1888 WIGGINaTON HEATH. 16S 



November dtli, Sicdlcliffe Park. — Found at Wig^'iiigtou Hcatli, o-ot away 

 close to the fox, van liini down to SwaleliitV House, aeross tlie road, and aloiiij- 

 Hell Bottom and by Swaleliife Comiuon, over tlie Banbury Road, and nearly 

 down to the new railway, and a wide ring baek ])y Garrett's Bushes, Wig-o-in<^-- 

 ton Heath, and Swalclitt'e House; on across Hell Bottom, towards Traitor's 

 Ford, but turned to the right, the pace increasing all the time, and ran liard 

 to Hook Norton Station, over the railway, and up to Swerford Park. By this 

 time there was only one man and the master witli the pack, and they got 

 pounded by the park wall, and lost the hounds for nearly an hour. When 

 they found them they were in a small spinney near Swerford House, all over 

 blood, as if they liad killed the fox. Heard on next Monday that they did 

 run into this fox at a ].)lace called Duck Pool Fai-m, and a man brought the 

 head and In-ush to Broughton Castle, so we counted him. 



We have been informed by Colonel Norris that the 

 large gorse next the Banbury Road has been always 

 wrongly called Wiggington Heath ; the covert is in 

 Tadraarton parish, and its proper name is " Tadmarton 

 Heath." By calling it otherwise history is robbed of a 

 fact, for the very soil was thrown up there as a fortified 

 camp in the ninth century, when the Danes were on the 

 march to sack Hook Norton, and as Tadmarton Camp it 

 appears in history, and ought to remain such. " Wig- 

 gington Heath" is where the sandpits are, and where 

 the famous little covert is which is called by that name. 



As regards the boundary of the Hunt in this part of 

 the country, the line by Nill Farm, Hotley Hill, and Eoll- 

 wright one way, and back by Milcombe and Bloxham 

 the other, is what we now use, and thus the road is crossed 

 in j)laces, notwithstanding that the road was the old 

 boundary under " Walker's Hunting Atlas " conditions. 



November 12t]i. Gaydon Inn. — Found at Bawcutt's Covert ; ran very well 

 towards Kineton, leaving Gaydon on the right, turned to the right, and 

 crossed the Kineton and Southam Road between Kineton and Gaydon, and 

 went through Chadshunt Coppice ; turned to the left on Chadshunt Hill, 

 recrossed the road, and ran as if for Kineton Holt, turned short back through 

 Kineton Village by Frozen Close, across the Lodge Farm, and killed on the 

 lawn at Compton, after a good forty-seven minutt>s. Not much sport 

 afterwards. 



This day was as hot as summer, and after the hounds 

 had killed their fox at Compton Verney, Mr. Cassel gave 

 unlimited champagne to the field, and a good deal of the 

 finest vintage was consumed during half an hour. 



November WtJi, Broughton Castle. — Found at Bloxham Gorse, killed a fox 



M 2 



