INTRODUCTION 



right, and away straight to Alderley Park, where I 

 saw the hounds run into him under the Library 

 Window dead beat ; about an hour, a very good 

 run, and many horses beat. 



" You will recollect a run in Ford's time, March 

 I, 1842, from the 'Cobbler' up to the road at 

 Whitley Reed, turn'd over Crowley Moss, straight 

 to Arley, over the bridge at Arley Green to the 

 Gore, on to Tabley through the old Foxcover at 

 Lower Peover where Maiden came up and they 

 killed him at Goostrey ; only about eight men with 

 the Hounds, the Field having been all thrown out 

 at Whitley Reed." 



These indeed are runs to be remembered ; with- 

 out wishing to set myself up as a praiser of past 

 times, I ask, do we ever hear of such now-a-day ? 

 I ask in sorrow, not reproachfully ; hounds, horses, 

 and huntsmen are probably as good, if not better 

 than they formerly were, but every succeeding year 

 seems to add some new impediment to Fox-hunting. 

 High farming is rapidly converting our fields into 

 gardens. " Look before you leap," is a precaution 

 more requisite than ever since the introduction of 

 wire fencing. 



The increase of population and of dwellings 

 prevents a fox, headed at every corner, from 

 making straight to his point, and last but not 

 least in the list of grievances is the scarcity of 

 wild foxes. 



A burst, such as that mentioned by Mr. Glegg, 

 from Waverton Gorse may still excite us for ten or 

 twenty minutes, but where do we read of such runs 



xlviii 



