Touring the kennels

On my last Sunday at Harlaxton, I was fortunate enough to get a tour of the Belvoir Hunt kennels and a chance to meet the hounds. Despite a torrential rain storm in the morning, the sky cleared and the sun was bright when one of the BH members came to fetch me from the manor.

This was really a special opportunity. Because the BH hunts four days in the week, when Sunday comes, it is truly a day off and no one wants to be around. We asked permission of the Master of the BH to ask the kennel huntsman (the man who cares for the hounds but doesn't hunt) if he might be willing to show me around. As it happened, one of the Whips was going to be there and willing to give the tour despite having work to do around the kennels.

So we entered along the private drive to Belvoir Castle, passing massive pheasants crossing to and fro across the lane. We finally approached the kennels. They were magnificient at 250 years old. Chris, one of the Whips, met us in the courtyard and cordially walked us in. The BH has 38 couple of hounds (so that's 76 individual hounds) at the moment though before the Hunting Ban went into effect in 2004, there were probably closer to 60 couple.

Here they were ready to greet me. They clearly knew I was a friend. The bitches were kept in their own portion of the kennels, as were the males, and the puppies. But they were all every bit as beautiful as these pictures show you. They were climbing over each other to get a sniff of me and then nudging me to reach in and pet them. But as you can see too, these are no small animals. They are built to run across the fields of Lincolnshire for hours at a time. It is also amazing to think that their bloodlines go back further than the kennels themselves. Every hound's pedigree is documented.

Here are a few more pictures of the inside of the kennels and of the hounds themselves.

One of the rooms in the kennels is called the "Duke's Room." Here, one of the old Dukes of Rutland would inspect each and every hounds. But the poor man had gout so he build a seat (you can see it in the second picture...it's the white bench) with a gate around it so that the hounds would be brought in to him, one at a time, but they couldn't jump on him. Then they were moved out and the next hound brought in. Now, the Duke's Room is a museum that was re-opened last spring, full of photos and memorabilia of the Belvoir Hunt, its hounds, and hunt staff. There are pictures of HRH Prince Charles riding with the Belvoir in the 70s and 80s (though he usually rides with the Beaufort) and others too. It is a splendid exhibit of Hunt history.

One of the last pictures I took was looking from the kennels up the hill to Belvoir Castle. It was a lovely view. A little closer to the castle is a field where the Duchess and her daughters keep their horses stabled and closer still is the Dowager Duchess' cottage. Sadly the Duke of Rutland is more interested in shooting than hunting so while the hounds are technically referred to as the Duke of Rutland's Hounds, it is in name only, much to the disappointment of the Hunt staff and members.

But there it is...the Belvoir Hunt and its hounds remains one of the oldest and most renowned of all the Hunts in Britain. It is also one of the last to maintain its historic kennels. May it always be so.

KEEP HUNTING! KEEP HUNTING! KEEP HUNTING! KEEP HUNTING! KEEP HUNTING! KEEP HUNTING! KEEP HUNTING! KEEP HUNTING! KEEP HUNTING! KEEP HUNTING! KEEP HUNTING! KEEP HUNTING!