1827] SPORT IN THE TWENTIES. 101 



On February 3rd they had a capital rim from Rad- 

 burne. After drawing the Pastures blank they heard 

 there was a fox in the earths at Eadburne, came back and 

 bolted him, and ran very fast between the Ash and 

 Sutton, along the meadows under Etwall. They then 

 crossed the road by Egginton Bridge and the river by 

 the osier bed nearly opposite Stretton, After crossing 

 the Dove hounds were brought to their noses and hunted 

 prettily by Stretton, through the corner of the Henhurst, 

 through Knightley Park, by the New Inn, over Stockley 

 Park, and were stopped at Rolleston, as it had been 

 freezing all day, and the hounds were all lame from the 

 hardness of the ground. 



All these parks, which are so frequently mentioned, 

 are not, as a stranger would naturally suppose, enclosed 

 deer parks now. They were so in remote times, but at 

 present, for the most part, differ not at all from the 

 country in general. Nothing is left of the park l3ut the 

 name. 



After a week's frost hounds ran (after starting from 

 Longford ! ) from Marchington Cliff and lost their fox at 

 Hamstall Ridware, which is not by any means a bad run 

 — close on a seven-mile point, over a capital line, and 

 done in forty-five minutes. It elicited no further com- 

 ment from the diarist than " very pretty." In fact, when 

 he does say " a very fine run," or " magnificent day," the 

 commendation is well merited, so we may well believe 

 that the following, on April 5th, which he describes as 

 " the most brilliant thing of the season," was something 

 out of the common. They found in Shirley Park and 

 went away at a great pace by Wyaston, past Osmaston, 

 through Bradley Moor, leaving the Gorse on the left, 

 and killed him by the cotton mill at Kniveton after forty- 

 seven minutes without a check. Every horse was beat, 

 and no wonder, going that pace over those hills. Mr. 

 Meynell, on his black horse, could not catch them at all, 

 and came home, giving it up as a bad job. Tom's brown 

 mare carried him first rate, and little Tom, on the black 



