22 HUNTING AND SPOBTING NOTES. 



momentarily looked as if Leaton was to be his point; 

 but he had better intentions, and hounds settled prettily 

 on the grass for Pimhill. When within a field of it, 

 however, after several nice little fences had been 

 negotiated, he swung short to the right, and crossed 

 the road nearly to Bomere Heath ; then left-handed 

 again as if for Birchy Moor. Hounds were brought to 

 their noses on some foiled ground, and could not carry 

 much head, when he bore to the left still more, and 

 entered Preston Gubbalds. Scent improving in covert, 

 he was soon driven through, pointing for Grinshill ; but, 

 headed on the road, he once more swung back to the 

 Gubbalds. Here they soon forced him or another away 

 in a similar direction, but he declined crossing the 

 London and North-Western Eailway, and ran down 

 nearly to Hadnal Station, describing a circle back again, 

 and just saving his brush in a rabbit hole, close to 

 Albrighton Hall. The whole run had kept us going 

 for an hour and twenty minutes — forty minutes up to 

 Preston Gubbalds — which all wdio cared for the fun 

 could enjoy. Middle Park, in the afternoon, did not 

 provide a fox, though one was believed to be under- 

 ground there. 



Sir Watkin's at Aldersey, wasted the morning after 

 a fox that went to the hills. In the afternoon, from 

 Royalty, they had a screaming twenty minutes with a 

 ringing fox, over a clipping country, and then they 

 rolled him over in the open. 



Saturday opened as balmy as May, such a hunting 

 day as we seldom see in December, and such a throng 

 of eager sportsmen and sportswomen as met Sir Watkin 

 at Whitchurch has not been seen this season. Ash 

 Wood, our first draw, is a favoured spot — plenty of room 

 here for a galloping crowd, and few there were to-day 

 but intended going wherever it willed that hounds 

 should take them. Of course, Ash had foxey tenants, 

 but they were not in a hurry to leave. The best end 

 was left well open to them, but at last one chose the 

 north, and away went the two -hundred in terrific 

 array, pent up at starting by an impossible corner, 

 and a rara avis, a ploughed field. Then came a 

 separation, and the hounds bent to the right, and 

 settled on their fox in earnest, racing into Comber- 

 mere by the lodge, with the majority of the non- 



