THE HISTORY OF THE BELVOIR HUNT 



strong and active, with reddish flaxen hair ; his clothes, which, 

 when new, were never worth five pounds, were of green cloth. 

 His house was perfectly old-fashioned, in the midst of a large 

 park, well-stocked with deer and rabbits, many fishponds, a 

 great store of wood and timber, a bowling-green in it, long 

 but narrow, full of high ridges, never having been levelled 

 since it was ploughed ; round sand bowls were used, and it 

 had a banqueting-house like a stand, built in a tree. 



"Mr. H. kept all manner of hounds, that run buck, fox, 

 hare, otter, and badger. Hawks both long and short- winged. 

 He had all sorts of nets for fish. A walk in the New Forest, 

 and the manor of Christ Church ; this last supplied him with 

 red deer^ sea and river fish ; and, indeed, all his neighbours' 

 grounds and royalties were free to him, who bestowed all his 

 time on these sports." 



This old sportsman was popular with all degrees, we are 

 told, and the writer continues : " He made all welcome at his 

 mansion, where they found beef, pudding, and small beer, and 

 a house not so neatly kept as to shame them, or their dirty 

 shoes ; the great hall strewed with marrow-bones, full of 

 hawks, perches, hounds, spaniels, and terriers ; the upper 

 side of the hall hung with the fox-skins of this and the last 

 year's killing, here and there a marten-cat intermixed, and 

 gamekeepers' and hunters' poles in abundance. 



" The parlour was a large room, as properly furnished. On 

 a hearth paved with brick lay some terriers and the choicest 

 hounds and spaniels. Seldom less than two of the great 

 chairs had litters of kittens on them, which were not to be 

 disturbed, he always having three or four cats attending on 

 him at dinner ; and to defend such meat as he had no mind 

 to part with, he kept order with a short stick that lay by 

 him. 



" The windows, which were very large, served for places to 

 lay his arrows, cross-bows, and other such accoutrements. 

 The corners of the room were full of the best chosen hunting 

 and hawking poles. An oyster table at the lower end, which 

 was in constant use twice a day, all the year round, for he 

 never failed to eat oysters before dinner and supper through 



