1898] BLITHBURY. 261 



though the hounds never really ran, and though there were the usual complaints 

 about the fences being very blind, and of this wild, sporting bit of country being 

 trappy and difficult to cross. Certainly there was more than one loose horse in 

 support of these assertions. Foston was then called upon, and not in vain. After 

 a turn up and down the covert the fox broke at the Sudbury end, and then 

 turned at right angles to the right, crossing the main Derby and Sudbury road. 

 Across the plough, the other side of the road, for two or three fields, hounds ran 

 fairly well, but after passing the small plantation and getting on to the grass 

 beyond the pace diminished. The fox appeared to run in the deviating, hesi- 

 tating way natural to young, uneducated effort. Hounds bore on across the road 

 to Church Broughton, but could make nothing of it till one couple of veterans 

 cast back into the road and hit a line down it to the right. Here a farmer 

 put us on to the line, and they hunted slowly over a beautiful line of country, 

 which brought more than one horse to grief, past Clnirch Broughton to Barton 

 Blount, where they ran him to ground in the gardens, thus bringing a pleasant 

 day's sport to a conclusion. 



Tuesday, November 1st, Blithbury. A small field, compared to the monster 

 gathering of Monday, met the Master and hounds at this favourite fixture. The 

 first draw was Stannyford, which was blank, as also was another small covert, as 

 well as Cawarden Springs. Mavesyn Ridware osier-bed was then tried. Mr. 

 Godwin, the sporting farmer, on whose land this covert stands, was not sanguine 

 about a find, owing to a dog having disturbed it recently. However, a challenge, 

 endorsed by the whole pack, proved his fears gi'oundless, and a gi'eat, dark- 

 coloured fox broke away in view of the whole field. Hounds quickly settled to the 

 line, and by the way that they drove it was easy to see there was a scent. There 

 was some indecision at a small spirmy on the part of the field, owing to a lady in 

 a carnage having seen a fox and having imparted the information to an old hand, 

 who halloaed on the strength of it. Hounds, however, held on the even tenor 

 of their way, and, accompanied by the Master, crossed the Lichfield road, and 

 flung forward at a rare pace across the little brook in the next field. They then 

 swung left-handed towards Blithbury, and ran over a beautiful line of country 

 with only a few with them till they checked in the Lichfield road after a 

 capital eleven minutes. Bonner made his cast irrespective of the somewhat 

 intricate fences which came in his way, and eventually marked his fox to 

 ground in a small spinny between Blithbury and Colton, after creeping after 

 him for another fifteen minutes. The first part of the run was answerable 

 for several dirty coats. Pipe Wood yielded the next fox, which went away on 

 the Blithbury side. The hounds did not get away on very good terms with 

 him, and with a very indifferent scent could make next to nothing of it, and, after 

 a slow hunt across the Blythe, he ran them out of scent close to Blythford. In the 

 evening they found a good fox in Rough Park, who broke covert at the Hoar 

 Cross end. The hounds checked on the plough three fields from the covert, but 

 this apparently untoward circumstance did yeoman service, as it enabled several 

 hounds, which had been left behind, to get up. A friendly bit of information 

 from a man at work in the next field just put matters right, and the now united 

 pack struck the line, dropped their sterns, and began to run with a dash and 

 drive, which made men ram down their hats and catch hold of their horses, in 

 all the ecstasy of the delightful conviction that they were in for a good thing. 

 A big brook, an arm of the Blythe, too wide to jump, and difficult of access, 

 scattered the field. There were but two practicable places — one to the right, 

 and the other to the left. The line favoured those who chose the former, but 

 a swing to the left soon put the latter on equally good terms. It was a 



