1901] A NICE SUDBURY DAY. 341 



hounds were soon on the line again, running nicely by the gorso back to the 

 Sudbury bottoms. From here the fox was viewed by Miss Jervis Smith, who 

 had seen him go away at first, and who was sure it was the same fox, from his 

 peculiar whitish colour,'crawling dead beat into the Alder Moor. There he must 

 have either lain down or got to ground, for hounds could not carry a line out nor 

 did any one see him go away. It was a capital ringing hunt of fifty minutes 

 over a good line of country. A leash of foxes went away at once from the 

 Coppice — proving that there is the right sort of keeper at Sudbury — and the 

 field scattered in all directions. Some galloped off, boundless, for Cubley, some 

 waited for the body of the pack to join the one couple which came out with their 

 fox at the Hare Hill end, and a minority cast in their lot with the Master and the 

 huntsman as they rode best pace Somersal way. These latter caught hounds 

 between the Oak Plantation, between Vernon's Oak, and the Somersal-Marston- 

 Montgomery lane, which they eventually crossed by Marston Woodhouse. Turn- 

 ing back right-handed, they got to Brickhills on the Hollyhurst farm by Rigg's 

 lane, where they lost their fox. Trotting oS" to Eaton Wood, they found another, 

 who was off in a trice, through Lady Wood and Uphill Wood, and crossed the 

 Somersal brook just where a gallant soldier [Capt. Dugdale], now just back from 

 South Africa, jumped it — was it a year ago, or two ? Hunting slowly on up the 

 hill by Mr. Cottrill's house, they pursued their fox over Mr. Peacock's farm, by 

 Brickhills, over Rigg's lane, by Malcolmsley, across the Sudbury-Ashbourne main 

 road, to near Cubley Lodge, where they lost him ; probably through his getting 

 to ground in the warren there, after a nice hunt of about forty minutes. Sapper- 

 ton and the small plantations in Sudbury Park having been drawn blank, 

 hounds went home, thus bringing a good day's sport to an end. 



On Tuesday frost stopped hunting at Birch Wood Park. A good grey 

 pony, which was being driven to the place of meeting, slipped his bridle ofi' 

 and bolted. The driver wisely jumped out, and the pony, dashing furiously 

 into the hedge at the bottom of the hill by Field, staked himself, and was killed 

 instantaneously. 



Thursday. Mercaston Stoop an<l a thick fog. Hounds found a fox by the 

 pond in Kedleston Park, and ran fast into the fog by the gardens, and so to 

 Vicar Wood, whence they ran over the road which skirts the Park, leading to 

 Meynell-Langley, and pointed for Weston-under-Wood. Turning back right- 

 handed, they ran past the blacksmith's shop, up to the lodge on the Derby 

 road, where they were stopped, and a good thing, too, for it is ill work hunting in 

 the dark. 



On Tuesday they came again to Mercaston, but had their journey for 

 nothing, as the fog proved once more too thick for hunting. 



Saturday. Foremark and a soaking wet day. In hunting, as in life, it is 

 the unexpected which always 'happens, and probably few people who sallied out 

 in the rain anticipated the treat which was ie store for them. Finding in Robin 

 Wood, hounds ran well for the best part of an hour ; so well, in fact, that many 

 a man who seldom goes home before the hounds was fain to turn his horse's head 

 homewards at the finish. Briefly, the run was as follows : They ran from Robin 

 Wood to Avithin a field of Ticknall Church, turned right-handed on to Smith's 

 Gorse, which the fox skirted, a cast forward hitting off the line on the farther 

 side, whence they ran through the Alders to South Wood, where they turned to 

 the left, and so on to Calke, through the farm buildings and on to the Abbey. 

 The fox was viewed away from here, and into a field of cabbages and turnips, not 

 far in front of hounds, but somehow he gave them the slip after all. This is but 

 a brief outline of a capital hunt, which only needed blood to make it perfect? 



