Chapter XV 

 THE BELVOIR COUNTRY 



" TT'S the hounds and men that bring them, not the 

 X country," was the remark of old Dick Christian as he 

 and the Druid were taking that immortal drive through the 

 Belvoir country which is recorded in Silk and Scarlet. No 

 doubt there is truth in the saying, for who should know 

 better than the old rough rider who had sounded the depths 

 of every ditch, tried the strength of every flight of rails, and 

 the resistance of the stout bullfinches throughout the Duke's 

 territory ? Yet though the Belvoir may have no stretch of 

 ground to equal the Twyford Vale of the Quorn or the 

 Pytchley '^country from Crick to Stanford, of which Charles 

 Payne, Lord Spencer's famous huntsman, was so fond, yet it 

 has much that is only second to the very best owned by 

 either of those hunts. In the Belvoir too, owing to the 

 extent of its territory, there is necessarily a greater variety of 

 fences, of soil, and of covert than in the smaller countries. 

 The Duke's country has besides always had one great ad- 

 vantage in the stoutness of its foxes. This is partly owing 

 to the excellent distribution of its large coverts, so that 

 everywhere there are nurseries for good foxes. An American 

 visitor once remarked that England appeared to have been 

 laid out by a landscape gardener for the purpose of hunting, 

 and the Belvoir country, at least, has much this appearance, 

 since a glance at the map will show how well distributed are 

 the coverts of Belvoir — those round Croxton, Syston and 

 Belton Park, Aswarby, Sapperton and Humby. These 



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