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THE HISTORY OF THE BEL VOIR HUNT 



incident. That evening his stalls at Grantham were vacant." ^ 

 This part of the country has, however, changed consider- 

 ably since those days, for before the Peninsula war and the 

 era of high prices there was much more grass, and we find 

 continual lamentations early in the century that the price of 

 corn was causing much of the Belvoir grass to be broken 

 up into arable. The vale reaches away from the Castle to- 

 wards the north, and is traditionally supposed to be held in 

 dread by the Melton men (" Legend of Merrie Croxton "). 

 Nor by them only, for does not Dick Christian tell some- 

 where how one of the boldest of the many bold " parsons of 

 the hunt used fairly to tremble when he saw those big vale 

 fences in front of him"? 



Yet another poem, from the collection of charming verses 

 which are among the best ever written on the subject of 

 hunting, tells of how Melton grass and Belvoir " plough- 

 men " meet in the race for the Coplow, to prove whether of 

 the twain was the better training ground for the hunter. 



The Race for the Coplow.^ i86i. 



Grass v. Plough. 



For ages, no matter to question how long, 

 Well known is the fame of the Coplow in song. 

 From the days when its praises were chanted by Lowth, 

 Till to-day, when its fun is in every one's mouth. 



Thy glories were great when upon the great sward 

 It puzzled the judge to bestow an award. 

 When Lindow and Williams and White and the squire 

 Represented the riders of many a shire. 



But after alas I came a cloud o'er the scene ; 

 The race for the Coplow a shadow has been. 

 Till to-day, like a phcenix, as every one knows, 

 From its ashes with vigour enlivened it rose. 



From its ashes it rose, for the question is now, 



Which steed is the stoutest, from grass or from plough ? 



^ Covertside Sketches^ by H. Nevill Fitt, 1879, P- 9^- 

 ' Lays of Belvoir^ p. 50. 



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