102 THE MEYNELL HOUNDS. [1827 



mare, as usual, was all right, but the honours of the day 

 remained with Joe on Kedleston. 



April 12th was the last day, and they met at Holly- 

 bush, found in the Banks, and lost at Henhurst. Then 

 they drew the Greaves, Castle Hays, Stone's Gorse, and 

 Brakenhurst blank. 



Foxes killed, sixteen brace ; lost, twenty-four brace ; 

 to ground, five and a half brace ; blank days, three. 



Old men often say nowadays, how frequently they 

 hunted in the woods in old times. Taking the season 

 just mentioned as a sample, we find that they hunted 

 sixty-one days after the opening of regular hunting, 

 sixteen of which were in the woods. 



Shirley Park figures in almost every run in that part 

 of the country, so some slight account of its history may 

 be interesting. It derives its name from a Saxon word, 

 which means " a clear place or pasture." From the village 

 of Shirley the famous family of that name took its cog- 

 nomen, and they appear to have come there first in the 

 time of Henry I. — of course through a grant of land from 

 Robert de Ferrers. It was not, however, till the reign of 

 Henry HI. that it became the principal seat of the family. 

 Yeavely and Stydd were formerly part of the parish of 

 Shirley, but Washington, fifth Earl of Ferrers, about a 

 hundred years ago sold a great deal of it. Shirley Park 

 was once of great interest, in fact, Sir Thomas Shirley, 

 writing in the time of Charles I., says that it might be 

 " more aptly termed a forest." At the present time Sir 

 Peter Walker owns a good deal of it. His father. Sir 

 Andrew Walker, bought it . with the house and land 

 at Osmaston, close by, from Mr. John Osmaston. The 

 latter's father, Mr. Francis Wright, who married a daughter 

 of Sir Henry FitzHerbert, Bart., of Tissington, bought 

 the property, and built the present magnificent house some 

 time in the fifties, at an immense cost. His son John, 

 who assumed the name of Osmaston, sold it to Sir Andrew 

 AValker, and the house and pleasure grounds immediately 

 surrounding it, the cost of which must have exceeded 



