36 THE WARWICKSHIRE HUNT. [1879 



September 29th, Cougliton Parli. — Drew Couo-htou Park, Billiiigboroiigli, 

 Hanging Well, Aspens Husli, Three Oak Hill, all l)lauk. Game and game- 

 keepers liaA'e denuded this part of the country of foxes. Foimd one in 

 Weethley Wood, ran to Thornhill and round it for forty-five minutes without 

 a check, and killed. 



All the yoimg ones enter well ; Charity the best. Relish and Duchess 

 pleased me much. Artifice* enters well, and will make a good dog. G-uardian 

 and Alfred are good dogs. Wonderful is a good dog on a cold scent. 



Cubhunting on tweuty-six days. Killed twenty-four foxes and ran six to 

 gi'ound. The country seems fairly well off for foxes, except about Ragley, 

 Red Hill, and Idlicote. The harvest was one of the worst ever remembered,, 

 and was not finished liy November 1st, several fields of beans being uncai'ried 

 on that day and some uncut. 



Novemher 6th, Lower ShucJcburgh. — Good show of foxes at the hill, but as 

 I was not allowed to go cubhunting there, could not get one to leave. Found 

 at Ladbroke, and ran at a good hunting pace towards Wormleig-hton, but 

 turned back when about half-way there, as if we were going back again, 

 tm-ned to the right again, and stopped the hounds 2)ointiug for Aston-le- 

 AValls, as it was too dark to jump a fence. A good hunting run of one hour. 



Mr. Yyner, in " Notitia Yenatica," relates that lie was 

 out with Sir Thomas Mostyn's hounds at Shuckburgh 

 when Helidon Gorse was, as Tom Wingfield, the huntsman, 

 fancied, drawn blank, but two couples of hounds slipped 

 away at the bottom, and after a most brilliant thing, all 

 by themselves, killed their fox near Dunchurch, wdiere 

 they were seen by a farmer, who was up at the death, 

 and secured the hounds, ^^'ho followed him with the dead 

 fox in his hand to his stable. No doubt if they had 

 broken the fox up themselves they would have soon 

 made their way across the country to try and join their 

 less fortunate comrades. Daniel, in " Rural Sports," also 

 mentions the circumstance of a pack dividing into three 

 bodies at finding, and each lot getting well away, all 

 succeeded in killing their fox, after a chase of great 

 severity. 



On November lOtli, when the hounds met at Walton, 

 they ran from Walton Wood across the brook. Doctor 

 Bullock, of Warwick, at once rode his chesnut horse 

 gallantly at the water, and he jumped as far as he could 

 into it, which ■^^'as all that could be done. 



* Artifice was another dog that everyone knew. Black and white. The hero of 

 tlie Poolfield Osiers run in 1881..— W. E. V. 



