The Victoria History of the County of Lincoln/Fox Hunting: Introduction
FOX-HUNTING
LINCOLNSHIRE is well provided with packs of foxhounds; except in the north-west, which is given over very largely to the preservation of game, and in the south-east, where the unjumpable drains forbid the chase, very little of the county is unhunted. The territory of the Earl of Yarborough stretches from the Humber to a line drawn from Gainsborough to Louth, and up the canal to the North Sea, while the River Trent forms its western limit. The eastern side of the county is hunted by the Southwold, whose boundaries extend from those of Lord Yarborough's country to an imaginary line drawn from Wainfleet to Billinghay and thence northward till the Brocklesby country is reached again. The old Burton country used to extend from Lord Yarborough's boundary to Newark, and so across to meet the Southwold at Billinghay; but that portion below an imaginary line drawn across the country just below Lincoln has been hunted by the Blankney since the year 1871. Below the Blankney comes the Belvoir, whose eastern limits extend to the sea, though they practically go no further than the Forty-foot drain, beyond which lie the unhuntable Fens. The Cottesmore hunt the extreme south-westerly corner. In 1904 a small area on the east coast was lent to Mr. W. A. Ewbank, of Fulstow Hall, by the respective masters of the Brocklesby and the Southwold. There are few coverts in Mr. Ewbank's country, but a great many foxes lie out in hedgerows and stick-heaps and provide sport for the marsh farmers. The Marquess of Exeter hunts two days a week in the neighbourhood of Burghley House, Stamford, by permission of the Hon. G. C. W. Fitzwilliam, and has occasional invitation meets in the Cottesmore and Belvoir territories.