20 THE MEYNELL HOUNDS. 



CHAPTER 11. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY — TRADITION — THE BRADLEY 

 WOOD FOX — OLD TOM LEEDHAM— HOAR CROSS GOSSIP. 



Having traced the course of events in those parts of 

 Derbyshire and Staffordshire, which practically form what 

 is now known as the Meynell country, to the time when 

 Mr. Meynell of Hoar Cross began to hunt it, it seems 

 fitting to describe the country and its limits. The 

 accompanying map gives the places of meeting and the 

 boundaries in 1860, but it is clear that even then its 

 extent was being curtailed, while at the present time 

 (1901), hounds no longer go to Black Slough, Beaudesert, 

 nor Teddesley, on the extreme south and south-west. 

 Before the South Staffordshire Hunt, as it is now known, 

 was formed by Lord Henry Paget in 1868, the Meynell 

 country was bounded on the south-west by a line drawn 

 from Teddesley through Beaudesert on the south to Black 

 Slough, a covert three miles north of Lichfield, proceeding 

 north-east through Catton Hall, Gresley Wood, Swarkeston 

 Bridge, to Elvaston. 



The boundaries of the Meynell country in 1901 are 

 practically as follows : Between the North Staffordshire 

 and Meynell territories follow the road from Weston 

 station nearly to Milwich. Thence follow Uttoxeter and 

 Stone Turnpike as far as Coton Hayes, include Birchwood 

 Park (neutral), and still follow turnpike as far as Uttoxeter. 

 Thence the Dove is the boundary to Ashbourne. On the 

 north there is now no limit. East of the Derwent the 

 line follows that river from Shottle to Derby ; thence to 



