32 HUNTING REMINISCENCES 



couple as soon as the vanning to distant meets 

 became an institution. 



It was Lord Forester's original idea to have a 

 hound van to take the pack on to the distant 

 fixtures of twenty miles and more. Both Will 

 Goodall and Cooper preferred instead half-way 

 kennels at Ropsley, but these were abandoned 

 when Gillard came, and a van was instituted, to 

 the great saving of wear and tear both to hounds 

 and hunt servants. Many a time in Gillard's 

 younger days when whipping - in, turning to 

 Ropsley at the end of the day meant farther to 

 go for the hunt staff, and by the time the pack 

 were kennelled there, it was nearly midnight before 

 Belvoir was reached, or there was a chance of 

 changing wet clothes. Well might it have been 

 said of the Belvoir, that one day's hunting with 

 them was equal to two in the provinces. Cooper 

 had an attraction at Ropsley, because he was 

 courting his future wife, the daughter of the land- 

 lord of the Fox's Brush Inn. 



The noble master placed the greatest confidence 

 in Frank Gillard's abilities, leaving it to him to 

 carry on the correspondence and business generally 

 of the hunt. The whole internal machinery of so 

 vast and important a hunt as the Belvoir was 

 practically worked by one man for a quarter of a 

 century, and on such good lines that the kennel 

 occupied the premier position by general consent. 



Few things interested the Duke more than a 

 chat with his huntsman about hounds, in the 

 sanctum at the kennels, known as "The Duke's 



