THE HISTORY OF THE BEL VOIR HUNT 



H. Behrens, Captain Smith, Major Turner Farley, the Hon. 

 Alan Pennington, Lord Carrington, the Hon. H. Coventry, 

 Mr. B. Coventry, Mr. Arthur Coventry, Mr. Gilbert Stirling, 

 the Hon. W. Hill Trevor, Colonel Markham, Mr. W. Mark- 

 ham and the Misses Markham, and others. 



About the time the Duke of Rutland took the mastership 

 of the Belvoir hounds he had three favourite hunters, whose 

 portraits he had painted by Mr. Ferneley, the celebrated 

 sporting artist — a fine roan horse and a bay horse called 

 The Earl and a black mare called Black Bess. The picture 

 may now be seen in the small dining-room at Belvoir Castle, 

 together with a portrait of his retriever Bess. 



In after years he had many nice horses, among others a 

 chestnut mare called Beauty, and a very nice bay horse 

 which he called Chapman ; this horse was latterly his 

 favourite mount when he hunted. He also had some nice 

 horses called Hornsby and Laurel and March ; the two last, 

 being good ladies' horses, were often lent by him to ladies 

 who wanted a mount. A horse called Shipman was his 

 favourite hack. This horse lived to a great age and was 

 ridden occasionally by the present Duke of Rutland, and 

 lived for two or three years after his brother the late Duke's 

 death. The old horse has a tombstone put up to his memory 

 near the stables at Belvoir. 



No very remarkably good runs occurred for a season or 

 two after the Duke became master, but in January, 1862, two 

 famous runs took place, both of which were subjects of much 

 conversation in the hunting field for some time afterwards. 



The first of these was from Scalford Bog on January the 

 4th. On the morning of that day we had a fair hunting 

 run from Melton Spinney, crossing the brook twice, even- 

 tually losing our fox near that covert. Mr. Bower Talbot 

 the son of the veterinary surgeon of that name, had a fall at 

 the Melton brook the second time of crossing, and his horse 

 remained for some time in the brook before he could be got 

 out, but he was none the worse and he rode him again in the 

 second run. We drew Scalford Bog about three o'clock on 

 that afternoon. A fine fox went away towards Goadby Gorse, 



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