120 THE MEYNELL HOUNDS. [1833 



Mr. Applewhaite's country) " are too fond of the plough, 

 and Mr. Meynell's district is still more arable." Hunting 

 men have cause to bless the repeal of the Corn Laws. 



From the old Sporting Magazme,¥ehv\iSiYj 20th, 1833 : 



The best things I have seen have been with Mr. Meynell's hounds. On 

 Thursday last we had a capital day from Catton, with a large field out. The old 

 favourite find, the osier-bed, was under water from the previous heavy rains, and 

 consequent overflowing of the river ; we were obliged, therefore, to proceed to 

 the wood on the hill. Here the hounds had not been in above two or three 

 minutes before a hollo was heard. You know what riding to a hollo in a thick 

 wood is, Mr. Editor, bumping your knee every now and then against a great 

 brute of a tree that won't stand out of your way, and scratching your eyes out 

 with scrambling through bushes and briars, with the constant vexation of a 

 brother sportsman in front pulling up to regain his hat, which you hear smashing 

 under your own horse's feet. We got to the hollo at last, but the hounds would 

 not have a word to say to it. " Are you the man that viewed that fox ? " " Yes ; 

 he went away at this corner." The corner, however, produced no scent, and at 

 last the man confessed that he was not quite sure whether it was a fox or not. 

 We then proceeded to Walton Wood, where we were lucky enough to find a 

 capital old dog-fox, and away he went as hard as he could rattle for Catton 

 Wood. After a short excursion through the wood, he doubled round and broke 

 again at the bottom ; a wide brook, with a paling on the near side, now presented 

 itself, which nothing but a regular flyer could carry one across. One scarlet got 

 a roll with his horse, but / don''t think he was hurt, and away we went up the 

 hill quite fast enough to be pleasant. Koslistone was the first village we came 

 to, then Caldwell, then Linton; I can't pretend to tell you the woods, gorses, 

 streams, and hamlets, that we passed, for I wasn't bom in the neighbourhood, 

 and " the pace was too good to inquire." At Linton we had a long check (it 

 was now a quarter past two, and we found exactly at twelve) and were proceed- 

 ing to try for another fox at Drakelowe Grove when, by great good luck, we hit 

 oft' the old chase across the road, and hunted him up to Gresley Wood, where he 

 jumped up in view. We ran him a little further, and, on a sudden, and quite 

 unaccountably, we were again at fault. After casting this way and that, and 

 thinking it deuced odd where pug could be gone, we at last found him out under 

 a carpenter's bench, where several people were at work, unaware of his presence. 

 We soon got my gentleman out of his shavings, and turned him off* before the 

 hounds. They ran him in view about a mile further, when he took refuge in an 

 old furnace-hole, but the sanctuary not being respected by the pack, he was 

 followed to his corner and sacrificed to their vengeance. 



A still better thjng was enjoyed with these hounds on the Saturday preceding. 

 They met at Radborne, found a fox, and had a rattling burst of an hour and 

 fifty minutes, then a long check, after which they got on the line of their fox 

 again, and killed him at a place called Thacker's Wood, two and thirty miles 

 from their kennel, which they did not reach till eight o'clock at night. 



