How to use this map

The boundary of the Belvoir Hunt country in drawn in cream/orange and markers highlight points of interest. The boundary is the traditional one from AH Swiss's 1890s map which is annexed to copies of, among others, T.F. Dale's The History of the Belvoir Hunt (1899). The country currently hunted has changed in places due mainly to road-building. These changes are summarised below.
The map can be zoomed in and out by dragging the slider (keeping the left mouse-button depressed) up or down the vertical rack on the map's left-hand side, or by clicking on the '+' (zoom in) and '—' (zoom out) buttons at the ends of the slider rack. The map can be panned up, down, left and right in several ways:

• by clicking on one of the four arrow buttons
• by dragging the map
• by dragging the mini-map
• by dragging the square in the mini-map's centre

If you want to pan a large distance (e.g. from Melton Mowbray to Sleaford), you will find it much quicker to pan using the mini-map's central square.
Passing your mouse cursor over one of the markers will cause a 'balloon' to open with more details of that point of interest.
If you click on a marker, a mini-window will open (it will replace any balloon) with a close-up of the area around the marker. This mini-window can be panned by dragging and can be zoomed using '+' and '-' buttons similar to the large map, and can alternatively show a street map instead of the satellite map. To remove the mini-window, click on the 'X' in its top right-hand corner (it will also vanish if you move your mouse over another marker or click on a markerless area of the map).
To avoid clutter on the map where, in places, markers would otherwise jostle to be visible, some markers are not displayed until the map has been zoomed in sufficiently.
The meaning of each marker symbol is:

	Kennels, Belvoir Castle		Coverts the hunt is responsible for
	Neutral (shared) coverts

Lastly, please be patient as the map loads — there is a great deal going on behind the scenes to provide you with a unique way to explore the Belvoir country

Changes to the hunted country

Firstly, Swiss's map has the boundary circling the north side of Aslockton station. This appears to be a drafting error as the River Smite (the boundary in that area) sweeps between the south side of Aslockton station and Whatton (the Smite is known to have been rechanneled to prevent flooding in Aslockton, but is unlikely to have been moved that extensively).
Secondly, the roads near the boundary have in places moved. The A17 — which forms most of the northern boundary — is a good example. The current A17 has been used as the boundary in most places even where is has been straightened. In Sleaford, however, the traditional boundary goes via the town centre which puts Sleaford Wood (which is south of the current A17) in Blankney country. By contrast, the area north of the A17 around Cranwell between Leadenham and Sleaford is within the traditional boundary but is largely unhunted.
East of Melton Mowbray, the boundary between the Belvoir and Cottesmore countries follows the River Eye. But in Melton itself, things get more complex as the boundaries of the Belvoir, Cottesmore and Quorn notionally meet in the Market Place. Coming from the Stapleford direction, the River Eye enters the town alongside the railway, meets the Scalford Brook as it passes the Mars (formerly Pedigree Petfoods) plant, and follows the railway under the bridge that carries the A606 Melton-to-Oakham road. For the three 'countries' to meet in the Market Place, the Belvoir / Cottesmore boundary would have to follow Sherrard Street as far as Thorpe End (under which Scalford Brook is now culverted), and then Scalford Brook until it meets the River Eye. An alternative and commonly depicted boundary (not shown on the map) tracks the River Eye from where it runs under the railway bridge, through Play Close and past the front of Egerton Lodge to join Asfordby Road just west of the present Leisure Centre and then back towards Melton to join Nottingham Road. But to make things even more complex, the now-vanished Melton-to-Oakham canal (1795 — 1847) also closely followed the course of the River Eye to a now-filled-in canal basin sited where the Melton - Oakham railway bridge was later built, and the Leicester-to-Melton canal also ran through Play Close; so it is difficult to have the last word on exactly where the boundary originally lay. These boundaries are of academic interest within the centre of Melton as the hunts meet on neutral ground (formerly the Market Place and now Play Close) at the invitation of the Town Estate (which, in passing, pre-dates all three hunts...).
Several purportedly definitive boundary maps have been produced over the past hundred years or so which, more often than not, differ in the boundary depicted for (clockwise from Melton Mowbray) Melton itself, Holwell Mouth, Newark to Beckingham, Brant Broughton eastwards, Colsterworth to Buckminster Lodge, and Stapleford Park. An updated version of the map shown above is in gestation and it may resolve some of the historical anomalies as well as delineating the boundary at a much higher resolution — something which will be apparent especially when following the convoluted twists and turns of the Smite, Eye and Witham.