tz The Worcestershire. 



went to Ockeridge Wood, a big hundred-acre covert, very 

 often the abode of a good fox. To-day we took up a 

 position in the middle ride, and to only a few did the 

 sound of a find come at the top corner, and even these did 

 not realize the fact that hounds were away until the 

 sound waxed fainter each moment. An unfortunate 

 scrimmage occurring at the moment, owing to two horses 

 becoming oddly entangled in the reins of the other, made 

 matters worse, and we trust Mr. Watson, of Waresley, was 

 none the worse for his encounter with mother earth. 

 Meanwhile hounds had gone away almost alone over a 

 good line towards Martley, and only one of the field, good 

 between the fiags, had caught them. It was an amusing 

 stampede, which a check close to Martley Church put 

 straight, and with united forces, and at a slower pace, we 

 crossed the main road close to the workhouse, and jour- 

 neyed over the hill until we faced the river Teme below 

 Shelsley. Here he dropped down as if to cross, and ran 

 the meadows, leaving Ankerdine Wood and hill on his 

 left, until within a mile of Knightsford Bridge, when he 

 crossed, and the remaining field had to bustle on to the 

 bridge, if they intended to see them again. Personally, 

 Borderer was doing a bird's-eye view of the fun from the 

 hill. Hounds now ran into the Ledbury country at 

 Whitbourne alone, and then turned up the other bank of the 

 river to Clif ton-on-Teme. The huntsman picked them up, and 

 viewed his fox dead beat close to them, I heard, but failed 

 to bring him to hand, so that after a long run of more 

 than three hours, he lives to fight again. Hounds 

 probably changed near Ankerdyne, but, be this as it may, 

 it was a sporting day, and showed me that the Worcester- 

 shire are in good form, and that Denton knows his 

 business. He was quiet and patient, with plenty of nerve 



