THE BELVOm HOUNDS. 99 



his stalls at Grantham were vacant. All who have hunted in 

 the vale, which Assheton Smith loved so well, will easily 

 conceive how probable such an incident would be, for the 

 ground is heavy, and the fences raspers. Yet, as late as 1790, 

 this vale was for the most part unenclosed, and. the woods 

 inhabited by deer. Another portion, which lies rather more 

 south-east, is called the heath country ; and a very pleasant 

 one it is to ride over, being light arable land, divided by 

 easy thorn fences, generally without a ditch, though you must 

 be prepared even here to face a big place occasionally. 



The great meet for this country is " The Three Queens," and 

 most of the Melton men are to be found there, when the fixture 

 is announced. There is some of a like nature about Cranston, 

 farther north, wdiere you meet with stone walls, and some very 

 heavy country on the Sleaford side, where the hounds have 

 kennels at Ropsley, and sleep out once a week. The grass 

 country is towards Melton, and I have seen them go Avell from 

 Burbage's covert, a very little distance from the town ; and 

 ]\Ielton Spinney, from which, go which way you will, there is 

 a brook to be got over. The grass parts of the country are 

 hilly, and certainly not to be compared to other parts of 

 Leicestershire that I have seen; but, as old Dick Christian said, 

 *• It's the hounds and the men, not the country, which brings 

 them here." 



Round Belvoir there are some magnificent woods for cub- 

 hunting ; and, take it all in all, though it may not rank with 

 the Quorn or Pytchley, there are very few better countries in 

 England. The horror of the Meltonians at its deep clays has 

 been most happily hit off in a poem circulated privately some few 

 years ago, and written by one who has ever been well able to hold 

 his own across them, in " A Legende of Merrie Croxton ;" — 



Long would it take my humble muse 

 To tell the varied chaff. 

 How Melton swells the ploughs abuse, 

 How Belvoir " ploughiueu " laugh. 

 H 2 



