The Berwick Day — A good run. 43 



" Fortune favoured tliem, and the fox did go on to- 

 wards Marton — but meanwhile nine -tenths of the field 

 kept after the hounds to the south of the pool, crossing 

 by a bridge over the stream, about half a mile from its 

 mouth. Only one sportsman essayed the stream, which 

 has high banks, and is aljout twenty feet wide, but it is 

 very shallow. It was apparently not so boggy as it was 

 believed to be, and he waded safely through, but he lost 

 in time almost all he gained in the distance. 



' We all effected a junction at the farmhouse at the end 

 of Fennymere pool, and ran pretty fast across to Marton 

 Pool ; then uj) the hill side, leaving Marton Hall on our 

 right, the fox having been viewed but a minute before 

 crossing the road. 



"• We then went up a deep cutting near the railway, 

 about a mile above Baschurch station, and then occurred 

 the longest check in the run. Many, thinking of their far- 

 off homes, and anxious for their jaded steeds (for though 

 the pace was slow, the countrv was very heavy, being both 

 boggy and saturated with wet, after rain) left us here ; 

 but the faithful few were rewarded by soon after hearing 

 a distant and most welcome " Holloa," near Stanwardine. 

 We at once crossed the railway bridge, and found our- 

 selves on the Boreatton estate, a strange place for the 

 Shropshire hounds, for, as all know, it is well in Sir 

 Watkin's country at this point. 



" Excited yokels asseverated that the fox was close in 

 front, in spite of our long check, and we continued, at a 

 good pace, across some grass fields, till we came close to 

 Mr. Hunt's beagle kennels, which we left on our right. 



" Eeynard was here either an exile from his own native 

 land, and consequently imaware how good a refuge he 

 had come upon, or was too done up to run through heavy 

 covert, for the hounds followed him on the outside of the 

 Moss, then across the Baschurch — Ruyton road, and 

 while they Y\^ere going full cry to the Perry, all sensible 

 riders crossed the stream by the Millford Mill bridge. 

 What followed was by far the prettiest part of the run. 

 We all kept on the high ground on the south bank, while 

 the hounds went a fine pace close along the left bank, till 

 they crossed to our side, about a quarter of a mile above 

 the little rickety hunting bridge, put up by some sporting 

 landowner in days gone by. 



" We then followed the hounds to within a few hundred 



