128 



THE WARWICKSHIRE HOUNDS. 



Lord 



WiLLOUGHBY D 



Broke 



AND THE 



Hon. W. H. J. 



North. 

 1861-1862. 



Improvements 

 and good sport. 



A good nin from 

 Weston. 



better understanding about their work, and about one 

 one point in particular he exhibited a lot of patient 

 perseverance. The hounds had got accustomed a little 

 too much to the '*hark halloo" kind of running and 

 often had their heads up when they should have been 

 down. Matthews soon commenced to work an altera- 

 tion, and to make them understand that they would 

 do better to keep their noses to the ground and look 

 about less. The pack quickly appreciated his require- 

 ments and an improvement in their actions was soon 

 manifested. 



The consequence of these improvements was that the 

 sport of the season, 1861-2, was admirable, and that 

 notwithstanding the variable character of the season. 

 I shall just note one or two runs which may be said 

 to represent the doings of the season. 



On November 14th, the meet was at Shuckburgh, 

 but scent in the morning was very bad. A slow hunt- 

 ing run was had from the well-known hill lasting for 

 an hour and fifty minutes and ending in a kill. Three 

 were then found in Ladbroke Gorse, and on an im- 

 proved scent the hounds ran for three quarters of an 

 hour, the fox going to ground in the new cover at 

 Burton Dassett. 



A meet at Weston Park, on the 17th of December, 

 was the originating point of quite one of the old sort of 

 runs. Weston Park provided a fox, but he was lost near 

 Cherrington. A brace, however, was found in Which- 

 ford Wood, and the bitches got away at a very fast 

 pace by Rollright Coombs and Wark Gorse, over the 

 boundary into the Heythrop country, and passed 

 Heythrop Park. Then through " the Ovens ".with a 

 turn to the right to Sarsgrove, where a short turn was 

 made by the Lodge towards Dean. From here he went 

 towards the Evenlode River, giving his followers the 

 idea that he was ofif to the Forest, but he made another 

 turn, this time for Chadlingtou and was fairly killed 



