Dorrington — A Hunting Bun. 27 



good fox took them n»^arly to Market Drayton, then to 

 Stvche, and finally got to ground near Little Drayton. 



Wednesday, the 23rd, the Shropshire were at Dorring- 

 ton Station, on the South of the Severn. A pretty good 

 field turned up in spite of the unfashionableness of the 

 country. In this, however, Borderer does not agree. 

 People must he very fastidious who cannot enjoy them- 

 selves where coverts are small, grass predominates, and 

 the lie of the land is a gentle slope towards the Long- 

 mynd, five miles away. To-day we began badly. In the 

 absence of the master, and there being no one in loco 

 magistri, Thatcher had written orders to go after some 

 depredating fox at the Thresholds, at least five miles of 

 stony road from the meet. When we got there, a few 

 dozen fir trees surrounding a small pool was all that 

 could be seen of the fox covert, and it appaared very un- 

 likely that even for one chance day in the year would a 

 fox make it his home. Ill-tempered, therefore, we jogged 

 hack four of those rugged miles, and at twelve-thirty began 

 to draw in earnest for a fox towards Netley, for I should 

 tell you that Mr. Llewellyn, the owner of the intervening 

 covers at Stapleton, sent to stop our drawing them. He 

 16 great at setters, but sets his face against hounds. 

 Well, there was soon an end of our grumbles when we 

 came to the Shady Moor. The bitch pack settled on a good 

 fox at once, and rattled him due westward up to Under- 

 hill. We found ourselves out on the Cothercot Hill, 

 pointing for the clouds, but our fox was not quite such an 

 excelsior as this, for, turning to the right, we dipped into 

 the inclosures again and found some of them boggy 

 enough, as two men at least could vouchsafe, and sur- 

 mounted the ridge which revealed to us the Gatton valley, 

 with Lord Tankerville's mines and the Stiperstones in the 

 foreground. A large covert — Huglith — on the hill side 

 held us some quarter of an hour, when there was n tallyho 

 at the top of Westcot Hill, and whether it was a fresh fox 

 or our hunted one, this deponent cannot say. In either 

 case the result was a very fast spin T)ack into the low 

 country, from which we had emerged in the morning, the 

 line taken being a better one, and the comet-like pro- 

 portions of the field spread over its expanse most inter- 

 estingly. In about forty minutes we were backat Netley, 



