128 GOOD SPORT 



to Lord Harrington, who for seventeen seasons 

 rode first whipper-in to Tom Firr. Ben Capell and 

 George Leaf add testimony of the later hunt, so 

 four Leicestershire huntsmen have helped forward 

 the story. 



A very memorable day's sport resulted when 

 Gillard was huntsman to the Belvoir and joined 

 forces with the Quorn in a run, Monday, December 

 22, 1884. Such an occurrence hardly works out in 

 an average of twenty years, although they are 

 neighbouring hunts, whose boundary line is marked 

 by the river Eye, which runs through Melton Mow- 

 bray. In Gillard's volume of ** Reminiscences," he 

 records a joint run, with a brush at the end of it, which 

 took place November 25, 1878, and it was an occasion 

 which caused considerable friction. To give the 

 history of it briefly, the Belvoir ran a fox very fast 

 from Harby Covert, by Hickling to Curates' Gorse, 

 a Quorn covert. Here the hunted one appears to 

 have lain down, for hounds during half-an-hours 

 search could not get wind of him. The Quorn pack 

 approached the covert, and Mr. John Coupland, 

 not being best pleased finding the Belvoir in posses- 

 sion, requested Gillard to draw hounds out. Rather 

 a breezy scene resulted when the Belvoir huntsman 

 declined to accede to what he considered a most 

 unreasonable request. At a critical moment a view 

 halloa from George Cottrell, the first whipper-in 

 to the ducal pack, solved the problem, for hounds 

 streamed out of covert and the two packs raced 

 away, killing a well-beaten fox before they had run 

 a mile. The two fields drew up, and the satisfac- 

 tory finish seemed to act as a salve to the wounded 

 feelings. 



At an earlier period, when Frank Gillard whipped- 

 in to James Cooper, we find an entry in the diary 



