Old iStories re-told. 33 



at any risk, tha' we would go to Leaton Knolls on Friday, 

 but, alas, such a frost as came on Thursday night drove 

 even tliis last bit of pluck out of us. 



All will regret to bear that Thatcher's wife is very ill, 

 and tliis prevented his coming out on Wednesday ; per- 

 haps, too, it had much to do with the non-appearance of 

 the hounds on Friday, at Battlefield. 



Here is a leaf out of old records, to wliile away this 

 interregnum of frost that 1885 lias brought us. 



On the first of August, 1824, it is recorded that a meet- 

 ing was held to establish a pack of hounds in the central 

 part of Shropshire, '■ which had long been thought 

 desirable as an inducement to country gentlemen to reside 

 among their tenantry, and to expend their incomes at 

 home." A subscription was therefore got up privately, 

 and the Shrewsbury tradesmen were called upon to aid it. 

 It was the hope of the committee on that occasion that a 

 county kennel should be established on Kingsland, and 

 the outcome of this plucky endeavour was crowned with 

 the gre.ttest success, as Sir Bellingham Graham was 

 induced to leave Leicestershire, where he was a leading 

 spirit, and take the Shropshire county. He rented Mr. 

 Loxdale's house, upon Kingsland. 



IVimrod graphically describes his visit to Shropshire 

 and Sir Bellingham in particular, " I found him, " he says, 

 " not in the most comfortable situation I ever found him 

 in. He was sitttng half asleep by his fireside, having, for 

 the first time in his life, entirely lost his hounds, and 

 missed one of the finest runs they had. had foi' a long time. 

 The fact was they had slipped away down wind at a ripping 

 pace, and taking a severe country, all against the collar, 

 his chance of catching them was at an end, so he came 

 home." The next day was the dinner of " The Shropshire 

 Huiit, " at the Lion Hotel, with Sir Rowland Hill as the 

 president, and a sumptuous affair it was, the evening being 

 spent in the usual convivial style of that day. Their first 

 day's hunting was at the Fox, on the Ellesmere Road. 

 A frost that made the fallows a little hard, but they had 

 a sharp burst of twenty five minutes, and lost by an 

 untoward check. Nimrod was much struck with the 

 workmanship of a youth of fourteen, the son of a. 

 Shropshire yeoman, the nephew of a Mr. Stejjhen Matthews, 

 himself a capital performer, "and I vt-ntured to tell him 

 his nephew will make a first rate performer. " After 



