THE GOLDEN AGE 



Thus, in ten years after he had come to be huntsman, Will 

 Goodall had gathered up the various lines, with certain lead- 

 ing hounds combining the perfections of many races, and thus 

 laid the foundation on which his successors were able to build. 



It was Goodall's insight and judgment which thus gave the 

 final touch to the distinction of the pack, and made the task 

 of those who followed him easy. The most valuable strains 

 in the kennel for appearance and working qualities were suffi- 

 ciently far removed in relationship to permit of their being 

 combined sufficiently to establish the characteristic type. 

 The pack we see to-day, the sons and daughters of Nominal, 

 of Gordon, of Donovan, of Dexter, is the result of the ability 

 of William Goodall and Lord Forester. 



It is the combination of Lord Forester's fastidious selection 

 of make and shape, and Will Goodall's instinctive perception 

 of the qualities of boldness, perseverance, and stoutness, so 

 much needed in Leicestershire and Lincolnshire, a combina- 

 tion so fortunate as to be wonderful in this somewhat contrary 

 world, that made the Belvoir pack what it is to-day. 



But we have been looking forward, and must now turn back 

 to see what sport the master and huntsman were able to show 

 with their hounds. " Good runs," says one who shared in the 

 sport of those days, " were innumerable " ; and Major Long- 

 staffe, who has hunted with the Belvoir for very many years, 

 has remarked to me that there never was a better master than 

 Lord Forester, while I have already quoted Colonel Anstru- 

 ther Thomson's words to the effect that there never was a 

 better huntsman than Goodall. The latter was a most useful 

 and painstaking man, and satisfied even so exacting a critic 

 as the late Lord Henry Bentinck by his method of hunting 

 hounds. We see in Goodall's treatment of his hounds not 

 only the judicious huntsman, but also a man of insight and 

 sympathy, and we can understand the affection he won from 

 all classes, from the labourers who reckoned " this 'untsman 

 was the best feller that had ever been at Belvoir," to the sixth 

 Duke of Rutland and Sir Thomas Whichcote, who watched 

 over his dying bed with the grief born of a life-long friend- 

 ship. There is no doubt a personal charm based on sym- 



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