26 HUNTING AND SPORTING NOTES. 



and then to the Lower Heath and was lost — not an 

 exciting day. 



Tuesday. By way of changing the venue, Borderer 

 found himself in South Herefordshire, at Abbeydore 

 Court. Captain Freke Lewis hunts his own hounds, 

 while his partner Mr. Harold Helme, keeps watch over 

 the field. A wolfish-looking fox was at once found in 

 Gilbert's Hill that defied the pack from morn till night. 

 Your readers would be little the wiser at hearing the 

 country we traversed. It will sufiice, therefore, to say that 

 "Newbarns and Whitfield were visited, then Gilbert's Hill 

 again, and out towards Whitfield ; then over the Here- 

 ford and Abergavenny KailwdV, nearly to Kenchurch, 

 back to Pontrilas, and then, treading every dingle and 

 difficulty he could discver, brought us at 4-30 p.m., to 

 St. Devereux Station, where, in a spinney, we had to leave 

 him quitr! beaten — a tiring day for all. The houuds 

 hunted steadily and perseveringly throughout, and the 

 master showed a patient knowledge of his work that will 

 ensure him sport before the season is much older. 



On Wednesday, the Shropshire met at Wroxeter Ruins. 

 On the same day, the Roman Hounds threw off among the 

 ruins on the Campagna ! Perhaps here the similarity 

 ends, for the latter had no Attingham to draw, and no 

 worthy like Lord Berwick to find them a good fox in his 

 laurels. Those who went to enjoy a gallop round the 

 Park, after the cub-hunting fashion of their last day, were 

 quickly out of their reckoning, for to-day the scene was 

 changed, and that speedily, for quitting the Park, our 

 fox put his head straight for the Wrekin, and, for the 

 second time this season, this fine bit of country was en- 

 joyed. The pace was not first-rate, yet Thatcher mauaged 

 to hunt him prettily, not only up to the wood, but right 

 over its top, to ground on the other side, which i^art of 

 the performance few cared to see, since climbing hills is 

 not a strong point in a modern Shropshire field's tactics. 



Friday, with the Shropshire, at High Ercall, is always 

 a big gathering — the country good, and the meet 

 popular. A nice hunting day, too, but the one desidera- 

 tum was wanting — a fox. The Marie, Eowton, and 

 Forester's plantation, all blank. At last, at Rodington, 

 they found one. The hounds got away at his brush, and 

 raced him so hard to the Marie, that all the steam was out 

 of him, and he preferred to die there rather than face the 



