266 THE MEYNELL HOUNDS. (1898 



Wichiior was the rendezvous for Saturday, and, as a matter of course, thej'^ 

 found directly, for there is no better fox-preserver than the Squire of Wichnor. 

 But scent did not favour them, and after a short excursion in the direction of 

 Bontliorn the fox turned back into tlie covert, where he was found. Eventually 

 he went away at the opposite end, and turned down towards the Trent, almost 

 opposite Orgreave Hall. Some years ago a fox took the same line, but actually 

 crossed the river, which Mr. Princep succeeded in swimming — no mean feat for 

 man and horse. To-day, however, the floods were out to an extent which would 

 have daunted the bravest fox, and our friend turned right-handed, skirting the 

 floods, but going as straight as any fox could under the circumstances over a good 

 country, with hounds running nicely, but never very fast, on his line. He tried 

 a pit-hole or two, but the earth-stopper had done his duty well. So they ran on 

 along the valley — when one of our most accomplished horsewomen [Miss Mosley] 

 came to grief, but luckily without serious result apparently — till the fox bethought 

 him of Rough Park, and turned sharp to the right. He was viewed over the 

 lane from Yoxall to Hamstall Ridware between Olive Green and Morrey by 

 Captain Holland's groom and his little boy on a pony, who had been shoving 

 along bravely all the time. But within a field of the covert this good fox changed 

 his mind, and, leaving the wood on his right, set his mask in the direction of 

 Blithbury, Repenting of his rashness just beyond Purl Hill, he turned back for 

 Rough Park, and a farmer viewed him just in front of the hounds, who were iu 

 full cry. But whether a flock of sheep, through which he ran, foiled the line, or 

 what, the hounds suddenly checked, and nothing could be made of it afterwards. 

 Still, it was quite a nice little hunt of twenty-five minutes, and every one enjoyed 

 it. Two consecutive foxes were found in the Brakenhurst, both of which ran the 

 same line into Hoar Cross Park, and were both lost at about the same spot. 

 With the first of them there was a halloa forward in the direction of the Birch 

 Wood. The locking of the gates between the Brakenhurst and the Hall caused 

 a good deal of annoj'ance, for though the whippers-in have keys, "you cannot," 

 as some one remarked, " carry a whipper-in about in your pocket." 



Accidents axd Exciting Incidents. (November 28, 1898.) 

 On ^Monday, the thermometer registered from four to fourteen degrees of frost 

 according to the locality, and the roads were hard and slippery. But there was never 

 any doubt about hunting, though the Master wisely waited at the meet, Marston-on- 

 Dove, longer than usual to give the rime time to melt. A fox was soon on foot 

 in Hilton Gorse, and was halloaed away at the end by the farm. The brook at 

 the bottom caused a check, and it was difficult to decide which way the fox had 

 gone. Hounds, however, soon solved the problem by hitting off the line forward 

 to the left of the brook, and ran nicely, but never very fast, though it was up- 

 wind, over the cream of Derbyshire— the line of the Guards' point-to-point 

 steeplechase of 1895 in fact, though the reverse way. A few fields beyond the 

 Spath there was a long check after an enjoyable twelve minutes, which had 

 emptied more than one saddle. Hounds at last struck the line to the right across 

 the little Spath brook, and marked their fox to gi-uund in a pit-hole hard by. 

 Potter's was drawn next, and held a fox, or very likely two or three, for hounds 

 were very busy on the lower side by the road when a fox was halloaed away on 

 the top. Consequently they were some time in coming to the halloa, and did not 

 get away on very good terms with their fox. He set his head for Longford, but 

 soon turned right-handed and ran a little ring back to Potter's, which he left on 

 his right. Crossing the road to Longford, he visited the outskirts of Boylestone, 



