THE COUNTRY. 131 



TLbc ITopoiivapbv? ot Mtvial. 



■' Over hill, over dale, 



Thorough bush, thorough brier, 

 Over park, over pale, 



Thorough tlood, thorough fire, 

 I do wander everywhere." 



Midsummer Ni^/it's Dream, act it, scene i. 



This tract of country is called in Domesday Book, Wilaveston, derived 

 from A\'illaston or Worleston. The Saxons called the district Wirhall, and in 

 a document ot the time of Henry VIII, it is mentioned as Winchall ; nearly 

 the same as in a deed of conveyance by the Commissioners of Woods and 

 Forests, dated Sth April, 1820, where it is called the Hundred of Wcrehall. 



There has been very little change in the natural features of Wirral during 

 the last fifty years, and very itw new roads have been opened during that 

 period, the principal one being from Hooton Green to Queensferry. The 

 fences and fields have been kept in much the same condition ; so that, in 

 reading the record of one of the earliest runs, we find the same terms as 

 would be used in describing the same run at the present day. The most 

 notable difference is the " running into cover," which is so prominent in the 

 early records. The fences of Wirral have always been high and strong, and 

 the country has long been known as a very difficult one for horsemen. 



In 1 84 5 numerous fox covers were dotted about the Hundred of 

 ^Virral, in which foxes were carefully preserved by the various landowners 

 for the Hooton Foxhounds, hunted by Sir W. M. Stanley, of Hooton Hall, 

 These hounds were given up in 1848, and since then many of these covers 

 have been cleared av,-ay, for a variety of reasons ; agricultural and residential 

 purposes accounting for most of them. Others still remain, occasionally 

 holding a fox, and giving a chance for a run to the Wirral Harriers. In 

 recent years beaglers have viewed a fox away from Copley Wood, Gayton 

 Gorse, Bromborough Woods, Hall Wood, Badger's Rake, Capenhurst Covers, 

 and Stanney Wood. It may be confidently afifirmed that our country has 

 now less timber than when the R.R.Fj. commenced their career, and thus we 

 now experience fewer occasions when hounds have to be whipped off their 

 hare for running into cover ; but on the other hand the country is a great 

 deal more cut up by ploughed land than it used to be. In 1844 the Royal 

 Agricultural Society published Palin's Report of the State of Agriculture 

 in Cheshire^ in which he says : — 



The Hundred of Wirral may be said to be a dairy district, where the 

 farmer's chief attention is paid to his grass land ; the small quantity of land 

 which he is allowed by his tenure to plough or break up, varying in extent from 

 one-third to one fifth of his whole farm. 



On the whole, we have ample reason to be well satisfied with Wirral as 

 a hunting country ; and the Royal Rock beaglers, all of whom are engaged 

 s 3 



