Preface 



"X T /"HILE making the necessary researches for this book, 

 * ~ I found that all unwittingly I was putting together 

 a contribution to the history of the social life of England of 

 the nineteenth century. Much as I have always loved the 

 sport, it was not till I came to look into the history of the 

 Belvoir Hunt, which is in part the story of the rise of fox- 

 hunting as a national sport, that I realised how important a 

 factor in our English life fox-hunting has been during the last 

 hundred years. It will be noticed that up to the end of the 

 last century the interest of the story centred upon the men 

 who ruled the fortunes of the hunt, and after that how in- 

 sensibly the interest shifted from the men to the sport itself, 

 and to its influence on the social life of the country. 



The Belvoir Hunt has been fortunate in that it has been 

 carried on by so remarkable a succession of able men. 

 During the whole period covered by this book members of 

 the Manners family have guided the fortunes of the hunt, and 

 have exercised a wide social and political influence over the 

 hunt territory. To trace this influence, and to show how the 

 welfare of the hunt was bound up with the life histories of the 

 successive Dukes of Rutland, has been one of the objects I 

 have set before me. 



