70 HUNTING AND SPOBTING NOTES. 



nice run he afforded. Going by Onslow House (all 

 thanks to Col. Winfield for our find), he crossed the 

 main road to Calcot, and leaving Preston Montford on 

 his right crossed the Holyhead Road for Bickley. 

 Swinging, however, to the right, he did not touch the 

 wood, skirted the road down to the Isle, recrossed the 

 Holyhead Road near Oxton, and took them a nice line of 

 grass with pretty jumpable fences, leaving Bicton on his 

 left, until he eventually landed his pursuers in a hopeless 

 check close to Hanwood Station, after giving them an 

 exceedingly pretty hunting run of an hour, over as nice a 

 line as there is in the county. The man in the balloon 

 says that had Thatcher crowded on sail a little more to 

 have helped his hounds at the critical moment, the fox 

 would not have beaten them. He does not ride in the- 

 South Country with as much nerve and determination as 

 he does near home. The run was not without a serious 

 contretemps, which mercifully ended only in an awful 

 looking fall. At Calcot, a frightful mantrap in the shape 

 of a strand of wire had been run through a very tempting 

 looking fence, without any notification of its presence 

 whatever. Mr. George Butler Lloyd, our respected 

 secretary of the South Country, and banker, charged it in 

 full swing, and his horse was caught like a rabbit, rolling 

 over him twice. How he escaped seemed a marvel to 

 those who stood shuddering on the other side. 



On Thursday, the Albrighton, at Gnosall, had' 

 unwonted disappointment — a late start. The Ranton 

 Coverts blank ; a Blakemere Pool fox was no sooner 

 found than he was underground. Offiey Grove, in the 

 evening, my informant knows not of. 



On Friday, at Shawbury White Gates, foxes did not 

 turn up till they got to Lea Wood, where one w^as found,- 

 and quickly went to ground. In a pit hole close to the 

 kennels, however, a better specimen made his appearance 

 and like a shot out of a gun the hounds chevied him tO" 

 Preston Springs, and out again on the Wem side to 

 Palmers Hill, and Trench Farm, at a capital pace. The 

 old grey was once more conspicuous in front, and a black 

 coat playing a very good second fiddle. Here the fox 

 turned up to the left, skirting Clive and Grinshill, only 

 getting back to Lea Wood to be caught, after arLi 



