THE GENEROUS GRANBY 



was marked out by his square, sensible head, his coarser coat, 

 and great shoulders. 



In these days the various strains have been so intermingled 

 that the Belvoir and Brocklesby especially have become 

 almost of one family, so that Will Dale, in a letter to the 

 author, remarks on the way in which these strains nick. Yet 

 even now each kennel has its prevailing type, and much more 

 must this have been the case in the past. At all events, 

 whatever the third Duke and his son found at Belvoir, they 

 left a pack which was established, and which we may infer 

 to have been a fast one from the breeding of the horses 

 that hunted with them. 



" The huntspeople were chiefly mounted on horses bred at 

 Belvoir. Asparagus, son of Pot 8 o.s., and Jupiter were good 

 sires ; after them Old Home and Sir Harry Dimsdale filled 

 the country with good hunters." ^ 



We need not be surprised to find, therefore, that Lord 

 Granby was one of the founders of the modern Belvoir strain, 

 for, after all, a man who can do one thing well can generally 

 do another, and I have never known a really successful 

 breeder of hounds or huntsman who had not the ability to 

 win distinction in other, possibly less useful, walks of life. 



Fox-hunting may be only a pastime for the field, but the 

 master and huntsman must follow it with the assiduity of 

 the lawyer, the prudence of the man of business, and the 

 boldness and dash of the soldier. To manage a country 

 successfully requires all a man's time and all his thoughts, 

 and in the actual chase the experience of a lifetime and the 

 highest degree of patience may not infrequently after all be 

 baffled by the ingenuity of a fox. 



Once again Lord Granby as a volunteer made a campaign 

 in Flanders in 1747, under the Duke of Cumberland, and he 

 returned to Belvoir and its sports with fresh laurels and a 

 growing reputation as a leader of men. In 1750 he married 

 the Lady Frances Seym.our, a daughter of the sixth Duke of 

 Somerset (known as the " Proud Duke ") by his second wife, 

 Lady Charlotte Finch. It was perhaps time he should settle 



* Memoirs of the Belvoir Hounds. 

 43 



