190 NIMROD'S HUNTING TOUR 



and a half of Shrewsbury — the property of Mr. Loxdale, Town Clerk 

 of Shrewsbury ; but I found him not in the most comfortable 

 situation I ever saw him in. He was sitting, half asleep, by his fire 

 side, having for the first time in his life entirely lost his hounds, and 

 missed one of the finest runs they had had for some time. The fact 

 was, they had slipped away down wind at a ripping pace, and taking 

 a most severe country, all against the collar, his chance of catching 

 them w^as at an end ; so he came home. 



Wednesday the 4th, Sir Bellingham's hounds met at the Fox on 

 the Ellesmere road, four miles from Shrewsbury. The morning 

 was awkward, and the fallows hard, but we had a sharp thing for 

 about twenty-five minutes, and lost by an untoward check. On this 

 day I was much struck with the workmanship of a youth about 

 fourteen years old, apparently the son of a Shropshire yeoman. It 

 was somewhat singular, that, on inquiring his name from Mr. 

 Evered Feilding, I was informed that he was the nephew of a Mr. 

 Stephen Matthews, a respectable Shropshire yeoman, then close by 

 my side. Mr. Matthews himself is capital over a country ; and I 

 ventured to tell him his nephew would make quite a first-rate 

 performer. He put his mare at her fences in a most workmanlike 

 manner, and displayed a method of handling her very rare at his 

 time of life. Knowing where I could have placed her, I asked him 

 if he would sell his little mare ; when he shook his head, and said, 

 " No, never." 



On the 5th, Sir Bellingham met at Sundorn, the seat of Hie late 

 Mr. Corbet. "We found immediately, and went very sharply away 

 to Haman Hill, where, under the shelf of the precipice, the pack 

 divided, and, unseen by every one but the fii'st whipper-in, all but 

 six couples and a half went away to Attingham (Lord Berwick's) with 

 a fresh fox. Strange to say, we ran the hunted fox for more than an 

 hour with these six couples and a half through a long chain of coverts, 

 and there is no doubt but we should have killed him, had we not 

 again changed. The scent was a burning one ; and by not having 

 the body of the hounds, the lovers of fox-hunting lost a great treat, 

 for it was an excellent morning for hearing them, and the deep notes 

 of the dog pack — which we had on this day — would have made the 

 welkin ring. 



