296 THE MEYNELL HOUNDS. [189& 



some grief amongst their followers. One hard-riding welter weight * got a severe 

 fall and broke his nose, much to every one's regret. But hounds were soon at 

 fault again — a farmer's information, wliich put matters right, was welcome. So 

 they hunted slowly on and got on to tlieir fox, or a fresh one, in Parson's Gorse, 

 and ran him to within a field of Radburiie Rough. This part of the run was 

 responsible for bringing disaster on a rare good sportsman, Mr. Maynard, who 

 got a bad fall, and had to be taken home in a cart. Meanwhile hounds hunted 

 slowly on by Kook hills, over the Trusley brook — which, like the poor, is 

 always with us in these parts — till the hunt came to an end, after two hours, 

 between Trusley village and Crop-o'-Top. Ash Grove and Arbour Field were 

 blank, and a Hilton Gorse fox was like the Tarwood one of glorious memory, 

 " He waited not, he was not found," but was away before hormds even got to the 

 covert. Over the brook he went, and for five blissful minutes hounds ran fast. 

 It was uncommonly pretty to see them fleeting like shadows, with the modified 

 cry which betokens pace rising up in the still evening air, while the few who 

 really were with them enjoyed the feeling of space and freedom as " they shaped 

 their own course o'er the billowy grass," after the crowded turmoil of the earlier 

 part of the day, while the hounds themselves must have appreciated it even 

 more. But, alas! a turn down-wind brought them to their noses, the fire died 

 out, and they could only work out a line a short distance further, and then had 

 to own themselves beaten. Still, like the dying reprobate, those who saw it felt 

 that no one could rob them of " the bit of fun they had had." 



Saturday, Walton village. Such a nice, balmy morning, that it was a 

 pleasure merely to be out of doors, and on horseback ; and, when all is said and 

 done, can there be a pleasanter way of spending the day than in riding a good 

 horse about on good, sound grass, in good company, even if hounds do not show 

 much sport ? It is true that there was more plough thrown in to-day than the 

 favoured followers of the Meynell hounds are accustomed to ; but even so it 

 rode light. So a contented field rode off to see Walton Wood drawn, and a fox 

 was soon on foot and away. For the first few grass fields hounds looked like 

 running, but a wheat field soon brought them to a check. A halloa from the 

 carriage folk proved useful, and they puzzled out the line of a well-intentioned 

 fox on the whole (though he meandered a bit), with the help of another halloa, 

 to Drakelowe, and then on slowly to Caldwell, when he beat them. The biggest 

 part of the field was left behind at Drakelowe, and followed on in an extended 

 line of a mile and a half in length, so perhaps it was as well for some of us that 

 the pace was slow. They found again at Drakelowe, or rather a fox was 

 halloaed away a long way in front of them and they hunted him, or her (for 

 some said it was a vixen), to ground on Messrs. Whittingham's farm at Rosliston. 

 After drawing Catton blank, hounds went home. 



Monday, March 13th, 1899, Doveridge. After drawing the Hare Park and 

 Lea Hill osier-bed blank, hounds found in Uphill Wood at Doveridge. There 

 may have been a brace of foxes, for opinions differed very much as to the 

 description of the fox which went away. Some people averred stoutly that it 

 was a bob-tailed one, others that it was not, while one good judge pronounced it 

 to be a heavy vixen. Anyhow, there seemed to be two lines when they got to 

 the Waldley-Doveridge lane. A single hound appeared to have a line up the 

 road, while a few couples were equally busy across the road towards the Somersal 

 brook. Quite half the pack swung towards the road as if the fox's point was for 



* Mr. Gisborne. 



