THE HISTORY OF THE BEL VOIR HUNT 



patient temper, was Cooper's favourite, and the kennel was 

 full of his blood, and having been used with great freedom 

 the pack showed his two failings. They were rather inclined 

 to be wild, a fault common to all high-bred dogs, and they 

 were somewhat wanting in tongue, a failing which recurred at 

 Belvoir from time to time. Yarborough Rallywood, however, 

 in Goodall's time had corrected that tendency, and it was 

 through him that the beautiful bell-like tongues were restored. 

 The reader may perhaps remember that there were two 

 remarkable sons of Brocklesby Rallywood — Willing, Clinker 

 and Chaser, of which something has already been said. 

 Chaser had in due course a son. Chanticleer, and the latter 

 gave the kennel Wonder. It may be doubted if, of the 

 benefits of the great Rallywood to the pack, any were greater 

 than his being the forbear of Wonder. When others were 

 silent, or giving vent only to a smothered whimper, Gillard 

 would hear Wonder's deep, rich, bell-like note ring up out of 

 the depths of the coverts true and clear. The other hounds 

 flew to it as hounds will when a truthful one speaks, and the 

 Wonder-Susan family became the leading line of the Belvoir 

 kennel, for did not the alliance produce Weathergage, the 

 best fox-hound that ever was bred ? Not the handsomest, for 

 he was so plain that Gillard for some time was unwilling to 

 breed from him. He was from the first day of entering so 

 good in his work that he was regarded with suspicion, as 

 such excellence was considered too good to last. Precocious 

 hounds, like precocious children, often develop vices in a 

 most disappointing way. But Weathergage never was any- 

 thing but perfection, and his descendants, now to be found in 

 half the kennels of England, are as good as can be. Hard- 

 working, hard-running, clear of voice and keen of nose, they 

 are the huntsman's friends wherever they are, and they often 

 have the beauty their great ancestor lacked. Alas ! no picture 

 of him remains, only in the smoking-room at Belvoir a stuffed 

 head is to be seen ; but, as all dog-lovers know, a dog cannot 

 so be preserved, for that wonderful, wise, affectionate, wilful 

 canine spirit which gives such a marvellous expression to the 

 rather rigid outlines of his face fades into vacancy when life 



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