TJic AlbrigJiton. xi 



plentiful (as indeed they are everywhere this season), but not 

 particularly straight-necked — the best gallops have been 

 rings. The South Country has come out well, especially 

 Pitchford, where Colonel Cotes has been resident, instead of 

 having his horses at Whitchurch, and has shown lots of 

 foxes, and good ones. Hardwick Gorse has never failed- 

 Shawbury and the Lea have been as usual prolific, and so 

 have Preston Gubbalds and Leaton. Ercall has been 

 unlucky ; Twemlows not so good as last season ; Tjosford 

 has yielded one brilliant gallop ; Battlefield is better than 

 last year ; Holly Coppice and Sundorne have scarcely been 

 asked a question since the season began ; Preston Springs 

 and Acton Reynald have yielded good runs, and so has 

 Loppington one run — while Coton has not been tenantless. 

 Peplow, Chetwynd and the Drayton side are nothing to 

 boast of, while Withington Wood, one of the best in the 

 hunt, has not had a hound in it this season ! The Master 

 is about to change his quarters from Gredington to 

 . Shavington, which will place him a trifle nearer his kennels. 

 Borderer trusts that the bad scent, which hung about the 

 general election time, will not recur, and that the future 

 of Shropshire will bear favourable comparison with the past 

 -^we cannot see how the most devoted Conservative could 

 better the cause of foxhunting by declining to support the 

 present regime. 



In the Albrighton Country I have had fewer opportunities 

 of enjoying myself than last year, but I fear that, except 

 in November, I have not been a great loser, as Sir Thomas 

 and Lady Boughey have not had a more trying season 

 during their long apprenticeship in the country, and this, too, 

 from no fault but the utter perversity of our climate, which 

 in a plough country like this, is fatal to scent. Both 



