TKE ALCESTER WOODLANDS. 7 



country around them, while a baptism in the W'^atergall 



JJrook is something which every young sportsman must 



expect before he can esteem himself " free of the Hunt." 



Even if the meet is nearer home, and Gaydon Inn is the 



fixture, we are still in the Vale and still upon the grass, 



and although the Burton Hills loom unpleasantly near, 



that good covert, Bawcutt's (planted by the late Lord 



Willoughby, and named after a good sportsman and tenant 



farmer of that ilk), is always a sure find, and has provided 



many a good run. Even if Ufton Wood, a jungle as some 



have described it, is a Thursday fixture, do not we have a 



run once in ten years from Ufton Woiod P While there is 



often Itchington Holt, perhaps the most genuine fox covert 



in the Hunt (both these coverts being for the main part 



the property of those good foxhunters — the broth er.s 



Chamberlayne, of Stoney Thorpe and Witherley Hall, 



Atherstone), for an afternt)on draw. Even if occasionally 



Eagley Park, Oversley Wood, or Coughton Court is a 



Thursday fixture, who will wish for tonjours perdria\ 



and who, with any reputation to gain or lose as a thorough 



sportsman at heart, will fail a few times in every season in 



seeing hounds work the large woodlands so carefully looked 



after by Lord Hertford, Sir William Throckmorton, and 



others, and v.hich, after all is said and done, often provide 



as o-ood a run as in the more fashionable district ? The 



woodlands, too, are not what the}' were. Bevington AVaste, 



formerly consisting of 700 acres, has entirely disappeared 



under the stock axe of the woodman, improving the land 



just before the depression set in. Coughton Park has 



always been well rided, and Lord Hertford's woods around 



Ragley are now in the same condition. There is a portion 



of the Evesham Vale not at all to be despised, with little 



Pebworth Covert and Eumer Hill in its centre, and Gaily 



Oak on its outskirts, the former jealously and lovingly 



preserved by Mr. Shekell, who in former days used to be 



a first-class man across country himself. Many a good run 



has been seen in this Vale ; the ditches are wide, and the 



timber is stiff, and the gates are few, so it wants a hunter 



