THE BUILDERS OF BEL VOIR 



holding it, while the too eager ones flash out at the turn, like 

 spray from a breaking wave, till as the good hounds in the 

 middle throw their tongues, they strain back silently to take 

 their places in the ranks. So they stretch away to Barrowby 

 Thorns with only a subdued clamour. The good-nosed 

 hounds are now coming to the front They have wasted no 

 time in flashing over the line, no strength in recovering their 

 places. If you are near enough to a pack of fox-hounds when 

 they are really running hard, you will note that it is from the 

 middle of the pack comes the chiming music which Bromley 

 Davenport has so aptly called a " modified chorus." As 

 hounds race up to Barrowby Thorns only the master and 

 huntsman are with them, though Mr. Vere Fane is still toiling 

 to keep in touch. When at length the master and his hunts- 

 man stand by the side of their panting horses and the pack 

 clamour round Goosey, as he holds the stiff body of a fairly 

 killed fox over his head, they are in Allington, now, as then, a 

 home of sport. I imagine that the face of this country has 

 not greatly changed, save that perhaps the ploughs are now 

 deeper and the fences stiffer than they once were. But 

 always around Allington hounds must in wet weather travel 

 over a soil deep and holding, though carrying a good scent, 

 and horses must leap the big ditches and stout fences with 

 which the Lincolnshire men, whose motto is Thorough in all 

 matters pertaining to sport and farming, have divided their 

 fields. This was one of the runs that made the fame of the 

 hunt — a run to be talked over and discussed in all its 

 bearings by the hard-riding set at the old club at Melton, and 

 which drew men to hunt with the Belvoir, though it was even 

 then the fashion to look on the Friday country of the Quorn 

 as the best the hunting world had to give. It was not, how- 

 ever, the country so much as the hounds and the huntsman 

 that attracted men, and many too who did not belong to the 

 regular Melton set were drawn by the courteous rule of the 

 Castle to take their pleasure in the hunting field with the 

 Belvoir, instead of with the Quorn. For while the latter 

 hunt is an exotic, the Belvoir may be said truly to be an 

 indigenous plant. The Quorn indeed have only twice had a 



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