66 HUNTING AND SPOBTING NOTES. 



command I would find a remedy for this by some 

 means. 



The Shropshire began their Monday badly ; no fox in 

 Wyrley Eough or Losford, with its swollen brook. 

 Twemlows at first only produced a brute that ran on 

 to Frees Heath and lay down, prepared to die there. 

 A fine grey old fellow had been awakened by this little 

 commotion, and on the hounds returning, he was off with 

 a good start Ightfield way. Those first two or three yawning 

 boggy ditches and strong fences gave hounds a lead, and the 

 goodly contingent from Sir Watkin's Whitchurch side, as 

 well as the Shropshire thrusters, vied with each other to 

 catch them, as they steered straight for Ightfield church. 

 Heads up and sterns down, there was no mistake about 

 the pace now. Swerving to the right under Ightfield, 

 they crossed the road, and sped on for Cloverley Gorse. 

 Here his intentions seem curiously to have altered, 

 as if he had not yet shown sufficiently the beauties of 

 his district from a hunting point of view, so he swung 

 to the left, right up the Ash pastures of notable fame. 

 Horses had to be caught hold of tight by the head, for 

 the fences could not be chanced, and twenty-five 

 minutes of racing had been the task set them, when 

 hounds checked, and the pace slackened, as he left 

 Ashwood to his right, and Colonel Elvers Bulkeley's 

 favourite little clump of a covert hove in sight. Another 

 check here, and then once more the chase was continued 

 by Broughali to London and North Western Eailway at 

 the Brick Kiln crossing, where Thatcher's powers were 

 out-witted, and this grand fox made good his escape in 

 Sir Watkin's country, after a ran of an hour and twenty 

 minutes, or thereabouts. All accounts agree that no 

 huntsman could have ridden better to his hounds, or 

 handled them better than Thatcher did, and I am pleased 

 to hear this from disinterested persons, who seldom have 

 the means of giving an opinion. It will be invidious to 

 mention those who distinguished themselves, but when I 

 say that among those present there was a Bulkeley, a 

 Gore, a Jones, more than one Hill, a junior Lonsdale, 

 and a young lady from Hinton way, I need not 

 particularise further. 



I am indebted to a friend for a capital account of the 

 South Cheshire day on Tuesday. 



" Tuesday, February the 3rd, at Wilkesley. There was a 



