THE HISTORY OF THE BEL VOIR HUNT 



endurance greater than any possessed by the grandest hound 

 of this, or indeed of any other day. It was a saying of the 

 fifth Duke of Rutland that, given a fair chance, it was six 

 to four on the fox as against his pursuer. A good fox, 

 with the condition given by some three or four years of a 

 wild life, will indeed, if no unfair advantage be taken of him, 

 beat the best pack of hounds that ever was bred. 



It might be interesting, if it were possible, to trace the 

 origin of the modern foxhound, and as we are now concerned 

 with the finished article, to show how he has been evolved 

 from the raw material. But for such history no sufficient 

 materials exist. He certainly was not developed out of the 

 old harrier or beagle, neither was he modified from the blood- 

 hound, though crosses from the blood of both may be in his 

 veins. Like the Englishman himself, the English foxhound 

 is an animal of mixed race, though his direct descent I 

 believe to be from the hounds kept by the great territorial 

 families for hunting the stag. In those days, as we shall see 

 later, each of the great families had its own type of hound, 

 which was jealously preserved, even as our immediate fore- 

 fathers prided themselves on their breed of spaniels or their 

 setters. So far have these types been preserved that, even 

 now, a person quite unaccustomed to hounds, if introduced 

 to a collection of drafts from various kennels, would be 

 struck by the different types of hounds from the Brocklesby, 

 the Badminton, the Milton, or the Belvoir kennel. 



No doubt the sort of hound adopted in each great pack 

 was that best suited to the country round the chief family 

 seat, and in considering the evolution of the Belvoir hound 

 of to-day we must look at the country over which the pack 

 had to hunt. At the time of the rise of fox-hunting the 

 Belvoir land outside the coverts was chiefly open grass, for 

 we know the country was far less enclosed than now, and 

 that it was not brought under the plough to any extent until 

 war prices caused the depasturing of much good turf. Under 

 the old conditions, therefore, the hound that was required for 

 stag or fox at Belvoir was one bred for speed rather than for 

 strength. We find a confirmation of this in a picture which 



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