72 THE MEYNELL HOUNDS. [1818 



There are two or three more runs in this season which 

 are too good to be omitted, and those who know the 

 country will be struck by the directness of them. Evi- 

 dently they were all with good wild foxes, who had a 

 definite jDoint to make for, usually at some great distance. 

 Mr. Meynell mentions somewhere killing the largest fox 

 he ever saw, which, he says, people told him was a grey- 

 hound fox. There must have been many of that breed, to 

 judge from such runs as the following : — 



Friday, March Gth. — Eton Wood. Found immediately, and ran about the 

 wood with a bad scent. At last went to a holloa and hit our fox on to Sudbury 

 coppice, when the day mended after a thunderstorm, and we went away the best 

 pace for Cubley ; came under Hare Hill, leaving Boyleston to the left for Foston, 

 turned again between Longford and Sutton, through Kadburne Car, to Mickle- 

 over, Mackworth, and ran him into a hollow tree in Kedleston Park, an hour and 

 forty minutes from Sudbury. Joe's brown mare lay down close to Kedleston, 

 but very soon recovered and came on. Many horses could not get to the end, 

 and almost all quite tired. Forester (Mr. Meynell's) the freshest. The best rim 

 I ever saw in this country. 



Those who say that Mr. Meynell was no hard rider 

 must have judged him from what he was in later years, for 

 from all accounts he was always with his hounds, and 

 from his own diary he had quite his fair share of falls. 

 However much people, in those days at least, may 

 exaggerate their own performances, yet their diaries at 

 least are trustworthy, and he mentions having a day with 

 Sir B. Graham at Hoppas Hays, when there were only four 

 besides himself with the hounds, and he, for one, had a fall 

 with his favourite horse, the oddly-named Feeble. He 

 describes the hounds as being coarse and ill-looking, and 

 very tonguey. 



On Thursday, April 9th, he had another splendid run 

 with his own hounds. " Found in the Sudbury bottoms, 

 newlT/ planted, beyond the coppice ; came away almost in 

 view, through the coppice, by Hare Hill, left Boyleston on 

 the right, through Bentley Car to Shirley Park, by Os- 

 maston, and Edlaston to Clifton Toll Bar, and lost him by 

 Hanging Bridge (at Mayfield). An hour and thirty-two 

 minutes to Shirley Park. Only three or four people with 



