128 THE MEYNELL HOUNDS. [1836 



Naturally there were plenty of other good runs of which 

 no record exists, except the innumerable noses on the doors 

 at Hoar Cross, which are now so dried up as to render 

 it very difficult for any one to recognize them as having 

 once been part and parcel of a fox. There was that run 

 from Radburne, for instance, to Amber gate, when Joe 

 Leedham, their first whipper-in, was bitten in the heel by 

 the moribund fox, and fainted from loss of blood. Many 

 others, too, there must have been, besides the great runs 

 in Mr. Meynell's early years. 



Of the season of 1836 there is only one record of any 

 run at all. But it need not be inferred from this that 

 the new huntsman was not a success. Many years after 

 this the editor of one of the sporting papers writes, as if 

 smarting under a sense of personal injury, " The Leed- 

 hams are, as usual, the component parts of Mr. Meynell 

 Ingram's establishment, where the grim god of Silence 

 seems to reign supreme." 



BelVs Life, March 27th, 1836 :— 



GALLANT RUN WITH MR. MEYNELL'S HOUNDS. 



On Thursdaj' week, the hounds of Mr. Meynell had a most superb day's sport. 

 They met at Sudbury Coppice, and found their game almost instantaneously. A 



fox a most gallant one — crossed the pond head, near to Alder Car, through the 



midst of sportsmen, who at that moment almost lined the road. He then pursued 

 his course back to the coppice, and made his point as if for Cubley Gorse, but 

 bore eventually away for Eaton Wood, where he was at length run into, after a 

 chace of one hour and seven minutes. Here, however, the day's sport did not 

 end, but a fresh fox was found at Foston, which took a line through Foston Wood, 

 and thence, at a most severe pace, to Sudbury Coppice, which, however, he did 

 not reach, but bore away over a very fine country to the right, and persevered 

 over the open to Alkmonton, and nearly to Longford Car ; but, again bearing to 

 the rio-ht crossed the brook above Barton Fields, and was killed at Thurvaston, 

 after a most beautiful run of one hour and twenty-five minutes, the first fifty of 

 which was without a moment's check. 



This run must have been close on twelve miles. 



In 1837, so far as we know, nothing of any importance 

 occurred. In the last year of his reign Old Tom Leedham 

 did not go much out of his own kennel for sires ; but his 

 successor made amends for it pretty freely the next year. 



