20 HUNTING AND SPORTING NOTES 



and right well he performed as huntsman, carefully and 

 yet quickly holding them on the line, and keeping us 

 going at a slower pace over the main road to Wellington^ 

 and down into the last dip before the foot of the Wrekin 

 is reached. There stood its great wooded side, dark and 

 uninviting, within a few fields of us, and how our hearts 

 sank to think that probably our fox must gain its safety. 

 Aston was passed on the right, and the bitches seemed 

 to take heart. In the next field there was a view holloa 

 What a galvanic shock did that rustic's holloa give us I 

 Up went he bitches' bristles, and we found that the 

 jumping-powder was not all out of us. Ah, he had turned 

 his head from home for the last time. All that could 

 happen now was a scurry and a worry, and this gallant 

 Wrekin fox was numbered with the slain, close to Burcot. 

 The best watch told us that the run had lasted one hour 

 and thirteen minutes, an eight-mile point aoS the crow 

 flies, and quite ten as we ran it. Scarce a score of our 

 big field were there to fhare the triumph, and Thatcher 

 just saved his bacoa by getting up in the last two fields. 

 Two ladies, to their honour be it said, were there too. 

 Sportswomen such as they are scarce in any county, and 

 Shropshire has need to be proud of them. " Good w^ine 

 needs no bush," or we could sing far longer and nobler 

 paeans to the glory of this great Haughmond Abbey day, 

 not forgetting to thank Mr. Corbet for preserving the true 

 animal in Holly Coppice. 



SIXTH WEEK— December 1 to 6. 



I see that the Hackney Society have started a pro- 

 posal to have a show for hunter sires in March in 

 London, when big prizes will be offered. If this system 

 were extended to many horse-breeding counties, it 

 would be of undoubted benefit. Shropshire should imi- 

 tate the example of Suffolk, where, at the end of March, 

 there is an established show for Sires in the county — 

 thoroughbreds, roadsters, coachers, and cart-horses. It 

 has proved a great success, and is entirely self-supporting. 

 Here would be another useful purpose for our old race 



