5898] ACCIDENT TO COL. THE HON. W. COKE. 269 



many such in a season." The sequel only shows how little any one knows about 

 it, for hounds could barely own the scent in Cubley Gorse, and when the fox 

 bobbed out and in again the three hounds who appeared on his line could not 

 speak to it. Twice he essayed to go and twice he thought better of it, but at the 

 third attempt he Avent away towards Marston-Montgomery, but turned short back 

 after going five or six fields. A body of horsemen, pushing forward down the 

 green lane, which runs into the Marston and Cubley road, barred his progi'ess 

 and forced him to cross the said road, and he set his mask as if for Malcolmsley. 

 But his heart failed him, and he turned sharp to the left, re-crossing the same 

 road a couple of hundred yards on the Marston side of Cubley Stoop. Leaving 

 ■Cubley Gorse on his left, he reached the Car, and, after a turn or two up and 

 down the covert, they bowled him over after a nice little hunt of twentj'-one 

 minutes. Brief as had been the scurrj--, it occasioned a serious accident to that 

 capital all-round sportsman. Colonel the Hon. W. Coke, who had the misfortune 

 to dislocate his shoulder. There is no one who will not sympathize with the 

 sufferer, who is not only a past-master in the science of fox-hunting, but can give 

 points to many a younger man in the art of crossing a country. Birch Wood 

 and the outlying Snelston coverts were dra\vn blank, but a brace of foxes went 

 away from the Holly Wood, and the hounds settled to the line of the one which 

 went along the bottom under the holt on the hillside, which they left on the 

 right, and, swinging left-handed, crossed the Ashbourne road into the Three 

 Corners, and out the other side, where they checked. Hitting off the line forward, 

 they ran across the road to Darley Moor into the Holly Wood again. They 

 ■carried the line through the wood out on to the Osmaston side, but there the fox 

 was too far in front of them, and he had to be given up. After drawing Hope 

 Wood and Marston Park blank, they went home. Mr. Buncombe made an 

 efficient deputy-master, and on a good-looking chestnut was always to the fore, 

 followed by Lady Florence Buncombe on her well-known grey. 



Tuesday, Newton village. Found in NcAvton Gorse, and ran up to the 

 Drointon lane, before reaching which they checked. Two or three couples of 

 liounds had slipped away with a fox towards Brointon. Bonner cast over the 

 lane into Chartley Moss, where hounds immediately hit the line of a fox, who 

 ■went away at the opposite side, turned back, and, probably hearing a rare cry of 

 human voices coming through the wood, carried out his first intention, and 

 crossed over into Birch Coppice. The rotten bridge over Stoneybrook between 

 this and Chartley Moss caused some confusion, and more than half the field 

 either turned back through the Moss, or, wiser still, remained in the lane outside. 

 These latter and the ones who had crossed the bridge galloped doAvn to the 

 Blythe with hounds, where a soldier [Captain Dugdale], armed with wn're nippers, 

 led the way when wire ban-ed advance. Mr. Cavendish proved the truth of the 

 ■ old adage, "More dirt, less hurt," when his horse got entangled in the wire and 

 fell with him. Our champion welter weight [Mr. Hartley], who is seldom much 

 out in his reckoning, turned back as soon as he saw that hounds meant crossing 

 the river, and carried a large contingent in his wake down to the Smithy Ford, 

 and these had a capital run on the hard road without any hounds. The latter, 

 meanwhile, had swung left-handed opposite Wanfield Hall, and, leaving the 

 covert of that name to the right, ran their fox to ground in Loxley Park Wood 

 after a nice hunting run of something under twenty minutes. A long, weary jog 

 to draw the Bishton coverts culminated in disappointment, and hounds did not 

 find again till they got to Buckley Wood, whence our fox went away towards 

 Abbots Bromley. He soon turned left-handed across the Bromley road, and 

 hounds ran to a bye-lane between the Bunstall-Bromley lane and the main road 



