THE HISTORY OF THE BELVOIR HUNT 



Furrier, Rallywood, Stainless, Fallible, Weathergage, Gambler, 

 Nominal, and Dexter. In Weathergage the working qualities 

 of the foxhound reached their highest point in our time. 

 For work and in staying power and tongue, his son Gambler 

 could not and did not surpass him, but in perfection of 

 symmetry it is certain that he did, for Gambler takes the 

 eye as almost the most perfect foxhound of our own or 

 any other day. I should give him the honour without any 

 reservation had I not seen Dexter, a present occupant of 

 the Belvoir benches. 



There is one subject in connection with the kennel history 

 which must not be passed over, and that is the sources of 

 information in the past. Belvoir is, indeed, peculiarly rich 

 in records, the kennel books having been kept up with great 

 care. Besides these there are the records to be found in many 

 volumes among the archives of the Castle, carefully printed v 

 from the year 1799 onwards, till the regular series ceased. 



But, as I said at the beginning of this chapter, the history 

 of the Belvoir Hunt is the story of the rise of fox-hunting 

 in England, and it is needful to search the older writers 

 and their records for materials for either. It must be 

 confessed that sporting writers have some characteristics 

 peculiarly exasperating to those who study their pages. In 

 the first place, they are much too fond of the classics, and 

 Xenophon becomes a perfect nuisance, for he is quoted 

 almost as often as the modern critic refers to Mr. Jorrocks. 

 In the next, they are not at all too fond of dates. One 

 author we are bound to meet continually, and that, of course, 

 is Nimrod. He is in his way a delightful writer ; his snob- 

 bishness is so unblushing and his conceit so frank that 

 they scarcely offend ; but he, too, has a passion for airing 

 a classical knowledge which was rather wide than deep and 

 was remarkably inaccurate, and his quotations from sacred 

 writers would strike us as profane if his scriptural allusions 

 were not so comically inappropriate and unintentionally 

 irrelevant. This was far from being Mr. Apperley's inten- 

 tion, for he respected religion and patronized it, though he 

 worshipped nothing except the aristocracy. 



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