A Word Picture for Americans 

 to Copy 



With thanks to T. F. Dale 



The first day that we hunt with the Belvoir will 

 always remain in our memory, so associated is the 

 pack with the history of fox-hunting and the fox- 

 hound. So many men in the past have looked on 

 this hunt as the very embodiment and type of the 

 best side of our national sport that we feel that a 

 day with the Belvoir is an experience not easily to 

 be forgotten. Suppose then that some Wednesday 

 early in the season we find ourselves at Croxton 

 Park. The day is cloudy, and the wind has a touch 

 of east in it. The remains of the old fishing lodge 

 of the Duke of Rutland are before us, and the pond's 

 steely grey in the subdued misty light of the No- 

 vember morning adds a beauty to the landscape. 

 There is a gathering of all the hardest riders, 

 soldiers, statesmen, men of business, lawyers and 

 farmers, people of every degree of rank and wealth. 

 Then the women are on the best horses that money 

 can buy or judgment select; others are riding less 

 high-bred, but still useful animals; and there are 

 many on foot and quite a cloud of cyclists. 



There, too, quietly being walked up and down, is 

 the famous pack, all with a wonderful family like- 

 ness in shape and colouring. Clean and bright in 

 their coats, they have the easy grace and motion of 

 perfect shape. Marvellous examples of careful selec- 

 tion they are, combining strength and speed that can 

 tire out and outstrip the best of horses. The Hunt 

 servants are neatly got up in quiet and workmanlike 

 manner, and are mounted on horses chosen by one of 



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