1900] A LONG BLITHBURY DAY. 337 



short of the top covert down to the main Derby road, which he crossed and 

 recrossed, eventually getting to ground in Hilton Gorse after a twisting, ringing 

 hunt of about forty-five minutes. Hounds did not find again, though they drew 

 most of the Foston coverts, but they had run close enough to the Top Covert. 

 Penny waste, and Jackson's Planting to disturb any but the most phlegmatic fox. 

 Wednesday, Blithbury. We were favoured with a lovely morning after an 

 exceptionally boisterous night, and, in one sense of the word, this was a hunting 

 day if ever there was one, for, when once hounds had found their fox, which they 

 did in a field just across the main road from the Stych, Mavesyn Ridware, they 

 were at work all the time till night overtook them. They never ran very fast, 

 it is true, and they probably changed more than once, ending up with a leash of 

 foxes in front of them. Briefly the line they ran, or rather, hunted slowly, was 

 back over the main road to the Stich, thence across the same road again and the 

 Bentley brook, pointing for Pipe Wood. After crossing the lane which runs 

 parallel with the brook and beyond it, they turned right-handed to near Hamstall 

 Ridware, with Hamstall Hall on their right, to Laurence's Wood, which the fox 

 must have gone right through, for, though they spoke to it in covert, they could 

 not make much of it, till the huntsman cast on beyond it, when they hit it ofif 

 and crossed the river, only, however, to recross it and to get up to their fox in 

 Pipe Wood. Here a brace was on foot, one going away for Laurence's Wood, 

 while the other one, which they hunted, dwelt in covert. Eventually he went 

 away over the lane, which bounds the wood on the Mavesyn Ridware side, and 

 ran a semicircle left-handed to the top comer of Laurence's Wood. Passing 

 just outside this, he made his way through Blithbury Gorse down to the river, 

 and, crossing, set his head for Hoar Cross, but turned right-handed on a rather 

 backward tack into Rough Park, where there was a shooting-party and another 

 fox. Thence away to the river, then for Cross Hayes, and so back to Rough 

 Park, after two hours and three-quarters. The end of it all was a faint line out 

 towards Morrey. 



Thursday, Thurvaston Stoop. This was a foggy, rainy day, \vith the glass 

 falling rapidly and no wind to speak of. There was a brace of foxes in Culland, 

 and hounds divided in covert, seeming to prefer the scent of the one, which we 

 did not hunt, and he broke back Thurvaston way. Ours, on the contrary, started 

 out over the brook, and ran parallel with it for a bit, till he recrossed it and 

 pointed straight for Brailsford church. Most of the field naturally crossed the 

 brook with the hounds, and Mr. Cecil Leigh got immersed and had to part 

 company with his horse. A fresh fox jumped up on a ploughed field, but hounds 

 could never make anything of it. Very likely the drenching rain to which we 

 were soon subjected had something to do with it. The huntsman cast for 

 Brailsford Gorse, but it was no good, and there was no fox there, but an 

 abundance of rain. Then we had a long jog back to Boden's Thorns, where 

 there were two foxes on foot, and a rare scent in covert, with the little bitches 

 fairly swearing hard words at him, till a great big fox went away by Thurvaston 

 Stoop, and another, having notice to quit, went in the same direction, with his 

 ejectors flying out of covert not far behind him. Very nippy they were, too, as 

 they came out all dash and drive, throwing their tongues sharply. Three of the 

 sisterhood were a little too quick for the rest, coming slipping along by Thurvas- 

 ton Stoop ; but the Master's horn was going out towards Long Lane, so he 

 probably had his eye on them, and the huntsman, catching hold of the pack, 

 soon had them on the line. It would be a pleasure to tell how first this hound 

 and then that guided the pack in unravelling every turn in the tangled skein 

 which followed, but, as it is, it must suffice to say that hounds and huntsman did 



VOL. 11. Z 



