50 THE MEYNELL HOUNDS. 



en route, and at about daybreak on the third morning 

 there sat the old dog baying in front of his master's door 

 in Bagot's Park. 



An interesting paper in the possession of Mr. Pickering 

 Turner gives the names of all the difterent copses which 

 make up Bagot Wood, and which were planted by the 

 Tumors during the last three hundred years. Pheasant 

 coppice is mentioned as having been planted by Sir Charles 

 Bagot, who was the first Governor-General of Canada, one 

 hundred and eighty years ago. It is so called because 

 the first pheasants on the estate were shot there. It was 

 grown from acorns ploughed in by bullocks. The age of 

 the trees in the Forest Banks is given as being seven hundred 

 years, and the row of beeches by the Beggar's Oak was 

 planted to protect it one hundred years ago. 



There are, probably, no straighter roads in England 

 than those which traverse the Forest. Local tradition 

 asserts that the reason of this is that they were laid out 

 in London by some one who knew nothing of the lie of 

 the land, and simply took a bee-line from point to point. 

 Like most other tales, it is half false and half true. The 

 map of the roads ivas made in London, but the maker was 

 Mr. Calvert, who lived at Houndhill, and who was agent 

 to three Lords Vernon, so he probably knew the country 

 as well as most people. He gave as his reason for laying 

 out the roads as he did, that he had travelled straight all 

 his life, and he liked other people to do the same. He 

 was maternal grandfather to Mr. Albert AVorthington, 

 who is the authority for the above statement. Mr. Calvert 

 was a great sportsman, and kept a pack of harriers. He 

 was, also, a noted shot, and there was a match between 

 him and the celebrated Lord Hawke to see which could 

 kill the greater number of partridges between daylight 

 and dark with a single-barrel muzzle-loader. The match 

 came off in Shropshire, and one sportsman killed about 

 one hundred and three birds, and the other one hundred, 

 but Mr. Worthington could not be quite sure about the 

 exact number of birds, or as to which was the winner. 



