322 THE MEYNELL HOUNDS. [190* 



our right we went slowly, if not sorrowfully back, checking and casting, till a 

 friendly farmer put us on the line of our fox, pointing for Leigh, and "gone three 

 minutes," he said. But foxes travel fast, and the huntsman was soon forced to 

 make a wide, speculative cast, based on experience, perhaps, of the run of a 

 former fox. Galloping off to the right across the river towards Field, he hit off 

 the line, and they ran, with Carry Coppice on their right, across to Philips' Gorsc. 

 Just beyond the gorse towards the railway the fox, or a fox — two or three had 

 been disturbed — was viewed back towards the gorse. Hounds spoke to the line 

 in the gorse, but, as bad luck would have it, he beat them in the end after a good 

 hunt of over an hour, more than half of which was in the North Stafford country. 

 In the afternoon they found in Cany Coppice, and ran partly over the same 

 ground as in the morning, across the Stone turnpike, by Mr. Lovat's house, and 

 then left-handed between Field and Leigh. Crossing the BIytbe, they left 

 Dodsleigh on their right, as they did in the morning, and ran by Brindley 

 Coppice, through Sherratt's Wood, out on to the Fradswell side, and swung 

 round by Birch Wood Park Farm to Brindley Coppice. 



Tuesday, January 22nd, Chartley. This was a beautiful, warm, cloudy, 

 mornmg, but there seemed to be httle or no scent with the fox they found fii'st in 

 Handleasow Wood — a mangy one. They just managed to hunt him into 

 Gratwich Wood, where they killed him — a good riddance of bad rubbish. As 

 they were on the point of drawing the gorse, a fox was halloaed in the park, 

 but some deer ran across the line and caused confusion, and so hounds were 

 throAvn into the gorse, where perhaps they picked up the same fox. At any rate, 

 one was soon halloaed away, pointing for Birch Wood. Settling to him, hounds 

 ran sharply to the farm this side of the Birch Wood, where the fox was headed,, 

 and, turning at right-angles, pointed straight for the road to Gratwich. After a 

 momentary check they hit oft' the line and began running hard. Some of the 

 field kept to the left of them, and a lady [Miss Vaughan Lee, now Mrs. Payne- 

 Gallwey], charging a gate gallantly, got a nasty fall, fortunately without any ill 

 effects, and cleared the way for her followers. Meanwhile half a dozen or sO' 

 went to the right, and hounds turned sharply in that direction. But these fared 

 little better than the left-hand division, for they were stopped by the well-known 

 big double, which has brought down many a bold rider from his pride of place. 

 To-day it was some little time before they could find a way over, and, with hounds 

 running best pace, even a momentary pause is fatal. So the pack raced away 

 from them across the Gratwich road, dashing over the Blythe, which proved as 

 awkward an impediment as the double, and never gave their fox a moment's 

 respite till they bowled him over handsomely just beyond Gratwich, after a very 

 sharp burst of eleven minutes, all down-wind. By the time the leading horsemen 

 arrived there was not much left of the fox. So hounds won the trick with 

 honours. After a proof of such a capital scent there were naturally high hopes 

 of a brilliant sequel, but these were doomed to disappointment, for the simple 

 reason that they did not find again. A hound or two spoke in Chartley Gorse, 

 and one or two people thought they saw a fox, but nothing came of it. Turner's 

 Gorse, the withy-beds, and the Park coverts were all blank. There seemed to 

 be a stale line in the Moss, but you cannot extract much from a stale line. So 

 after drawing Anglesea Coppice and Grindley Wood blank, hounds went home. 



On Monday, January 29th, hounds went to Darley Moor, but were unable to 

 hunt on account of the snow. 



On Tuesday, at Newton village, snow was still on the ground, and balled a 

 good deal in the horses' feet, which was responsible for the fall on the flat later 



