176 THE WARWICKSHIRE HUNT. [189<) 



Squire Lucy, as we turned away discousolate from a Idank draw at tlie 

 Kineton Coverts, tliouo-li we had found as usual on tlie liills. " Wlu^u in 

 <lifficulties for a fox, draw Bishop's Corse."' Years ago it responded seventeen 

 times in one season, and has never lost its reputation. 



The foxes here have been well hustled, even till moonlig-ht ; so this tinu' 

 one went away very quickly iip wind to Lighthorne Rough, and through it. 

 and pointing for Bowshot. At the Dog Kennel Coppice, a turn to the left: 

 what a change came over the field iustanter ! They sprang to attention, 

 rallied uji in line, and began to ride as if life was worth living after all ; for. 

 instead of the dark recesses of Walton and the depths of Hell Hole, we were 

 pointing for the grass, and what might be a run over the Vale. How the 

 <log hounds cracked along ! Talk abo\it the bitch pack ! On a scent I belies'c 

 the dogs go faster. As we sped over the Compton pastures, the gallant 

 Oxford undergraduates, who had so pluckily followed our draw so far from 

 Banburv. grew more and more anxious. Beautiful gi-ass indeed, and sound 

 going, and hounds running like distraction ; but a gate — nay, two or three 

 gates — in evei-y field. The omnipresence of gates was too awful for the 

 undergraduate mind. Was it for this they had paid £2 2s. — for this that 

 they had cut their coach and tutor, and dared the displeasure of the dean and 

 i'ensors ? The boundary fence lietween the Chadshuut and Compton Vemey 

 projjerties gave a momentary relief to their hopes, which were only to b(» 

 •dashed to the ground again, as the hounds swej)t on by the bridle road, 

 through Fletcher's Coppice, Hit or Miss Cojipice, to Itchington Holt. Thirty- 

 three minutes, and six miles if an inch, as given out by the old timekeeper of 

 the Hunt, a little out of puff himself. The undergraduates, to our great 

 regret, here retired, amazed and dismayed, not at the frantic jjace. but at the 

 awful quantity of open gates.* 



After a brief interval, the hunt went on over the big grass fields to 

 Chesterton with undiminished pace. At Chesterton Wood the hoimds slipped 

 us at the bottom, probably with a fresh fox, and ran a wide ring nearly to 

 Oakley and Highdowu, and back by Chesterton Windmill, wdth no one with 

 them but Mr. Green, of BramsdowTi, who heard them go by the farm, and 

 jumi)ed on a horse. They got liack to the wood, but could not lay hold of 

 tlieir fox. The scent this day was fair in the morning, l)ad in the middle of 

 the day, when it turned A'ery cold, and first rate in the evening, when the rain 

 <'ame on. A clinking good run, if we could only have caught him. or one. 



From Lord Willougliby de Broke's diary : 



January SOth, JJfton Wood. — Got away from the wood about a quarter to 

 twelve on good terms with the fox, and ran very hard by Stockton, leaving 

 Calcote Spinney just on the left, up to Shuckliurgh Village, where the first 

 check occurred; ran slowly to Calcote, and then to Shucklmrgh Hill and back 

 to Calcote; away from there, and ran a very pretty ring towards Grandborough 

 and back to Sawbridge Covert. Changed foxes there, and ran at the best 

 pace, leaving Shuckburgh on the right, over the Staverton Road and th(» 



* About this date the Hon. R. G. Yerney, M.P., used to bring a large contingent 

 of undergraduates down from New College and Christ Church to hunt with us. When 

 it was time to go back, he used to draw them up iu line, and tell them off from the right 

 to see if they were all there. One day the number was short, and a detachment was 

 .sent back to tiud the absentee, who had been badly " dyked." — W. R. Y. 



