1812-1814] LORD MIDDLETON. 45 



So shifting ground, he doubled sly, 

 And ci-ept into some furze hard by ; 

 Where, trembling for his life, he lay 

 Until the field had gone away. 



The moment he had doubled back, 

 Under the noses of the pack, 

 Another fox, to our dismay. 

 Was loudly tally-ho'd away ; 

 Being divided, baulk'd, and cross'd, 

 The hunted fox, alas ! was lost !* 



The Warwickshire Hounds at this period hunted very 

 late in the season in the woodhmds. The List meet of the 

 season, in 1813, was on April 14 at Birchley Hayes, and 

 the last meet of the season of IS 14 was at Long Meadow 

 Wood on April 29th. 



The Hunt Ball was held on alternate years at Warwick 

 and Stratford-on-Avon. On January .2()th, 1814, the 

 Hunt Ball was held at the Court House in Warwick. The 

 Hoor of the room had been decorated in coloured chalk. 

 On the left w^as represented a full length figure of (luy 

 Earl of Warwick, and on the right, in the uniform of the 

 AVarwickshire Hunt, a gentleman taking a flying leaj) over 

 a barred fence. 



On December /th, 181:3, i\\Q Hunt Ball was held at 

 Stratford. One of the decorations was the appropriate one, 

 " The Flight of Buonaparte across the Rhine." 



The winter of 1813 and 1814 was very severe, and 

 there was no hunting from the .24th of December until the 

 12th of February, and on March 1(5 th Lord Middleton's 

 hounds met at Alscot, the seat of J. M. West, Esq. His 

 lordship on the evening before had given a splendid ball 

 and supper. "Actseon, Junior" thus describes the run: We 

 found in a small gorse cover, called Gaily Oak, a downright 

 good little fox, which instantly broke away in view ; the 

 pack followed close at his brush, and dashed him along the 

 meadows by Preston Bushes, the village of Admington, to 



* This was a most capital run, and the disappointment at the conclusion was more 

 tlian compensated by the diversion it previously afforded. j 



