1898J FROM CROXALL TO ELFORD GORSE. 271 



Boden's cabbage-field in possession. In Bunker's Hill the}' found a leash. One 

 they chopped, one went away to the right, one on the left, and with the latter 

 they joined issue. If any one can follow his circuitous course it is not the writer. 

 Hounds luckily could, but not to very good purpose, and men rode and jumped 

 behind them in concentric rings round Burnaston. Mr. Christopher Pole was 

 down and under his horse, but it takes a good deal to kill a Pole, and he seemed 

 none the worse. Fresh foxes jumped up in all directions, to make matters worse. 

 One even frightened the horse of a gallant heavy-weight by getting up just in 

 front of him, and the end of it was that after an hour and forty minutes' trial the 

 foxes were all acquitted on the Burnaston circuit and got off scot free. Hounds 

 found again in the Four Acres at Mickleover, and ran across the line to the 

 Potlucks, where they probably changed and ran out towards Radburne. 

 Retracing his steps, their fox led them back to the Potlucks and recrossed the 

 railway into the Brick-kiln, through it, and out towards Langley. But he soon 

 turned back again into the covert, and was viewed away across the road. It was, 

 however, getting dusk, and scent was bad, so he was given up. Thursday's foxes 

 are, so far, like nature — they delight in a curve, but abhor a straight line. 



A wild, boisterous morning welcomed us at Walton, but so did Mr. Winterton, 

 and the hearty hospitality of the latter went far to counteract the rough greeting of 

 the former. Walton Wood was not drawn, out of respect to the memory of the 

 kindly genial owner, Mr. Ratcliff, who has just gone from amongst us. The 

 Catton coverts were blank, but we found a straight-necked fox in Croxall osier- 

 bed, who led them best pace to Elford Gorse to ground as straight as a gim-barrel. 

 The Mease defeated even the intrepid sportsman on the chestnut [Mr. Caldecott], 

 who nearly drowned himself and his horse in a vain eftbrt to cross. When most 

 of us arrived we found only one gentleman on a blood bay horse with the homids, 

 and he confessed to having caught them only three or four fields before they got 

 there, so practically no one was with them. In the afternoon hounds ran nicely 

 over a country difficult to ci'oss on account of wire, railwaj^s, pits, brickyards, and 

 other drawbacks of civilization, for forty minutes. Space does not admit of 

 details. Suffice it to say that they found a brace in Caldwell Gorse, ran towards 

 Drakelowe, turned right-handed to Gresley, back right-handed to Linton, between 

 which and Seal Wood they lost him. An enjoyable day's sport. 



December 12, 1898. 



" Fox-hunting," says a gi-eat authority, " though so exciting in itself, is but a 

 dull subject to write about," and it is doubly so when there is so little to relate 

 as there is about last Monday at Ednaston. The latter, of course, must always 

 be associated with the extraordinary run to Winster in 1894, and people go there 

 in hopes of history repeating itself, which, as a matter of fact, in fox-hunting 

 annals, is a thing which seldom happens. This Ednaston day supported this 

 assertion, for it could hardly have been worse. Hounds found at Oak Wood, 

 ran to Shirley Park, and caught him. En route the late Master [Colonel Fleming] 

 of the Dove Valley Harriers came into collision with a gatepost and got a heavy 

 fall, which knocked him out of time for a bit, but every one was glad to see him 

 mounted again later on and watching proceedings with his usual keen interest. 

 A stranger [Mr. Cheetham] got run away with in Shirley Park, and his mount 

 collided with a tree, knocking her hip down and breaking three ribs. Bradley 

 Wood and Bradley Bottoms were dra\ra blank, but a fox was found in Brailsford 

 New Gorse, Mr. Gisborne's covert, and, after hangmg in the gorse for twenty 



