Sound Heath ivith the South Cheshire. 81 



compare with tlie Yorksliiremen in their fondness for the 

 sport, and their generous way of making others partici- 

 pate in their pleasures ? Of all the huntsmen that ever I 

 followed, give me Tom Smith, of Bramham Moor. Oh, 

 that Sir Watkin should ever have lost him ! Could he be 

 won back ? This deponent sayeth not, but Smith loves 

 to talk of the old country, and there may be a lingering 

 in his heart for few^er ploughs and drains, and a bit more 

 grass. It is treason to write this in Yorkshire, and I will 

 say no more. 



On Monday, I hear, the Shropshire, at Hodnet, only 

 found one fox, that gave them but a short run, and all tha 

 Wythiford country was blank. This does not sound well. 



On Tuesday, at Socket Grate, Sir Watkin found three 

 foxes in Petton Coverts, but the scent was bad, and they 

 were lost in a few fields. They did not find again till 

 four o'clock in the afternoon, when they finished the day 

 badly by losing three biace of hounds on the Cambrian 

 Eailway. Groodall, I hear, leaves Sir Watkin at the end 

 of the season. 



Tuesday, February 24th, South Cheshire at Sound 

 Heath. There was a goodish muster. I regret to have 

 to record the death of Captain Townshend, of Wincham 

 Hall, Cheshire, who died the previous evening, from the 

 injuries he sustained a few days ago, caused by his horse 

 falling over an invisible wire in a fence in the North 

 Cheshire country. 



Bromhall coveit was the first draw; a fox soon 

 went away, and after a short ringing run was lost. 

 The Stick Covert held number two, who broke away 

 on the far side and ran down to the river Weaver, where 

 the hounds checked, but only for a moment or two, as 

 they soon hit off the line to the left, and raced away with 

 their fox straight into Dorfold Park, where either our 

 hunted fox, or a fresh one, was killed in a small covert at 

 the side of the Park on the canal bank. If it was a fresh 

 fox, he was an uncommon idle one, for although he had 

 every chance to break covert, he obstinately declined. A 

 long trot took us to " Devil's Nest," a small covert 

 within a stone's-throw of Broomhall, but the Nest and 

 two other small coverts close by were untenanted. Hall- 

 a-coo supplied number three, who broke away as if 

 pointing for Broomhall, but having run about four fields 

 in that direction, he turned to the left, crossing the brook 



