Zbc 'Mwns of Mi^nnsta^ 353 



some rare ones, for I read of one that gave them a sixty- 

 mile run on the 30th of November 1792. It was, how- 

 ever, to Sir Richard Puleston that what is now the 

 Wynnstay country was mainly indebted for its sport 

 during the last decade of the eighteenth and the first 

 quarter of the nineteenth century. He begun hunting in 

 1786, and kept up his establishment for forty years. The 

 Rev. Sir Theophilus Henry Gresley Puleston, in his 

 interesting ' History of Fox-hunting in the Wynnstay 

 Country,' gives the following remarkable incident which 

 occurred during this period : — 



' During the time Sir Richard hunted the Shropshire 

 side of the country, a notable affair in the hunting world 

 occurred. The Woore, belonging to Mr Wickstead of 

 Betley ; the Shropshire, under the management of Sir 

 Edward Smythe, Mr E. M. Smythe, and Mr William 

 Lloyd of Aston ; and the Cheshire, under Sir Harry 

 Mainwaring, sent seven couples of hounds each to a 

 meet at Shavington, then the seat of Earl Kilmorey, on 

 the 7th April 1829. It was a trial of speed between the 

 three packs. Will Head of the Cheshire, as the senior 

 pack, was appointed huntsman, while Will Staples of 

 the Shropshire and Wells of the Staffordshire were in 

 attendance. It was a brilliant sight, for not less than 

 two thousand horsemen made their appearance, of whom 

 seven hundred were in scarlet ; and there were carriages 

 full of ladies without number. At eleven o'clock the 

 hounds were thrown into the great wood at Shavington, 

 found a fox immediately, had a fast ringing run for 

 thirty minutes, and lost him. They had a scurry with 

 another, which they killed in Lord Combermere's Park. 

 Then came the run of the day. Finding a fox in the 

 Sedges by the side of the lake, they went away at a 



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