WARAVICKSHIRE 183 



to have crossed the Channel again, which I understand he has since 

 done. I was much pleased with his manner of taking his fences. 

 Hewent close up to them before he sprang, and did them in a very- 

 masterly manner. 



Could it have been possible to have been an ubiquitary, I should 

 have been with the Warwickshire, as well as with the Duke's hounds, 

 on the preceding day : it was a bye-day, and only a few people were 

 out, but it shewed an excellent run. They found their fox in Oakley 

 Wood, and ran him for fifty-five minutes, tip-top pace, over the finest 

 part of the country, and killed. 



On Thursday the 15th- met the Warwickshire at Ufton Wood. 

 The covert being central, we had a very large field ; but, what is 

 rare, we drew it blank. We found again in Itchington Heath, which 

 never fails, and killed without much sport. He was so pressed by 

 the pace whilst he was on foot, that when he got into Chesterton 

 Wood, he was afraid to leave it again, and thus lost his life in covert. 

 We had what Mr. Hay calls his small pack on this day — chiefly 

 bitches, and those hounds which he brought into Warwickshire — 

 and I never saw hounds run closer together than in this short but 

 decisive burst. 



Ufton Wood is peculiarly situated. In some directions, a fox can 

 lead you over as fine a country as England can shew, and in others 

 about the worst. This shews the necessity of the field leaving open 

 that side of the covert from which it is desirable that a fox should 

 break. 



There was to me, and indeed it must have been to every one, a 

 very agreeable sight on this day in the field. This was Mrs. 

 Shakerley (the Lady of Mr. Shakerley, jun., of Somerford Hall, 

 Cheshire), upon her beautiful, I might almost say superb, horse 

 The Golden Ball. Mrs. Shakerley is a French lady of high birth, 

 and certainly the most graceful horse-woman I ever saw upon a 

 horse : the Lady Eveline herself, on her white palfrey, could not 

 have excelled her. Her hand, as well as her seat, is quite perfect, 

 and I understand she has gone very well once or twice in Leicester- 

 shire. There was a Foreign Nobleman also in the field on this day 

 who attracted my notice, and who, I thought, sat with much grace 

 upon his horse. This was the Marquis Herrera, an American 



