180 



THE WARWICKSHIRE HOUNDS. 



Lord 



WlLLOUGIIBY DE 



Broke. 



A ?ood thing: 

 from Debdale. 



A day from 



Brous:hton. 



The opening of the next season (1879-80) was not 

 very promising. A good day or two was enjoyed 

 during the latter part of the cub-hunting, but November 

 was very bad. The season was not, however, altogether 

 destitute of good things. 



Some splendid sport wag obtained by those who met 

 the hounds atUftonWood onJanuary 8th, 188®. A finrd 

 at Debdale took them to Leicester'sPiece, making across 

 the fine grass lands as if for Stockton. At the river 

 Leam the field came to a stop, the time having been thirty 

 minutes and the pace killing. The river was not 

 negotiable and the hounds having charged it, got clear 

 away and hunted the fox alone for twenty minutes, 

 pulling him down two fields before they reached 

 Debdale. The field, much disconcerted, had to gallop 

 back a mile to Kite's Hard wick Bridge, wondering 

 where in the world the hounds had gone, and 

 whether they would drop in with them 

 again that day. The death, however, was 

 not entirely unwitnessed, as some stragglers fell 

 in with them, and prevented the entire demolition of the 

 fox, before Orvis, or anyone else, could get up. A small 

 remnant of the field appeared in about twenty 

 minutes. Amongst those first to get to the river were 

 Lord and Lady Willoughby de Broke, the Hon. 

 Chandos Leigh, the'^Hon. Hubert Leigh, Mr. Caine, 

 Mr. Boddington, and two others whose names I have 

 not. 



The next day's sport was also excellent, and as the 

 meet was at Broughton, it goes without saying, as the 

 French have it, that the field was of the same quality. 

 Broughton covert was blank, but Claydon Hill did 

 not fail; and a good one from there went for Shut- 

 ford, and after a ring of thirty-five minutes was 

 killed in Wroxton Park, the pace having been good 

 throughout. A covert in the Park gave them game, 

 which sent them spinning away, with a good promise 



