110 MEMORIES OF THE SHIRES 



vivid recollection of the day. The crowd is usually 

 much too keen on the opening meet, and in their 

 anxiety to secure a good start ride rather closer 

 to the pack than either master or huntsman ap- 

 prove ; but on this occasion I expect the first run 

 had given the impression there was very little scent, 

 and they had consequently grown slack. If hounds 

 had not swung round under Newbold and from 

 thence on to John o' Gaunt station, the loiterers 

 would never have caught them, but by making 

 use of the hard road, they were able to cut them 

 off before embarking on the fields for Adam's 

 Gorse. 



November continued to show good sport, and 

 there was a fair amount of rain, so that the ground 

 which had been exceptionally dry in October was 

 in a rideable condition. I note that the Quorn 

 had a good gallop on the Prince of Wales' — King 

 Edward later — birthday, and from the covert that 

 still bears his name. Probably the majority of 

 those who stand at Baggrave covert-side nowadays 

 waiting for a fox to go away, do not know that it 

 owes the name to the illustrious godfather having 

 sprinkled gorse-seed on the ground. 



I am not sure about the date, but fancy it was 

 somewhere about 1877, when Colonel Burnaby, 

 father of the present Quorn master, was alive. Gorse, 

 however, does not thrive on all soils, and in spite 

 of the royal sower, it refused to grow with the 

 luxuriance which is necessary to hold foxes, and 

 then, in addition, many of the young shoots were 

 cut down by a severe frost. 



In 1884 the gorse was replaced by blackthorn, 

 whitethorn and privet, which, being well planted 



