22 THE WARWICKSHIRE HUNT. [I87s 



Here's a health to Sir George,* who has found us the cover ! 



Here's a health to the farmers, whose land we rode over ! 



Here's a health to " the customers,'' every one ! 



And to all the fair ladies who rode through the run ! 



Come close up, my si)ortsmen, a bumj^er toast fill, 



Here's the Warwickshire Hoiinds, and old Shuckburgh Hill! 



Reg. Wyvebne. 



Stretton-ou-Diuismoor, Rugby. 

 March 5th, 1893. 

 Deae Mr. Verney, 



I read your verses in Baih/s Magazine with great pleasiu-e, 

 and tliink tlieni excellent, they have sucli a thoroughly sporting ring about 

 them. I need hardly add that I feel personally flattered as an " outsider " 

 by being mentioned tlierein, but are you correct as to the date ? 



I have kept a diary of every day's bunting I have had for very many years, 

 and on reference to it for the year 1878, it seems to me that tlie run you write 

 of from Shuckburgli Hill took place on January 24th ! After referring to the 

 earlier gallop from Calcott, my diary (tlu; following written in red ink) reads 

 as follows : 



" The hills were next tried, and a good fox they lield us, wlio, after dwelling 

 in the covert sufficiently long to stretch his legs, broke at the far end, taking 

 us down the steep grass hill and through the gorse below ; then on over the 

 Staverton Road, and nearly to Staverton (oi'er the brook), Ijefore reaching 

 that wood, however, he 1)ore to the left, and ran within tliree-quarters of a mile 

 of Braimston Gorse: but deigning to enter no covert, he kept his nose straight, 

 crossing the Daventry and Dunchurch Road as if for Welton (just l^eyond 

 this road I viewed him), and so on near to Norton, and up to the Daventry 

 Resei'voir, when the deserving pack lost the game they richly merited. 

 Never mind ! A good fox saved for another day. Time, a little imder 

 an hour. A grand run from find to finish." 



We had yesterday from Braunston as fast a twenty minutes as I ever 

 witnessed — too fast for me. A man to live with hounds througliout it, 

 Avanted to be mounted on a horse fit to run for the National. I tliink the 

 present season is, notwithstanding the frost, one of the best I can recall, and 

 although I believe you were less fortunate before the frost than the Ather- 

 stone and North Warwickshire, what extraordinary sj^ort Lord Willoughl)y 

 lias been showing almost daily since ! 



It is a long time to hark back to 1878, but I am sure your stirring 

 lines have made the interval seem less. 



Believe me. 



Yours truly, 



Frank L. W. Wedge. 



* The late Sir George Shuckburgli, Bart., who, though he did not hunt much him- 

 self, owing to a wound received in the Crimea, like his father, Sir Fi-ancis, always found 

 us a good supply of foxes in his coverts. 



