The Cheshire. ix 



hunting. Theirs is a position unrivalled in the world for 

 friends, su2)porters, servants, hounds, and foxes. 



In Cheshire things have been pretty much in staUi quo aa • 

 far as hunting is concerned — here no changes have taken i 

 place. Captain Park Yates and Mr. Eeginald Corbet 

 still divide the county with great satisfaction to all 

 concerned. The latter has had by no means such a brilliant 

 season as last year, even allowing for frequent stoppages* 

 I am unable to glean as much of the doings of 

 North Cheshire as I should wish, but am inclined to 

 think that sport has been of an average character. The 

 great figure-heads of Cheshire history in this century 

 are Sir Thomas Stanley, Sir H. Main waring, and Captain 

 White, anterior to the present divided dynasties, before 

 which Mr. R. Corbet carried on the country as a whole 

 for several seasons. Nimrod, in speaking of Cheshire, 

 most truly describes it when he says: ''On the first 

 two days I hunted with the Cheshire I held the fences 

 in perfect contempt ; so far from seeing anything like 

 a ' stopper,' I met with nothing that a hunter could not 

 have got over on three legs. On the third day, however, . 

 I altered my opinion of them, and was convinced that 

 it requires a hunter to carry a man over Cheshire. I 

 found some strong quick fences with good wide ditches — 

 but this is not all. In the greater part of Cheshire the 

 fence is placed on a very narrow bank, or 'cop,' as it is 

 termed, and strengthened by a very deep ditch. This 

 not only requires a horse to be quick and ready with his 

 legs — as he must spring from the cop when the ditch is 

 from him — but also it requires a horseman to get him 

 over it with safety, when he becomes a little distressed. 

 Temper also in the horse is indispensible here, and 



