THE HISTORY OF THE BELVOIR HUNT 



It is evident then that the prejudices of the townsmen 

 were not entirely without foundation, and the tone of country 

 society seems to have had its effect even on those who were 

 honoured members of the highest class of society in London, 

 for we shall see that in the correspondence between the 

 third Duke of Rutland and his tutor, the latter rallies the 

 young master upon his neglect of his personal appearance in 

 the hunting field. But the lasting division between town, as 

 represented by the capital, and the rural districts, which has 

 worked so ill in France, was prevented from becoming per- 

 manent in our own land by the growth of fox-hunting, under 

 the fostering care of men such as those of the house of 

 Manners. For these latter were a many-sided race, with 

 sympathies for literature, for politics and for sport, and as 

 they brought the fashion of London to Belvoir, they made 

 their country castle a centre of polished society, and helped 

 to sweep away the prejudices and the harsh judgments which 

 magnified the failings of a different social class almost into 

 crimes. There was, during the reigns of the fourth and fifth 

 Dukes, a brilliant circle at the castle, described in turn by 

 Crabbe, Disraeli and Greville, and the influence exerted by the 

 Duchess Mary Isabella, the beautiful wife of the fourth Duke, 

 and of the Duchess Elizabeth, the less beautiful but more 

 gifted wife of the fifth Duke, was by no means unimportant. 



Thus fox-hunting grew rapidly in public estimation after 

 the middle of the eighteenth century, up to which time it 

 may be said to have been in a transition state. The chase 

 of the stag, which had necessarily been confined to great 

 nobles, gradually gave way to the hunting of the fox, and 

 with the change of the beast of chase came the alteration 

 from an aristocratic and exclusive sport to one popular and 

 democratic in character. The hunting field, owing to the 

 natural love of Englishmen for sport, has reflected faithfully 

 the gradations of the social changes that have passed over 

 England, and has probably not been without its. influence 

 in bringing about those changes. The equality and the 

 courtesies of the hunting field have hindered the growth 

 of that democratic jealousy which, for all her legends of 



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