THE HISTORY OF THE BELVOIR HUNT 



by hounds." The blood of Rallywood and the descendants 

 of Amadis were beginning to tell. 



Of the keenness and stoutness of the hounds at this time 

 there are many instances. Let one merely be given. The 

 death of old Clamorous (1848), a celebrated bitch, is at 

 once pathetic, and it might almost be said noble. She had 

 been taken out for a treat after the days of her hunting 

 were over, and it so chanced thai hounds had a most se- 

 vere run from Cottam Thorns, in the middle of the Vale 

 country. 



No hound worked harder than old Clamorous, and so 

 fast was the pace that the Duke and Will Goodall were alone 

 with hounds when they killed in the dusk. The old bitch 

 trotted home with her stern up, but the next morning was 

 found stiff and stark on the benches. Clamorous (1848) was 

 by Craftsman — Promise, and goes back on her dam's side 

 through Pedlar to Mr. Lambton's celebrated pack, which was 

 largely infused with Belvoir blood. At this time the Belvoir 

 Hunt was at its very best, the sport was good, foxes plentiful, 

 and the kennel full of Rallywood blood. Lord Forester 

 was extraordinarily keen, and would often go on so late as 

 to draw from Will a hint as to the state of the horses. The 

 only possible suggestion of a fault I can find is that Lord 

 Forester and his men were somewhat underhorsed. But the 

 ideas of those days were not so magnificent as ours, and 

 horses were expected to do a good deal more than they are 

 now, and they did it. I am inclined to think, too, that for 

 sport and safety underhorsing, strange as it may seem at 

 first sight, is better than overhorsing. From the time of Mr. 

 Perceval, when hounds and horses were worked so hard that 

 the former had, according to Fryatt, Beau Brummell's stud 

 groom, to be whipped off their benches to go out hunting, 

 the Belvoir has always been a hard-working pack, nor was it 

 till Gillard's time that the hound van was brought into use, 

 which in its turn has been displaced by the present master's 

 (Sir Gilbert Greenall) well-known hunting special. Hounds 

 have so thoroughly entered into the spirit of modern luxury 

 that if lost or left behind in the course of the day's hunting 



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