Bcnoich and Broiighton. 41 



plenty of competition for the Shropshire Hunt Cup. 

 Every horse must be owned on the 1st of February in 

 the country to quahfy him, so there is not much time to 

 look out for Hkely ones. My weekly jottings of sport 

 begin with Wednesday, the 13th, at Berwick Hall, when 

 the frost had most accommodatingly cleared away, and 

 left the fields once again safe enough for the indulgence 

 of the lovers of Terpsichore to shake off the effects of 

 Tuesday night's, and Wednesday's early morning's 

 dissipation at Squire Watson's, where, I understand, even 

 a fuller and gayer assembly than ever enjoyed themselves 

 on the opening day of the new Parliament. 



Wednesday broke a very wild morning, quite enough 

 to drive foxes underground. A tremendous assembly of 

 nasty, fresh kicking horses after the frost, filed off to 

 Hencote Pool, where, nicely sheltered as it is, a fox 

 had braved the elements above ground. He put his 

 nose for Albrighton, or rather Battlefield way, and the 

 first three ploughed fields fairly planted the majority of 

 the field. Not crossing the Wem road, he w^ent up to 

 Albrighton Hall, and wdieeled back again, luckily more 

 on the grass now, but at an indifi'erent pace, to the 

 place of departure, or hard by it, where all trace of him 

 seemed to vanish. Perhaps he went to ground. Here 

 ends all chronicle of sport for to-day. No fox at 

 Preston Gubbalds, Pimhill, or Harmer Hill. Plenty 

 about, but underground. Borderer imagines. 



On Thursday Sir Watkin repeated his good fortune of 

 Wednesday, when in the afternoon of his Overton Bridge 

 day, he had, I believe, a very interesting hunting run 

 from Campbell Gorse, over a lot of country, eventually 

 «:, running to ground in the Wyches. AVell ! on this 

 Broughton Thursday, although some of Mr. Howard's 

 coverts had been disturbed tlip day before, a fox was 

 seen travelling from Grafton Gorse, that took them 

 over a line of deep meadows, rotten after the frost, that 

 made jumping in and out of them a matter of immense 

 <iifificulty. There w^as a brook, too, by the wa,y, which 

 was too much for Lady Cholmondeley's made hunter, 

 } luckily wuthout hurt to its charming rider. Without 

 touching Castletown, back they went to Broughton, 

 where he managed to dodge them and get to ground. 



