FoX'htmtmg Past and Present 



was more to the purpose, he is a fine horseman, 



and a front-rank man over a country. He is able 



to restrain his field from the front, and all hunting 



men know that '' keep back " is more effectual than 



*^come back/' when thrusters have to be held in 



check. On the committee that elected him were 



his three predecessors, and none should know 



better than they what is needed for a Master of 



the Quorn. His fine judgment in, and knowledge 



of, horse-flesh enables him to mount his men 



well for a country that has grass and plough, hill 



and plain, woodland and open. If he had no 



property in the neighbourhood he had a family 



connection with the town of Melton, which is said 



to have been discovered by a Forester who wished 



for a convenient hunting centre in the best of 



the grass, and not too far from Belvoir Castle. 



Captain Forester was born at Somerley in the 



shires, and there as a boy he tasted the sweets of 



fox-hunting. A cruel fall over the Punchestown 



double, when he was in the 3rd Hussars, might 



have cost Captain Forester his life. Happily 



for the Quorn, however, this did not come to 



pass. 



These lines were penned by Mr. Bethel Cox 



as an attribute to the famous Billesden Coplow 



run of February 24, 1800. Four gentlemen only, 



besides Jack Raven, the huntsman, saw the finish. 



Mr. Hugo Meynell was then master. 



26 



