go Tallyho, 



Belvoir Castle their chief residence, and being good 

 sportsmen, have maintained the high character of 

 the pack. For 27 years the late Lord Forester 

 took the management of them, and is spoken of as 

 having been an exceedingly fine horseman, a consum- 

 mate judge of hounds, and a most courteous Master 

 during the number of years he held the important 

 office, which was, in fact, the Golden Age of fox- 

 hunting, when railways were in their infancy, and 

 steam ploughs unknown to agriculture. Nowadays 

 the best parts are crossed by the different lines of 

 railway passing through the district; and the deep 

 steam-ploughing system causes the land to ride very 

 heavy, especially in such a season of rain as has pre- 

 vailed during the winter months. It is twenty years 

 since Lord Forester terminated his career as Master 

 of the Belvoir, since which period the present Duke 

 of Rutland, in the most liberal and sportsmanlike 

 style, has maintained the high-class character of his 

 hounds, and won the regard and esteem of all classes 

 to whom he has afibrded so much sport in the wide 

 tract around the Castle. 



The country hunted by the Belvoir embraces every 

 description of ground. It extends on the West from 

 the Trent to the German Ocean on the East, and 

 reaches from the Blankney country to Melton Mow- 

 bray. The woodlands are very extensive, being of 

 infinite value in steadying hounds, and are homes for 

 the foxes, where they can disport themselves at their 

 pleasure. Nowadays woodland hunting is not much 

 esteemed by those who want a burst of five-and- 

 twenty minutes at a screaming pace across the grass, 

 and not a hunting run in the big woods ; though the 



