34 FOX-HUNTING IN THE SHIRES 



a crowd gathers second only to the assembly that 

 greets the opening day of the Devon and Somerset on 

 Cloutsham Ball. To the pleasures of this opening day 

 hunting in Leicestershire owes something of its strong 

 hold on the people. From Kirby Gate the first covert 

 drawn is Gartree. The hill above the covert forms a 

 natural gallery from whence the foot people and 

 cyclists, the occupants of the brakes and carriages, 

 can see the sport and be scarcely any hindrance at all. 

 Gartree Hill is always full of foxes, being part of the 

 Hartopp property. Therefore a find here is a certainty, 

 and a run over the Burton fiats and very often round 

 by Leesthorpe, or away towards Stapleford, all three 

 in the Cottesmore hunt, is a very usual sequel. This 

 is a beautiful country, all grass and divided by fences 

 that a hunter can jump. 



But even in the neighbourhood of Melton itself there 

 is some rough country, and, supposing Wartnaby to 

 be on the card, the stranger may find himself hunting 

 foxes in a rough hilly district scarred with the tram- 

 lines of the Ironstone mines. The rough country, 

 however, will be borne with, for at any moment a fox 

 may lead you away over Belvoir's sweet vale, a hunt- 

 ing ground which, when the going is not too deep, is, 

 as a Bel voir man once said, " the best to ride over in 

 England." To this remark, indeed, some might add 

 that they would like it better if the fences, which made 

 the stout heart of one of the Duke's flying parsons 

 tremble, were not quite so stiff. There is country here 

 which is bothering in a crowd, and notably the rough 

 and broken stretch below Wartnaby itself, where, in 

 many places, you can but take your turn at the practi- 

 cable places in the very stiff hedges. This experience, 

 however, is likely to be followed by a gallop on the 

 grass by Saxelby or from Welby Fishponds, one of 



