60 THE WAEWICKSHIEE HUNT. [I88I 



Eales, but what he says is always to the point, and no one 

 in England knows more of the rearing and preservation of 

 game and the habits of foxes. We have already mentioned 

 his brother, the late Thomas Creed, who was succeeded at 

 Wroxton by Wm. Barber, and then by Wm. Rooker, 

 who is a very keen fellow, and a good fox-man. Wm. 

 Butler, at Walton, always had heaps of foxes, till the 

 mange decimated the coverts. His brother looks after 

 Watergall, Ladbroke, and the Welsh Eoad Grorse, and 

 does it well. Their father, old Butler, of Pillerton, is a 

 capital man for a fox, and though the coverts on the Rev. 

 Henry Mills' property are small, they are generally a sure 

 find. He is another old character, and it is most amusing 

 to go out shooting with Mr. Frank Mills and him, for when 

 Mr. Mills wants a covert beaten one way, Butler wants it 

 beaten the other, and vice versa. Old Smith, the keeper 

 at Birdingbury, is one of the best. He looks after Debdale, 

 and everyone knows how keen he is that we should always 

 find a wild fox there. One day he was out shooting with 

 the tenant, and he disappeared for two hours. Wlien 

 asked where in the world he had been, he said, with great 

 surprise: "Why, didn't you hear the hounds?" He 

 could not understand anyone going on shooting when 

 hounds were about. Though he came much later on, 

 there is a first-class keeper, James Bearman, at Shuck- 

 burgh. He is not afraid to show liimseK at the meet at 

 Lower Shuckburgh, for he knows that he has always done 

 his best that a good fox should be found in the Hill, or at 

 Caldecott Spinney. Mr. Freeman Mitford's and Sir Pery 

 Pole's keepers, at Wolford and Todenham, are good 

 preservers ; and though the mange is a dire disease that no 

 one can contend against, there are no better, stauncher 

 keepers for fox-hunting in any other county in England 

 than those in Warwickshirt;. 



At a meeting of subscribers to the Warwickshire 

 hounds and owners of coverts (adjourned from January 

 19th on account of the deep snow), and held on January 

 29th, 1881, Lord Willoughby de Broke informed the 



