THE BELVOIR COUNTRY 



Percy Williams (afterwards master of the Rufiford), and many 

 other well-known riders, tried conclusions over a country and 

 on the flat. Nimrod, however, we gather, like many other 

 sportsmen of his day, disliked steeplechases. What would 

 he have said could he have seen a gate-money chase of our 

 day ? The horses of those times were at least hunters, and 

 not cast-off crocks too bad for the flat. But this chapter 

 might indeed be drawn out to almost any length, so rich 

 is the past of hunting in incidents and interest. It may be 

 that in that comparatively small circle of hunting society 

 exploits were noticed and remembered that would be lost 

 on the crowd of competitors in our own day. But I think 

 perhaps men gave to the sports they loved a more single- 

 hearted devotion than they do amid the many diversities 

 of interests of our own times. At all events we shall cer- 

 tainly never see a finer race of soldiers, statesmen, and men 

 of culture, and sporting squires, yeomen, farmers, and dandies, 

 than those who in the past loved to take their pleasures, 

 by no means sadly, over the Belvoir country. 



287 



