140 Reminiscences of a 



time in the November of that year. I have a cutting of it, 

 and amongst those who were out, were Captain Fawcus, 

 Hon. Sec. ; Captain (now Sir Robert) Ropner, Messrs. M. 

 Fowler, R. S. Johnson, Richard Forster, G. M. Watson, 

 Geo. C. Whitwell, Dobson, Peirson, Perle, Beach, Smith, 

 Jordison, Appleby, York, Fisher, Armstrong, Barker; and 

 Mrs. Gourley and Mrs. Thompson. The first draw was Brier- 

 ton whin, on the farm of that rare old sportsman and 

 fox preserver Mr. Robert Hird, who was, unfortunately, ill 

 at the time, and could not be present at the find; there 

 were a brace in his covert, and we chopped one and went 

 away with another like a shot, pointing for Dalton Crag; 

 but he turned to his right over Low Stotfold, and ran up 

 to Sunderland Gate and Wynyard, and was knocked off his 

 legs between Whinny moor and Close wood, after a rattling 

 thirty-five minutes. We found our third fox in a little 

 spinney, near the Red Lion Inn, and drove him towards 

 Brierton ; but he was here headed by a plough-boy and 

 turned to his right for Burntoft; headed again, he came 

 back to Brierton covert, ran through it, and went to ground 

 in a drain on Mr. Jordison's farm ; but little " Venom," a 

 rare, hard-bitten, little sort of a fox-terrier, soon made matters 

 too warm for master reynard, and he was bolted and killed 

 after another smart gallop, in Mr. Stephenson's plantation. 

 Yet a fourth fox was viewed away by me from Throston 

 Carr, within half-a-mile of West Hartlepool, and gave us a 

 capital forty minutes, through Brierton covert and by Elwick 

 wind-mill, until we were obliged to give him up, pointing for 

 Cole Hill, through darkness coming on. Three good runs, 

 and accounted for three foxes — not a bad day's work. The 

 Field account goes in for a bit of butter, and says, "William 

 Claxon came to us from the Bicester. All who know him, 



