THE HISTORY OF THE BELVOIR HUNT 



activity, then glides or melts rather as a fox seems to do 

 with his subtle, stealing action away through the woodland 

 and over the open vale, where there was no railway to hinder, 

 no wire to entangle or cut. Foxes gave long runs then 

 because they were older, because they were stouter, and, 

 above all, because the method of hunting gave them a longer 

 start than is the custom now. 



Even some fifty years later, Nimrod, when writing of a 

 day's sport with Lord Kintore's hounds, tells how the master, 

 who was his own huntsman, was averse to hurrying his hounds. 

 " We soon saw the fox break," he says, " with about five 

 couples of hounds on the scent, and here I saw our hunts- 

 man do what it would be well for fox-hunting if it were 

 oftener done than it is. ' Get to their head, Nimrod, and 

 stop 'em,' cried Lord Kintore, blowing his horn back at the 

 time, whilst he sent Joe to bring on the tail, who were still 

 in the cover ; ' let's have a body of hounds, or none.' And 

 hence a glorious sequel ! We all succeeded in what we 

 attempted ; and a most brilliant half-hour, forty-one minutes 

 in all, with blood at the end, was the result." 



Given a fair scent, everything depends on the way the 

 fox gets away. I do not think hounds were very much 

 slower in those days than they are now, and no horses could 

 be better bred than those already mentioned as going with 

 the Bel voir. In Lord Granby's time a fox-hunt was a long 

 business, since hounds did not start so near their fox as they 

 do now. Possibly, too, scent was better then than now, for 

 there were not so many roads, or paths, or sheep, or cattle, 

 or people, railways were happily unknown, and consequently 

 the chase, as it swept over the face of the country, had 

 fewer obstructions and difficulties to meet with. Moreover, 

 the smaller gentry and the farmers were prosperous. The 

 tillage by which they lived was then undisturbed by foreign 

 competition. The flocks and herds of Australia and New 

 Zealand were unthought of, and life altogether was simpler 

 and perhaps happier when it was not passed at such high 

 pressure. 



When Lord Granby died in 1 770, a great change in society 



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