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CHAPTER XL 



MISCELLANEA — MR. MICHAEL BASS, M.P. — TOM LEEDHAM's 



LAST SEASON GOOD CHARTLEY RUN — SIR MATTHEW 



BLAKISTON — MR. TREVOR YATES. 



1833-1839. 



There in search of sport I wandered, nourishing a verdant youth 

 With the fairy tales of gallops, ancient runs devoid of truth. 



The writer of this couplet was more fortunate than the 

 compiler of this work, for no fairy tales, true or the re- 

 verse, are to be found in newspaper or magazine for some 

 time after the end of 1833. Not that that proves that 

 there were none, for somewhere about that period, possibly 

 in 1835, there occurred one of the most brilliant runs 

 possible, so far as point and straightness is concerned. 



The Rev. B. W. Spilsbury writes : — " I have found the 

 map showing the two runs I mentioned, and hope it may 

 be of use to you. . . . The runs appear to have been 

 through Leicestershire, but I think the fox, in each case, 

 was found in coverts belonging to the Meynell Hunt. 

 They certainly used to draw the woods near Oalke, 

 Staunton Harold and Cole-Orton. I think the runs were 

 about 1835, but I have been told there was a full account 

 given of them in the Derby Mercury of the date on which 

 they occurred." One of the runs here mentioned is the 

 one described in the Sporting Magazine and in the Derby 

 Mercury, as having occurred on February 23rd, 1826. 

 The other is a far better one, but unluckily there 

 seems to be no record of it, except a line drawn on Mr. 

 Spilsbury's map, starting from Ashby Old Parks, a little 



