12 NOTITIA VENATICA. 



train-scents ; and live hares in baskets being carrietl to the heath, made 

 excellent sport for his Majestic, all the way betwixt Sir John Harring- 

 ton's and Stamford ; Sir J.'s hounds with good mouths following the 

 game, the king taking great leisure and pleasure in the same."* The 

 noble family of Manners, and the fiir-famed Vale of Belvoir, seem still 

 to support their well-earned celebrity for hunting. If the royal sports- 

 man took so "great leisure and pleasure" in the train-scents and box- 

 hares, what would be the extent of his delight in Avitnessing some of the 

 severe bursts of modern days, with the magnificent pack of the present 

 noble possessor of Belvoir Castle, t from Melton Spiny, or Clawston 

 Thorns ? What sort of a figure he Avould cut is quite another thing ;| 

 at any rate, I fear he Avould not be gratified with quite so much music 

 as he was entertained with by the old-fashioned Towlers of Sir J. Har- 

 rington. 1| 



Since the commencement of hunting the fox in the open, so many differ- 

 ent descx'iptions of hounds have been bred for the purpose, that to de- 



* Nichol's Progress. 



t Royalty has been again attracted to, and delighted by, the hounds of Belvoir ; 

 not by the cold arrangement of scent, and the hand-canter, which marked James's 

 antique style of sport, but by the honest finding of a fox, " in Salt-Spring Wood" 

 — the fast thing through Knipton Plantation, and the kill at Blackberry Hill ! Long 

 may this splendid pack maintain its high character ! " Belvoir Castle, Jan. 5, 1842. 

 — The hounds met at the stables this morning, which are directly underneath the 

 lofty towers of the castle — there was an immense field. The general appointments 

 of this far-famed pack excited the admiration of all strangers, and of none more than 

 the Duke of Cambridge, who entered into familiar conversation with a number of 

 veteran fox -hunters, and expressed his admiration at the condition and beauty of the 

 horses, and the remarkably adapted character of Leicestershire as a sporting country. 

 His royal highness rode a powerful hunter of the Duke of Rutland's, and kept a 

 good place throughout the day. The first fox found in Salt Spring Wood, threaded 

 Knipton Plantation, skirted the Spiny, and was killed at Blackberry Hill. The Duke 

 of Cambridge received the brush on this his first initiation to Leicestershire fox-hunt- 

 ing. The second fox found at Musson Gorse went away in gallant style to Wools- 

 thorpe, returned in the direction of Redmile ; but falling into a lock of the canal, 

 he was taken out by the whipper-in, muzzled, and conveyed to the royal carriages 

 for the inspection of the ladies. This concluded the day's sport, which gave infinite 

 pleasure to all engaged therein." 



% The reader will perceive, by the following true picture of this sporting monarch 

 by Sir Walter Scott, the ludicrous style in which he was wont to pursue this his 

 favourite diversion: — "A single horseman followed the chase upon a steed so 

 thorouglily subjected to the rein, that it obeyed the touch of the bridle, as if it had 

 been a mechanical impulse operating upon the nicest piece of machinery ; so that, 

 seated in his demi-pique saddle, and so trussed up there as to make falling almost 

 impossible, the rider, without either fear or hesitation, might increase or diminish 

 the speed at which he rode; which, even on the most animating occasions of the 

 chase seldom exceeded three-fourths of a gallop, the horse keeping his haunches 

 under him, and never stretching forward beyond the managed pace of the academy. 

 The security with which he chose to prosecute even this favourite, and in the ordi- 

 nary case, somewhat dangerous amusement, as well as the rest of his equipage, 

 marked King James." — T/ie Fortunes of Nigel. 



II King James's love of hunting gave a colouring to the contents of most of liis 

 letters. In one to his queen, he calls her " his dears littel Bear/le ." and in another 

 to his son, in speaking of such exercises as became a prince, he says — " I can not 

 omitt heere t/ie fnintlng, namelie, with running houndes, which is the most honour- 

 able and noblest sorte thereof." 



