a huntsman. At first 

 there was some little difficulty in terminating the 

 engagement with Mr. Coupland, but directly the 

 late Duke of Rutland expressed a wish that Gillard 

 should be his huntsman, he was graciously released. 

 Letters of congratulation were addressed to Gillard 

 on his appointment from a very numerous acquaint- 



