LOYAL GRANTHAM 



Gregory, of Denton, who died while this book was being 

 written, was a keen hunting man till he gave up his sport to 

 a sense of duty. 



On the borders of the South Notts is Mr. R. Millington 

 Knowles, of Colston Bassett, who has owned some of the 

 best timber jumpers in the hunt. " I thought once I had 

 pounded him over some stiff timber," said a well-known hard- 

 riding member of the hunt ; " but he had a wonderful horse 

 and got over without mistake." Then, too, there are the 

 farmers who made the fences and rode over them fearlessly in 

 every period of the hunt's history — the Guys, Mr. W. Sills, 

 Mr. Downing, Mr. Hind, and many others. The famous 

 John Wing has been already referred to. Then there was 

 Mr. Gale, of Scalford, who rode as hard as any one. Messrs. 

 Bland, Brewster, and Hutchinson, of Foston, were a group of 

 keen hard men to hounds, and Mr. Tom Caswell, who was 

 entered to the sport in that famous Southwold country where 

 I believe the farmers cannot be surpassed. It is fifteen years 

 or more since I hunted there, but I have not forgotten the 

 way the farmers rode, or the horses they bred and schooled. 

 I fear bad times have overtaken them since then, but I shall 

 always remember what kind, friendly hearts they were, what 

 sportsmen, how hospitable, and how justly proud of their 

 flying bitch pack, and their celebrated master and huntsman, 

 Mr. Rawnsley. But this is a digression. Yet let it stand, for 

 the Lincolnshire farmer is everywhere and always the same 

 good sportsman. If we look back on the splendid record of 

 the Belvoir farmers from the day when Shaw, eager to get to 

 his hounds on a tired horse, changed with Mr. Sharp, of 

 Welby, there is always something to tell. The old Belvoir 

 records are no respecters of persons. The man who rode 

 hard and rode well was handed down to posterity, and he 

 only. The huntsman sometimes puts down the names of 

 very distinguished royal or other visitors, but he never says 

 they rode well if he had no facts to go on. There was much 

 real respect for rank and royalty in old times, but much less 

 flattery of the conventional newspaper paragraph kind than 

 we have now. Again we read that in Goosey's early days 



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