THE HISTORY OF THE BELVOIR HUNT 



After passing Lodge-on-the- Wolds (in the Quorn country) 

 the pack wavered for a moment, but casting themselves 

 before Shaw could get to them, hit off the line and ran 

 right up to Cotgrave. The fox here turned to the left, 

 and hounds, swinging round on the line without a pause, ran 

 past Clipston to Normanton town, where they drove their fox 

 from scent to view and killed him (the 103rd that season) 

 after a run lasting one hour and three minutes. The Duke 

 of Rutland and Lord Charles Manners reached hounds at 

 Hickling, and Mr. Robert Grosvenor came up during the run.^ 

 On this run a note in the " Journal of the Operations of the 

 Belvoir Hounds " remarks : " In consequence of this circum- 

 stance [the momentary check near Lodge-on-the-Wolds] it 

 was supposed to have been one of the most severe strains 

 upon wind that a pack of hounds could have, there never 

 having been, except at this time, one instant when they could 

 experience any relief. In effect, some of the stoutest of the 

 whole pack, viz., Bluebell, Crony, Ruffler, Empress, and 

 Nimrod, were so distressed within that they could not go out 

 again for a fortnight afterwards. The running of the pack, 

 during the whole period, was beautiful, not one hound being 

 ever away from the body, which was so compact that at any 

 time a sheet might have covered them all. Considerable 

 credit was consequently due to the huntsman (Shaw) on the 

 score of feeding." 



These remarks, which were probably written by the Duke 

 himself, show the interest in the pack he felt, and the know- 

 ledge he had acquired. The name of the fifth Duke as a 

 sportsman was so much overshadowed by the great reputation 

 of his immediate successors, Lord Forester and his son the 

 sixth Duke, that this evidence of his real interest in his work 

 as a M.F.H. may be considered noteworthy. It is also of 

 interest to note that Crony was a son of the Duke of 

 Beaufort's Champion, a line which, as I have already pointed 

 out, was destined to be of immense value to the pack, and 

 which had been resorted to on account of the stoutness of the 

 Badminton pack. 



* Sporiing Review, \o\. ii.^ p. 184. 

 282 



