THE HISTORY OF THE BELVOIR HUNT 



a word of condolence for poor old Trusty, which " never got 

 away from Irnham Wood and missed it altogether." He 

 tells, too, how on one occasion he "had eleven and a half 

 couple of stallions out " ; how " George and Jem both got 

 into Lenton Brook " ; how " Knipton gave me a terrible fall, 

 jumping into a blind grip (no fault of his) " ; and how he 

 had to whip off at night, " leaving him to give us another 

 good run, and die, I hope, honourably in the open." ^ 



For some time before his death Will showed signs of the 

 coming trouble. He had a chronic cold, and his voice be- 

 came strained and hoarse. 



Some of his later seasons were good, and, though quoted 

 before, I cannot resist giving the characteristic extracts from 

 his diary relating to the sport, among the last he was ever 

 to see. To the end he was cheery, as he had been in the 

 days when he used to take no more notice of old Goosey's 

 querulous nagging than "nothing at all." With the same 

 courage he never relaxed his energy or his enthusiasm in the 

 field. Twice in 1857 he killed his fox in frost. Once, as an 

 ardent sportsman relates, to show how his hounds trusted 

 him, he stopped them just as they were running hackles up 

 into a wood, took them through at full gallop and laid them 

 on the far side — the fox had gone right through — and killed 

 his fox. No doubt he remembered the sage remark of his 

 old master, Goosey, " I beg leave to say, sir, that a fox is a 

 toddling animal." In 1857 he declared he had never had a 

 cub-hunting season more to his wishes, nor enjoyed one 

 more. In 1858 an incident as interesting as it is remarkable 

 occurred, and is related in the Sporting Magazine : — 



" The second fox gave them twenty minutes to ground in 

 a drain, racing pace all the way. A couple of bitches were 

 missing at this point — Clara, a daughter of Comus, and Care- 

 ful, a daughter of Chaser — and a whip was sent back while 

 Will went on to draw for another fox, which gave him a 

 capital fifty minutes over a very severe country to ground 

 again. The whip reached home without either of the bitches, 

 but Will was so sure they were there that the boiler was 



' Si'/i and Scarlet, p. 379. 

 • 212 



