14 The Hunting Countries of England. 



either straight towards the little metropolis^ or meet- 

 ing its contingent at some point a few miles north or 

 south of the road between the two places. On these 

 days Croxton Park, just midway from either town, is 

 the meet nearest to Grantham. Waltham village, 

 being only half a mile away, may be taken as virtually 

 the same fixture — the same coverts being commanded 

 by each. To specify absolutely which coverts are 

 drawn from any particular meet of the Belvoir is a 

 thing not to be attempted. Could we do so we mighty 

 at the very least, expect a hat sent round for us at 

 Melton alone — in that many a double five-mile trot 

 would be saved to a band of men who have suffered 

 long. A rule, well grounded, is in force with the 

 Belvoir, that their meets never designate any special 

 or foreknown draw. Not many years ago they lost 

 some valuable hounds by poison, laid down in a 

 covert, which we may now leave unnamed, by the 

 fiendish hands of one who took the opportunity of 

 their meeting close by, to wreak his malice thus. 

 Since then they invariably meet wide of the coverts 

 they propose to draw. After this lapse of time there 

 can be no indiscretion in linking with the leading 

 places of rendezvous those coverts which we have 

 more often seen visited in connection. Thus from 

 Croxton Park and Waltham (the adjacent gorse of 

 Croxton Lings and the wood of Bescaby Oaks being, 

 as a rule, left for the afternoon) hounds are generally 

 taken Melton-wards to try Stonesby Gorse, Newman^s 

 Gorse, Freeby Wood, and Brentingby Spinneys. 

 Freeby Wood is not more than a fifty-acre strong- 

 hold, the others are quite little coverts, and it is not 



