KING JAMES S LOVE OF HUNTING. 9 



account of King James's journey from Edinburgh to 

 London, in the year 1603, that " he left Newark on 

 Friday the twenty-third of April, and advanced towards 

 Belvoir Castle, the splendid seat of the Earl of Rutland, 

 hunting all the way, next morning after breakfast he 

 set forward to Burleigh, dining by the way at the seat 

 of Sir J. Harrington. His Majestic on the way was 

 attended by many lords and knights, and before his 

 coming there were prepared train-scents ; and live 

 hares in baskets being carried to the heath, made 

 excellent sport for his Majestic, all the way betwixt 

 Sir John Harrington's and Stamford, Sir J.'s hounds 

 with good mouths following the game, the King taking 

 great leisure and pleasure in the same."* The noble 

 family of Manners, and the far-famed Vale of Belvoir, 

 seem still to support their well earned celebrity for 

 hunting. If the royal sportsman took so " great leisure 

 and pleasure" in the train-scents and box-hares, what 

 would be the extent of his delight in witnessing some 

 of the severe bursts of modern days with the magnifi- 

 cent pack of the present noble possessor of Belvoir 

 Castle,t from Melton Spiny or Clawston Thorns ; 



* Nicbol's Progress. 



t Royalty Las been again attracted to and delighted by the hounds of Belvoir ; 

 not by the cold arrangement of scent, and the hand-canter, which marked James's 

 antique style of sport ; — but by the honest finding of a fox, " in Salt-Spring 

 Wood," — the fast thing through Knipton Plantation, and the kill at Blackberry 

 Hill ! Long may this splendid pack maintain its high character. 



Belvoir Castle, Jan. 5. — The hounds met at the stables this morning, which 

 are directly underneath the lofty towers of the castle — there was an immense 

 field. The general appointments of this far-famed pack excited the admiration of 

 all strangers, and of none more than the Duke of Cambridge, who entered into 

 familiar conversation with a number of veteran fox-hunters, and expressed his 

 admiration at the condition and beauty of the horses, and the remarkably adapted 

 character of Leicestershire as a sporting country. His royal highness rode a 

 powerful hunter of the Duke of Rutland's and kept a good place throughout the 

 day. The first fox found in Salt Spring Wood, threaded Knipton Plantation, 



