1899] A NEWBOROUGH DAY. 287 



happy half-hour or so, for there was a sort of feeling of good sport being in store 

 for us. A cap held high in the air soon proclaimed the welcome fact of a fox 

 being away, and the few couples of hounds which settled to the line — the others 

 being considerably impeded by the dense crowd of horsemen who blocked the 

 ride — ran fast for a few fields, though not quite fast enough, perhaps, for their 

 eager followers. At the first lane they checked, but, hitting it on forward, ran 

 nicely down-wind to Gratwich. Here the fox had turned right-handed down the 

 road, and hounds were able to run his line briskly for a couple of hundred yards 

 down it, when they suddenly threw up, and never touched his line again. After 

 drawing all the Fradswell coverts blank, they found in Chartley Moss, but, 

 unluckily, ten couples of hounds slipped on, and, dropping on to a fox, coursed 

 him along the top side of the covert down-\vind of the huntsman and the field, 

 and, getting away, ran fast to Newton village, with only the whipper-in and two 

 others with them. They were stopped as soon as possible and brought back. 

 It was unfortunate their finding so quickly, and that the direction of the wind 

 prevented Steve's halloa being heard, as this might have developed into a good 

 hunt. They found again in a small copse between Kingston Wood and 

 Woodcock Heath, and the fox — perhaps a \ixen — rang the changes round and 

 round Woodcock Heath, Kingston Wood, and Wanfield Coppice, till they finally 

 lost him near Kingston village. 



Thursday was a nice day to ride about, being warm and sunny, but it was not 

 productive of much sport. Mercaston Stoop is not a very favourite fixture, but 

 all the same it is the centre of a good wild country, and not at all an luilikely 

 place at this time of the year for a great run up into the hills. Moreover, there 

 are plenty of foxes, as the sequel will show. New Gorse was drawn blank, but 

 there were three or four foxes on foot in Mugginton Old Wood. One of these 

 was chopped, and another ran a small ring and then went away on a twisting 

 course nearly to Cross o' th' Hands, and, after taking us winding about the hills 

 and valleys of a rough bit of country, was lost just beyond the Lilies. Breward's 

 •Car held a brace, one of which got to ground in covert, while the other was 

 hunted slowly through Champion Car, Farnah Wood, and Colvile's Wood to 

 Allestree, where they marked him to ground. After an ineffectual attempt to 

 dig him out, an effort was made to get on the line of a brace of foxes, which had 

 gone away during the digging operations, but they had been gone too long, and 

 hounds could make nothing of it. After drawing Markeaton and Bowbridge 

 blank they went home. As an addendum to last Thursday, it has transpired that 

 hounds never ran faster this season than they did with the dug-out fox from 

 Meynell-Langley Gorse for twenty minutes, when nearly every one had gone 

 home. Indeed, if they ran fast enough for the intrepid sportsman [Mr, Caldecott], 

 who seems by common consent to have been the only one really with them, they 

 must have fairly flown. 



Of all places of meeting in the Saturday country there is none better than 

 Newborough, so a rather large field for a Saturday met the Master and the 

 hounds there on quite a nice hunting morning. If there was no fox in Chantry 

 Wood, at any rate there was a black thorough-bred horse ready and willing to 

 afford sport for the ladies on wheels. A harder bout of bucking and kicking has 

 seldom been witnessed, and his rider [Mr. F. Gretton] deserved great credit for 

 sticking to him as he did. Hounds found in Roost Hill and drove their fox right 

 through Birch Wood in rare fashion, and out on the Abbots Bromley side. For 

 the first few minutes they ran well, and the field, which followed them, soon 

 resembled the tail of a comet. Then they checked, and for that matter kept on 

 checking. Still, they managed to get on with their fox without any assistance. 



