1899] BYE-DAY AT SHIRLEY MILL. 277 



sun and the mist it was no easy matter for the leaders " to steer their own course 

 o'er the billowy grass," as Bromley Davenport has it, when hounds started out 

 after their fox from the Sand Pit. And if it was difficult to see clearly which 

 way hounds went, it is equally difficult to describe it. At the end of the day the 

 mind became dazed and confused in trying to disentangle the maze of circles and 

 counter-circles, to say nothing of triangles, rhomboids, et hoc genus omne, which 

 crossed and recrossed one another with bewildering persistency. Certainly 

 hounds were hunting pretty nearly all day, and, if they did not catch the fox, 

 they tired most people's horses, so it must have been at least half of a good day. 

 They found five foxes on the Radburne estate, and hardly went off it — at least, 

 so it seemed to the writer, though, no map of the estate being at hand, this may 

 be a mistake. But what did they do ? Well, they found foxes galore, they 

 changed and they lost, they lost and they changed ; people jumped the Trusley 

 brook backwards and forwards, they fell, and they covered themselves with mud 

 and glory, and seemed for the most part to have thoroughly enjoyed themselves- 

 The best part of it all, perhaps, was from Boden's Thorns in the afternoon, when 

 they ran nearly to the Spath, which lay on the left of their course, and back by 

 Boden's Thorns, and lost him near Dalbury Lees Green after an hour and fifty 

 minutes. There must have been a regular parliament of foxes at the latter place, 

 for every fox was lost close to this spot. Every one was delighted to see Colonel 

 the Hon. W. Coke out again, though his arm was still strapped up. In fact, 

 there was a goodly company of maimed and wounded — what with the Master, 

 and Messrs. Frank and Alton. Sir Richard FitzHerbert, who does not often 

 come out with the Meynell nowada3's, was going in his old form on a young one. 



Friday, at Shirley Mill, was the first bye-day of the season. A mixed pack 

 soon found a fox in Shirley Park, and rattled him right merrily in covert with a 

 grand cry and a rare scent — the latter being something rather unusual in the 

 rhododendrons. After running liim hard up and down and round about, they 

 forced him on to the island, and killed him. Another fox was halloaed away at 

 the bottom, and hounds got away on good terms with him, accompanied by a 

 trio consisting of Messrs. Brace, Winterbottom, and the first whipper-in, the 

 remainder of the field being left behind in covert. Shirley Park is not the easiest 

 place in the country to get a good start from, and many a good sportsman has 

 found occasion to curse his luck in losing hounds there. Some years ago in a 

 fog they slipped the whole field and ran by themselves to Okeover. To-day they 

 ran out by Yeavely and right-handed slowly for Snelston and on into the 

 "dimbles" beyond the Darley moor and Clifton road, where they lost him. 

 The Master, who, with a few others, had caught them at the Yeavely road, very 

 considerately gave the order to trot off" to Longford, judging that the lost sheep 

 would be found there. His conjecture proved well-founded, as the majority of 

 the field had been patiently waiting there for some time. A lady viewed a fox 

 going away from his lair and hounds were laid on to his line, but could do little 

 with him. A fox was found in the Finney Bank covert and they ran fast, a few 

 fields to Reeve's Moor^ through it, and slowly nearly to Culland. Without 

 entering that covert they turned back, and hunted slowly by Reeve's Moor back 

 to the Finney Bank, where they lost him. 



Monday, January 9, 1899, at Foston, was a rare, nice hunting morning, which 

 brought a huge field to this favourite place of meeting. The Master and Mrs. 

 Fort welcomed every one to The Cottage in a way peculiarly their own, and 

 the first Foston covert, in the Hon. George AUsopp's park, which was drawn held 



