THE GOOD DUKE 



printed and carefully edited volumes, some of which are illus- 

 trated with sketches of hunting incidents in body colour, we 

 see how the aim at perfection in details, which has been a part 

 of the policy of the management of the pack, has brought it 

 to such excellence. I seem, too, to recognise in these carefully 

 prepared materials for the historian a true and large con- 

 ception of the future that lay before the hunt, and a compre- 

 hension of the fact that this pack should represent in history 

 the position and influence of a great national sport in our 

 national life and progress. In our time the days of hunting 

 are, it may be, drawing to a close, for many of those who 

 once supported it are, if not actually hostile, at least so in- 

 different that they habitually use wire for the mending of 

 their fences, regardless of the injury thus inflicted on the 

 sport and the suffering caused by it. It is melancholy to 

 reflect that one of the greatest sportsmen of the day has 

 given it as his opinion that " wire and silence " will be the 

 end of fox-hunting. 



But to return to the Belvoir. Though the records ceased 

 for a time, the materials for a history are still forthcoming. 

 The pack, as we have already seen, had reached a point of 

 great excellence. Thomas Goosey was one of the best 

 kennel huntsmen in England, for no one understood better 

 the breeding and conditioning of hounds. So well estab- 

 lished was the pack that Belvoir was rather in a position to 

 help other kennels than under the necessity of going abroad 

 for fresh blood. At the beginning of the season of 1826 the 

 only new blood in the kennel was derived from Lord 

 Middleton's hounds, whose Benedict, Damper, Forester, 

 Vanguard and Warrior had been freely used in 1823, and 

 were responsible for a considerable part of the entry. Lord 

 Middleton was at this time hunting the Warwickshire 

 country with great magnificence and success. He was not 

 apparently in much favour with Nimrod, having probably 

 committed the offence of refusing to take that genial writer 

 at his own valuation. But Apperley was after all too good a 

 sportsman not to acknowledge merit when he saw it, and he 

 pays a tribute to the condition of the Warwickshire hounds, 



125 



