VISITS TO OTHER COUNTRIES. 201 



CbiiU. 



'■ Or rudely visit them in parts remote, 

 To fright them ere destroy.'* 



Coriolanits, net iv, scene 5. 



For tlie last few years tlie R. R.B. have fraternized with the Llangollen 

 Beagles (now changed to harriers, hunted on foot), and the late Mr. Griffiths, 

 of the Hand Hotel, Chirk, secured permission from Colonel Biddulph, the 

 owner of Cliirk Castle, for our hounds to have two or three days' hunting 

 each season, in the neighbourhood. The Llangollen Harriers hunt the 

 country, but the authorities of this Hunt welcome us among them, and many 

 of their members join us at our meets, and they also give us a day in between 

 with their hounds. 



Generally, about ten or a dozen members of the R.R.B. '• put up " at 

 the comfortable Hand Hotel, for this pleasurable trip for a few days' sport, 

 and they have a "jolly time" of it. 



'J'he first time we went to Chirk, in 1889, we threw off in the meadows 

 near the station, where there are so many hares that the ground is used for 

 coursing meetings. It was really laughable to witness the commotion that 

 ensued immediately on putting up the first hare. So soon as the hounds 

 broke out into melody, hares sprang up in all directions, the pack divided, 

 and soon there were three times as many hares on foot at once as we had 

 hounds. Not a hare left the field, but ran to and fro, chased by, and some- 

 times chasing, the hounds, till, amid the laughter of the field, the whips got 

 frantic ; W. E. Hall, especially, getting so excited that he addressed the hares 

 by name, as hounds, rating them soundly for their conduct. At length, after 

 a great deal of trouble and shouting, the hounds were collected on to the 

 road, and peace once more settled down upon the mead. 



Since this episode we have never ventured to draw this same ground 

 again, but have gone some three miles off higher up on the hills, where the 

 hares are not so numerous. We have always had good sport, but nothing 

 memorable in the way of long runs, Li 1892 we were unfortunate in the 

 weather, a heavy fall of snow interfering with hunting, We only had one 

 poor day's hunting, sport being impracticable on the other two days, and we 

 had to return home disappointed. A gallant attempt was made on the 

 middle day by the Llangollen Beagles to give us a day's sport on the hills 

 above Glyndyfrdwy, but we only gained an experience of a true American 

 blizzard on the top of the mountain. Fortunately it only continued for 

 about twenty minutes, or possibly we should all have succumbed. It was 

 difficult to breathe in the icy blast, and we could to some extent realize 

 what we have read in accounts of blizzards in America — how strong men 

 have fallen and died in going one hundred yards from their own doors. 



