1899] A BISHTON FOX. 313 



Bag. Going away from there he pointed for Sapperton, but turned short of it 

 right-handed, and back again past the Hall on to Mr. Nash's farm between Foston 

 and Sudbury, where they lost him. They chopped one in the snipe bog, and 

 found another in the old Dove osiers, who took them into the Fishpond Covert 

 and away past the Hall, pointing for Sapperton. After running a few fields in 

 this direction, there was a brace of foxes on foot, and hounds changed from one 

 to the other till they eventually got back to the Park again, where they lost him. 

 They found again in the Pennywaste a fox who went away on the Sutton side, 

 but was promptly headed, and turned back through the covert. He then crossed 

 the main Derby road, and ran a few fields in the direction of Tutbury, but soon 

 turned back and ran towards Foston. There was, however, not scent enough to do 

 anything with him, and they lost him on Mr. Shipton's farm. Every one was very 

 sorry indeed to see Mr. Cooper, of Barton Blount, being driven home in the Master's 

 carriage, owing to his having sustained severe injuries to his head through a fall. 

 Tuesday, Newton village. — A moist, warm morning, not to say foggy. 

 Warmth in the air and moisture in the gi-ound are usually supposed to be the two 

 essentials which make for scent. Unfortunately, there are frequent exceptions 

 to the rule. Hounds drew Coley Gorse blank, and then started on their annual 

 pilgrimage to the Bishton coverts. The popular owner * was unusually sanguine 

 that we should find in the gorse, nor were his hopes doomed to disappointment. 

 No fox was viewed away, but, when a batch of young hounds came bustling out 

 on a line, and Affable proclaimed it that of a fox, the whipper-in felt justified in 

 halloaing them away. A few musical notes on Squire Chandos-Pole's horn — he 

 was acting master for the day in the unavoidable absence of our master — stamped 

 the hall mark of certainty on a somewhat doubtful prelude, and the band began 

 to play. A gate let us into the lane, but an uncompromising-looking bit of 

 timber barred the way out of it, and hounds were running on. It did not take 

 the huntsman many seconds to make up his mind, and a very bold welter weight 

 [Mr. Power], following the good example, hit it hard all round, and, siiaking it, 

 disclosed its frailty. " It is easy enough now," some one exclaimed, as the pent- 

 up field issued out of the lane over it one by one. Meanwhile hounds, after 

 checking in the second field, slipped away at a good pace over the Moreton brook, 

 close to the culvert, into Spencer's plantation. Without dwelling, they dashed 

 along with a left-hand divergence, which soon swung back into a straight course, 

 with Bhthfield Gorse close on their left, over the road which leads from Newton 

 village to the main Rugeley Road, by Admaston, over the Rugeley Road to 

 Blithe Moor. Through this they ran and through Stansley Wood, past the square 

 covert, turned short under Duckley Wood, and out on to the hill beyond. Just 

 short of the road this side of Bagot's Bromley they checked, after a stirring gallop 

 of twenty-four minutes with an accommodating fox, who chose an easy riding 

 line, well-gated. A flock of sheep came wheeling over the line, as is their wont, 

 especially at a tickhsh moment. A wide, forward cast toward the woods, ending 

 in Duckley Wood, failed to recover the line, but they got on to their fox, or a 

 fox, outside Duckley Wood, at the Abbots Bromley end, and hunted him slowly 

 to gi'ound in the pit-hole by Forge Coppice, in seventeen minutes from Duckley 

 Wood. Had they only got away on the back of their fox at the start, with such 

 a scent, they must have fairly flown, and it would have been a stout fox indeed if 

 he had reached Duckley Wood before they caught him. As it is, he lives to run 

 another day, and is the sort every one likes to see save his brush, if it must be so. 

 Unluckily they did not find again, having run through all the coverts which were 



* Major Charles Wood. 



