THE OLD ORDER CHANGES 



His twenty-eight years' mastership, the golden age of the 

 Belvoir and of fox-hunting, is somewhat lightly described in 

 Gillard's Renimiscences. Lord Forester is said to have been a 

 " warming pan " between the masterships of the two Dukes. 

 This is hardly accurate. From letters before me I can say 

 that the fifth Duke was unwilling to keep on the mastership 

 in 1828, and that Lord Granby never even thought of taking 

 it at that time. Lord Forester took the pack, as we have 

 seen, with a subscription from Grantham and a contribution 

 from the Duke, and spent some ;^2,500 per annum on the 

 hounds. Lord Forester was born in 1801, and, of the 

 brilliant band of Christ Church men who used to hunt with 

 Sir Thomas Mostyn, Lords Clanricarde and Chesterfield and 

 Mr. Biddulph of Churk, he was during the latter part of his life 

 the sole survivor. No finer horseman ever crossed a horse, no 

 better master ever ruled a pack of hounds. His name is still 

 remembered in the Belvoir country with respect and affec- 

 tion. 



Royal visitors were never uncommon at Belvoir, and the 

 Empress of Austria came out several times in the course of 

 the season. In 1874 Will Goodall, the younger, left to carry 

 the horn with the Pytchley, an event which was full of good 

 results both for the kennel and the sport of that favoured 

 country. This season was remarkable both for its being the 

 year of Weathergage's entry and for the number of first-rate 

 fathers of the pack in the kennels. 



In 1877, on April 10, the Duke received a presentation 

 from the members of the hunt. There were two hundred 

 and fifty subscribers, and a sum of ;^2,500 was collected. 

 The testimonial, says the Grantham Journal of that date, 

 took the form of splendid candelabra, beautiful alike in 

 design and workmanship and presenting a most magnifi- 

 cent appearance. The centrepiece stood over five feet high, 

 the top forming a beautiful cluster of twenty-one lights, 

 supporting in the centre an exquisitely modelled figure of 

 Diana. On the presentation plate was the following inscrip- 

 tion : " Presented to Charles Cecil John, sixth Duke of Rut- 

 land, by the gentlemen and farmers of the Belvoir Hunt, as a 



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