THE HISTORY OF THE BELVOIR HUNT 



pleased him, so he wrote us, more than any he had ever 

 known. In the first they were holloaed forward to a fresh 

 fox, when their old one had crept in somewhere near Culver- 

 thorpe after 'one hour fifty minutes of regular blazing.' ' From 

 Dembleby Thorns,' he adds, ' they went away like pigeons 

 in flight, the horses and even many of our good men melting 

 away like snow in summer. They ran from scent to view, 

 and killed him by themselves (with the exception of fifteen 

 minutes from Culverthorpe), as hard as ever they could split for 

 three hours twenty-two minutes. I was first into the last field, 

 and the only person who saw them course him, and his Grace 

 was in the field when they caught him. We were the only 

 two, but Mr. Frank Gordon, Mr. Hardy of Grantham, and 

 Mr. Houson, Mr. Bruxner, and Jem, came up to see them 

 eat him. Sir Thomas Whichcote's horse stood stock still, 

 one field away.' We have no further particulars of the run of 

 the 2ist than, 'We had a regular trimmer! Oh! such a 

 trimmer I which few men lived to see. The hounds did not 

 get home till one o'clock the next morning. With their first 

 fox they had two hours and ten minutes to ground nearly 

 in view, and with their second one hour fifty minutes. They 

 tired every one out and ran into him by themselves charm- 

 ingly ; it was all over our best country with both foxes.' " ^ 



In the Sporting Magazine we read : — 



" The following is our final report of the Belvoir, whose 

 entry is said to be superb. With a west wind which has been 

 prevailing nearly the whole of the blessed season, we have 

 never had a week's good scenting weather, consequently we 

 are a few foxes below our average number, owing to some 

 parts of our country, which used to abound with foxes, being 

 so very scarce of that animal that they could not afford to 

 kill so many in the cubbing season as we generally do. They 

 hunted. Will Goodall tells me, only thirty-six days in the cub- 

 bing season, and killed every day with three foxes, making a 

 total number of thirty-nine cubs. Since then they have hunted 

 one hundred and one days and killed fifty-eight foxes." ^ 



A bad fall and the encroachments of the lung trouble, 

 * Scott and Sebright, p. 410. ^ Sporting Magazine^ M-^- 1859, p. 320. 



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