A Day With the Belvoir Foxhounds 141 



His son, John Peel, Jr., went his illustrious sire one better, 

 for he rode to hounds nearly up to his ninetieth anniversary. 



There is scarcely a hunt club in Great Britain that does not 

 boast of from one to half a dozen or more followers of the chase, 

 who are past their four score mark. Let us hark back to 

 the Hne. 



On his retirement, the Duke of Rutland called a meeting of 

 sportsmen, tenants, farmers, and patrons of the hunt, and 

 turned the pack and kennels over to a committee, with the 

 object of continuing the sport in the vale, forever, as it had 

 existed since fox hunting began. 



The committee selected Sir Gilbert Greenall, Bart., to fill 

 the position of "INI aster" and the horn was entrusted to Ben 

 Capell, who came from the Blankney, where he had been carry- 

 ing the horn for ten seasons and who formerly was whipper-in 

 to Tom Firr, the celebrated huntsman of the Quorn. Few 

 huntsmen have ever had a more difficult position to fill. Only 

 four huntsmen had preceded him during a century; each one 

 had been a noted huntsman and hound breeder. Gillard, how- 

 ever, accomplished more than all the others, for during his term 

 as huntsman he practically carried hound breeding to perfec- 

 tion. Of course the foundation that made this possible had been 

 laid over two hundred years before by the tenth Earl of Man- 

 ners, who afterwards became first Duke of Rutland. "The 

 pack," says Bradley, "was established in 1686, and formerly 

 was supposed to be kept to hunt deer." "The foxhound list 

 and pedigree were first kept," says the same authority, "at the 

 Kennels in 1750. Nevertheless to Frank Gillard is given the 

 credit of elevating the pack to the distinction of being "the best 

 in the world." For Ben Capell to undertake to fill such a posi- 

 tion was indeed something unusual, for the eyes of the fox 

 hunting world were upon him, and predictions were every- 

 where made that there could be but one Frank Gillard. In 

 spite of all such prophecies, the pack has steadily gone on under 



