HUNTING AND SPORTING NOTES 



IN 



SHEOPSHIRE AND CHESHIEE. 



^' FIEST WEEK:— October 27 to Novembee 1. 



In Shropshire there is no reed that I should 

 plead excuses for treating your readers each week to a few 

 practical commentaries on such a sporting theme as 

 this. A chronicle that deals with the leading sports is 

 certain to win smiles all round the Wrekin ; and, if it 

 fails to claim your approval, or even indulgence, the fault 

 will lie with the author rather than his subject. 



The thread of discourse, as it breaks upon us this week, 

 is taken up at a most opportune moment. The flickering 

 embers of a racing season are giving way to the bright 

 scarlet flash of an opening hunting season, and sports- 

 men who have a horse and a hound are buckling on their 

 armour for the chase. A few words on the departing 

 racing season, and I will leave it only to touch hereafter 

 on its local aspect, as week by week it may crop up at 

 Shrewsbury, or elsewhere within the radius of your ken. 

 The season of 1884 will be notorious for its Derby dead 

 heat ; its ephemeral plunger — Sir John Willoughby ; its 

 loss of Lord Falmouth, and his great sale ; its hard ground; 

 and the unbounded success of an ex-tout, jockey's valet, 

 and clever owner and backer of horses — Mr. John 

 Hammond — who, yesterday a wayfarer, has to-day 

 "become fortune's favourite — the owner of two such great 



