PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS 



heavy soil which the horses had to contend with, so the 

 huntsman finished on foot, and Mr. John Welby and Mr. 

 Hardy watched the termination of this wonderful run from 

 the top of a stack, the distance of which from point to point 

 was said to have been nearly twenty miles. 



Cooper had the assistance of several good whippers-in 

 during his term of office, among others George Shepherd, 

 Nimrod Long, Frank Gillard ; the latter afterwards became 

 huntsman to the South Notts, Quorn, and Belvoir, in the 

 order named. Owing to failing health and various other 

 reasons, Cooper retired from his situation as huntsman in 

 1870, and the Duke of Rutland offered the post to Frank 

 Gillard, who was at that time huntsman to the Quorn hounds. 

 With Mr, Coupland's kind consent he was enabled to accept 

 the offer. During the long period that Gillard was huntsman, 

 of course there were many good runs. He was also fortunate in 

 having several very good whippers-in under him, among others 

 Goodall, Wells, and Arthur Wilson, and his own son, young 

 Frank Gillard, R. Cotesworth, and others. Gillard had a 

 cordial welcome on his return to Belvoir as huntsman by all 

 those who knew him in the hunting field as the first whipper- 

 in to the Belvoir pack some years previously, and everything 

 connected with the hunt went on smoothly for many years. 

 On the fifteenth of March, 1871, his Royal Highness the 

 Prince of Wales, who was staying at Melton, re-appeared 

 again with the Belvoir hounds at a meet at Stonesby, about 

 one mile and a half from Croxton Park. It was a beautiful 

 morning, and a large field was out both on horseback and on 

 wheels. This meet and the subsequent run are so cleverly 

 described in an unpublished poem by Mr. John Welby that 

 I venture to quote a few verses, with a slight alteration and 

 addition of my own : — 



*' At Stonesby in the morning there met a motley crowd, 

 For all the country side had been a holiday allowed, 

 To see the Prince of Wales a-mounted on his steed, 

 With a flower in his button-hole and in his mouth a weed. 

 There were shandry dans and go-carts, and phaetons and gigs, 

 And jolly-looking farmers, and pretty girls and prigs. 

 The county squires of Leicestershire were in the crowd we see, 



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