THE FIRST PACKS 



I find this Mr Thoroton was a person of some 

 note in his day. He was a country gentleman with a 

 small property at Screveton but was well known in 

 political life as the agent of the 3rd and 4th Dukes of 

 Rutland. He sat for some years for the Duke's 

 pocket boroughs of Boroughbridge and Newark; 

 later for Bramber, as the nominee of the Marquess 

 of Granby, who while Master of the Ordnance 

 made Thoroton Secretary to the Board. He had a 

 large share in the English affairs of the 4th Duke, 

 whom he also assisted in Ireland during his term 

 as Lord Lieutenant in 1784-7. Thoroton 's conduct 

 during the Gordon Riots in 1780, when he was 

 instrumental in saving many lives from the mob, 

 attracted much favourable notice. 



The Belvoir pack from which Mr Conolly's 

 hounds at Castletown were thus recruited was one of 

 the most famous in England, and was perhaps 

 already approaching its highest point of excellence. 

 The Belvoir hounds were the result of crossing the 

 old family buckhounds which had been main- 

 tained at Haddon and Belvoir by successive mem- 

 bers of the Manners family for many generations, 

 with other blood, and the typical Belvoir hound was 

 probably already a fixed type. This hound, with a 

 black saddle and tan patches upon the purest white 

 ground, was eventually of so uniform a colouring, 

 that at first the eye had a difficulty in distinguishing 



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