■332 THE WARWICKSHIEE HUNT. [i87i 



of a double fence wlieii tliey stopped and killed what Orvis uo doubt tlioiioht 

 was tlie fox, cm account of the pace at which they had been running, and 

 although he could not see what it r(^ally was on account of the thickness of 

 the grass in tlie fence, he holloaed '" Wlio-wlioop ! " It turned out to be a hare, 

 Avhich the pack broke up in no time, and ran on with the fox as hard as ever. 

 They left Boddington Gorse on the right, and ran round the left bank of 

 Boddington Reservoir, and from thence l)y Astou-le-Wall to Warden Hill 

 Gorse ; but they did not dwell for a moment in the covert, as they ran along 

 the top ride, and next over the Welsh Road, and to the left of Chipping 

 Warden, to Edgcott Park. Here we viewed the fox, and the hounds raced 

 him up to the garden wall ; he just managed to scramble up it, but we thought 

 for a moment that he would fall back into the mouths of the pack ; they made 

 great efforts to get to the top of the wall, but coidd not ipiite reach it. The 

 gate was locked, and there was some delay before it was opened. I heard 

 afterwards that the Bicester hounds had not been allowed to liunt in the 

 laurel gai'den inside the wall imtil the hares had l)een shot, and as 

 tliere were a large number of these, the hounds soon began to kill 

 them, until the gravel walks were running with blood. Orvis did his 

 best to get them on to the hunted fox, but as there was a fresh fox in 

 the laurels this could not he done. After we had been at Edgcott for twenty 

 minutes. Mr. S])eiicer Lucy, who had nearly caught the hounds in Warden 

 Hill, came up, but no one else did. This was the run of the season, and one 

 of the best of many seasons. Tlie distance from point to point is eight miles, 

 and in the direction taken hounds ran quite thirteen miles in an hour and ten 

 minutes, entirely over grass. (See Map, run printed in blue ink.) 



Mr. Spragget was a welter w^eight and a very hard 

 rider ; lie rode a well-known bay mare, on which he always 

 hunted. I rode Sir Arthur, a black horse with two white 

 stockings, which was bred by a well-known hunting parson 

 in Shropshire, and I saw him ridden for one season in 

 Leicestershire, and bought him at Tattersalhs for :2oO 

 guineas, after which he carried me for nine seasons. 

 During his seventh season he was staked in the Ladbroke 

 country, the stake having penetrated eleven inches. He 

 was carried home in a cattle dray, the wound was sewn uj) 

 by Mr. Stanley, of Leamington, and he recovered perfectly. 



Lord AVilloughby went very w^ell during the early part 

 of this run, as long as the hounds were running straight, 

 on a horse which he had lately bought from Mr. Darby, 

 but wdien he had to turn the horse he bolted with him, or 

 he would, no doubt, have seen the rest. 



From Sir C. Mordaunt's diary : 



Wlien fishing the Lochy river in the spring, my ghillie, Diuican, told me 

 that my landlord had sometimes given John Bright a day's salmon fisliing, 



