THE SQUIRE OF ASWARBY 



one. Sir Thomas Whichcote always seems to me to have 

 been the embodiment of the kindly spirit of the Belvoir 

 Hunt. It was this spirit of courtesy, mingled with the desire 

 to give pleasure to others, which caused the Dukes of Rutland 

 to struggle hard to keep on the hounds long after they them- 

 selves could hope to obtain but little pleasure from the pack 

 other than that which the knowledge of the enjoyment felt 

 by others gave them. This spirit was spread among their 

 neighbours, and gave a kindly charm to the society of the 

 country-side, to be traced in the records of the hunt and of 

 the families which have made their homes in " the Duke's " 

 country. 



Aswarby Park is the picture of a comfortable and un- 

 pretentious English country gentleman's home. It had, 

 however, one fault in the eyes of its owner — it lay some- 

 what wide of the best country of the hunt. Indeed, on one 

 side of Aswarby stretches away the Lincolnshire fen-land, a 

 country not without its own beauty, as of the sea, but in no 

 way suited for horse and hound. 



Sir Thomas generally kept some of his horses at Grantham, 

 and if the distance he had to go were long he generally had 

 three horses out. The Squire of Aswarby always wished to 

 be, and very often was, at the top of the hunt. So great 

 was his fame as a rider that men would journey from Melton 

 to the wilds of Lincolnshire to take on the famous owner of 

 King Charming and other celebrated horses over that stiff 

 country. 



But such a horseman and such cattle were hard to beat. 

 Each year he set apart a sum to be devoted to keeping up 

 his stud to the high standard he had set before him. This 

 was necessarily a high one, for the Belvoir requires a good 

 horse everywhere to carry a man at the top of the hunt, and 

 that was where Sir Thomas loved to be. For many years 

 when hounds ran hard Sir Thomas Whichcote, on one of 

 his priceless horses. King Charming or another, could be 

 seen riding well up to the motto, " Be with them I will." 

 From Dick Christian we know that Sir Thomas's riding 

 excited his warmest admiration, and that the hard-riding 



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