THE HISTORY OF THE BELVOIR HUNT 



on which Lord Villiers led the field have been spoken of as 

 his best in his early days. That he was very quick to 

 hounds may be inferred from the fact that on one occasion, 

 in Newman's time, when hounds had slipped their field at 

 Holwell Mouth, and only the hunt servants and three farmers 

 had got away with them, Lord Villiers, the Duke of Rutland, 

 and Mr. Charles Meynell were the only three who got to them. 

 After a time he was seldom or never seen in Leicestershire. 

 He would, however, sometimes come out in his home country 

 the Bicester, and when he liked the day, the country and his 

 horse, would go brilliantly as of old ; but, like most men who 

 have tasted the joys of the shires, he never cared so much 

 afterwards for hunting in the provinces. 



In a history of the Belvoir the name of Forester demands 

 a place only second to that of Manners, and the first Lord 

 Forester, better known at the period about which I am writing 

 as Cecil Forester, the brother-in-law of the Duke, was a very 

 leading man at Belvoir. He was one of the finest horsemen 

 of his day. At Melton, in earlier days, he had been the 

 plague of Mr. Meynell's life, when that gentleman, having 

 introduced a quicker style of hunting hounds, found that 

 he had also attracted into the hunting field a more dashing 

 class of riders, of whom Mr. Childe, of Kinlet, and Cecil 

 Forester were the most prominent. The latter's "splitter- 

 cockation " pace was, according to Mr. Meynell's own account, 

 destructive of his happiness in fox-hunting. Lord Forester 

 was undoubtedly a clever man, for no fool can take a good 

 place in a run and keep it to the end. This requires brains, 

 for though a courageous, thick-headed individual may go 

 fairly well for twenty minutes, he will probably be in a 

 ditch or standing by the side of a beaten horse at the end 

 of this time. For success in riding a run is the result of 

 quickness of apprehension and a power of rapid decision. 

 The slow-witted man, however courageous, will never be 

 i-n the first place in a long run. Though unintelligent reck- 

 lessness may put a man into the first place for a time, it 

 cannot keep him there ; nay, more — mere blind courage will 

 either break its neck or its nerve before many years pass. 



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