i66 FOX-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 



hour and forty minutes, too, from Babbins Wood, 

 ending .with a kill between Chirk Castle and 

 Llangollen. One reads also of manners and 

 customs long since discarded; how sober sportsmen 

 had a poor chance against some of the others who 

 were '' a little primed/' and how midday drinking 

 was held to improve riding across country. 

 *' Why don't you tackle that Welsh Squire/' 

 asked Lord Forester of a friend who was much 

 badgered by a sportsman from Wales. '* Why, 

 if I could be sure he would come out sober, I 

 would take his bet to-morrow, but the infernal 

 fellow will come out half-drunk and then he 

 beats me/' was the answer. 



'' The Druid," too, has a note on some of the 

 traditions of the Shropshire Hunt at this period. 

 ''TheAtcham Bridge Meet has never looked its 

 best since the three (Will Staples, Jack Wiggles- 

 worth, and Tom Flint) were wont to wait in the 

 meadow for Sir Bellingham. We know no spot 

 so rich in hunting history, even if Jack Mytton 

 had not jumped those rails with his arm in a 

 sling." 



I am grateful to various writers of former 

 times from whom I have obtained information, 

 but it is to '' ^sop " (the Hampshire historian) I 

 am indebted for a very characteristic anec- 

 dote: 



