1823] THE BODICOTE BEOOK. 69 



of country tliat the pace, though fast, could not have been 

 sustained throughout it. The distance measured straight 

 by the Ordnance map is thirteen miles, and hounds could 

 not have run less than nineteen miles. Mr. Shirley, Lord 

 (xeorge Forester, Mr. Fellowes, Mr. John Lucy, Mr. 

 Cockbill, Jack Wood, Zac Groddard, and the second wliij) 

 were up at the end. Mr. Cockbill alone cleared the 

 Bodicote Brook, clearing, according to Tag's account, 

 twenty-seven feet of water which was bank high. Lord 

 Forester got over with a fall, but Mr. John Lucy's horse 

 fell into the middle of it, and, throwing his rider upon the 

 opposite side, swam back to the wrong bank, and the rider 

 was compelled to return through the water to secure his 

 horse, and this on a very cold day. 



On December 16th, 18. 2 3,* there is a short account of 

 a run with a good fox from Edge Hill across the Vale 

 to Farnborough, and nearly to Fenny Compton, where 

 he turned to the left and ran through Itchington Heath, 

 and between Ligrhthorne and Chesterton Wood to Moreton 

 Morrell, and thence to Walton, where he got to ground. 

 The run lasted an hour and fifty minutes, and the pace over 

 a splendid country was very severe. 



It is curious that amongst the few good runs in Mr. 

 Shirley's time of which we have any information, another 

 took place during the following week from Edge Hill, 

 on December .:2.'2nd, 1828. "Hark Forward" relates that 

 a fox was found close to the Bound House, and made for 

 the earths at Warmington, but, finding them stopped, he 

 ran on to Shutford, and nearly to Bloxham ; thence to the 

 left near the tow^n of Banbury, and on to Middleton Cheney, 

 where he was killed after a run of two hours and foi-ty 

 minutes, over not less tlian seventeen miles of country. 

 Jack Wood was with his hounds throughout, and the 

 Master, Mr. Napier, Mr. John Lockley, Mr. Cockbill, and 

 Mr. Bush, and some others from Lord Seagrave's Hunt, 



* Daring the season of 182.3 Mr. Shirley lost twelve couples of valuable hounds 

 during one night from eating flesh and broth which had been allowed to stand in a 

 boiler which was made of copper. 



