THE HISTORY OF THE BELVOIR HUNT 



Lord Forester, we know, from the letters quoted above, 

 hunted five days a week, which is not one too many for the 

 Belvoir country. For the work sixty couples of hounds were 

 kept in kennel. This might seem to have been a little short, 

 had they not been the Belvoir, and gifted with the extra- 

 ordinary stoutness of which already so many striking in- 

 stances have been given. Will Goodall used to tell how he 

 had jumped over the moon (reflected in the Melton brook), 

 and was wont to declare that he never carried a watch, as 

 *' my Lord always drew till it was dark." Under this regime 

 men, horses and hounds were as hard as possible, though the 

 tax on Goodall's strength proved to be greater than his con- 

 stitution could stand, and, in addition to a bad habit he had 

 of never taking any food with him out hunting, undoubtedly 

 shortened his life, as it did that of his successor, the brilliant 

 Jem Cooper. But Goodall would never have allowed that 

 hunting could hurt any one, and was always ready to draw 

 on as long as he thought his horses and hounds would stand 

 it. Of course. Lord Forester and Will must have had long 

 distances to ride home at night. The kennels at Ropsley 

 relieved hounds somewhat, as they were sent there the day 

 before they hunted in that country. If they left off on the 

 western side of Grantham they went home, if not then they 

 went back to Ropsley ; but the men appear to have returned 

 to Belvoir, as the following anecdote shows : " One cold 

 night in December, as Will and his whips set out for Belvoir, 

 it came on very dark, and on striking into the Bridge-end 

 road, near Ropsley Rise, they espied a baker with lamps on 

 his cart jogging along in front. Thinking to make use of 

 his lights, they gave two or three sharp cracks with their 

 whips in order to crave companionship, upon which the ter- 

 rified driver, concluding that shots had been fired by high- 

 waymen secreted in the wood which ran alongside the road, 

 and that it was a demand upon him to * bale up ' with 

 his loaves and money, frantically applying his whip, drove 

 as hard as the tit could lay legs to the ground into Grantham 

 and told his doleful story to the police. Needless to say the 

 unfortunate wight got unmercifully chaffed by his companions 



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