THE OLD HUNTSMAN AND THE YOUNG MASTER 



that this arrangement was only temporary, and that when 

 Lord Granby came of age (in 1836) he would take the 

 hounds. But this he had no intention of doing, and I infer 

 that the Duke did not wish it either. 



Lord Forester, when he took over the hounds, retained 

 for a time Goosey as his huntsman. The young master 

 had, so far as appears, no experience with hounds beyond 

 that of his boyish days with the harriers at Willey. But 

 in Goosey he had a good tutor, and he proved himself so 

 apt a pupil that he became one of the soundest judges of 

 a hound in the kingdom, and, as we shall see later on, was 

 referred to constantly on matters of hound-breeding even 

 after he had given up the mastership. On this point I 

 may refer my readers to the letters from Lord Forester to 

 James Cooper, to be found on a later page. 



I am not able to discover that Lord Forester made any 

 change in the system of breeding. The appearance of Grove 

 sires in 1829 and 1832 may have been due to his influence, 

 as Goosey is said to have had a prejudice against introducing 

 that blood. At all events the main lines on which the pack 

 had been bred were adhered to, and we may take it that the 

 Belvoir were now, and were recognised to be, the representa- 

 tives of the old Meynell blood, which they had from four 

 sources at least — Lord Monson, Mr. Osbaldeston, Mr. Heron, 

 and Sir Tatton Sykes. This blood, with the successful dip- 

 ping, first into Badminton and then into Brocklesby, and 

 grafted on the original stock of the Belvoir, had produced a 

 most perfect pack ; nor did master or huntsman think that 

 this could be improved on. So, too, visitors thought, for 

 Nimrod writes : — 



" As perfection is said to be denied to men, it is almost 

 too much to allow it to brutes ; but it is universally ad- 

 mitted that, at the present time, nothing is wanting to the 

 Duke of Rutland's hounds. Their speed, that essential in 

 their country, has ever been notorious, and is so now ; but 

 by the good management of Goosey, by his patient discretion 

 — if I may so express myself — he has tempered their speed 

 with the faculty of hunting ; and though they now fly, they 



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