THE LONG MINORITY 



Lowth has immortalised in the celebrated Billesdon Coplow 

 poem. 



The custom was for the Duke and Duchess of Rutland to 

 come to Belvoir for the hunting season, and to entertain dur- 

 ing the winter at the Castle. From this time forward it is 

 easy to follow the sport, as a careful record of each day's 

 work was written down and afterwards printed, a custom 

 continued till the year 1829. After that comes a gap till 

 1855, when the journals begin again, and are continued in the 

 handwritings of Lord Forester, William Goodall, James 

 Cooper, and Frank Gillard. But this is to look forward 

 beyond the limits of the present chapter, in which we have 

 to trace the work done for the pack by Mr. Perceval and 

 Newman. How much the Belvoir pack — and through it the 

 many kennels which swear by Belvoir blood — owes to the 

 judgment which chose the Belvoir sires can scarcely be over- 

 estimated. 



In the pedigree of Rallywood (1853) and Singer (1855) 

 comes the name of a famous bitch. Songstress (1816), whose 

 dam, Costly (1804), was by Beaufort Champion — Transport, 

 the latter being also of Beaufort blood. Songstress was the 

 Belvoir kennel matron from whom sprang the mighty line 

 which through Rallywood, Weathergage, and Gambler has 

 made Belvoir blood what it is, and has given substance and 

 working power to half the kennels in England. This I shall 

 go into more fully when I deal in a later chapter with the 

 influence of the Belvoir pack on the modern fox-hound. 



For some years, though drafts from Sir William Lowther 

 and Lord Fitzwilliam were entered, the Belvoir depended on 

 the Beaufort Champion, and so greatly did the kennel im- 

 prove that in 1804 six home-bred ones — Bangor, Wildair, 

 Collier, Honesty, Regent, and Splendour — were used. 



Thus, with an improved pack and a run of good sport, the 

 Belvoir were growing in reputation, and preparing for the 

 magnificent period in the history of the hunt which followed. 



83, 



