THE SHIRES. 237 



that old chronicler did not specify. Holwell Mouth, Saxelby 

 Spinney, and Grimston Gorse are all shared with the Belvoir, 

 and a grand grass country lies all aiound them. 



South of Melton, across the Wreake, historic names lie 

 thick : Kirby Gate and Great Dalby mean a fox at Gartree Hill, 

 leagues of grass with 'oxers' thick as leaves in Vallambrosa, and 

 the immemorial Whissendine. It was in this covert dwelt the 

 legendary fox of ' the Squire's ' time, that always broke at the 

 same point and went over the same line, ten miles of it through 

 Leesthorpe, past Cold Overton to Oakham Pastures, where he 

 invariably disappeared in some miraculous way, undiscoverable 

 by hounds or men. From Adam's Gorse you may get a gallop 

 over the Melton Steeplechase Course; from Thorpe Trussels, 

 Ashby Pastures, and Cream Gorse, you may go straight to heaven 

 or that earthly parallel in a Quornite's eyes, found in a gallop 

 over the Twyford Vale. Barkby Holt and Ashby Pastures are 

 other names to conjure by. Here, in old Dick's time, grew the 

 stoutest bullfinches, the regular 'stitchers,' at which 'we used to 

 go slap-bang, holloaing like fun to cheer up horses and men.' 

 Hereabouts, too, are Rearsby and Gaddesby ; Lowesby Hall, 

 made famous by poor Bromley-Davenport in one of the best 

 parodies ever written ; Baggrave and John O'Gaunt ; Scraptoft, 

 and most traditional of all, Billesdon, with its immortal Coplow, 

 which is really within Sir B. Cunard's border. The historical 

 Billesdon Coplow run was in Mr. Meynell's last year of master- 

 ship, on February 24, 1800, on a bitter cold day with the wind 

 blowing from the north-east. The distance is said to have been 

 twenty-eight miles, and the estimate of the time occupied in 

 covering it is fabulously short. After crossing the Soar, the 

 hounds changed their fox and carried the new one on to 

 Enderby Gorse, where they lost him. The only man who 

 crossed the stream on horseback was Mr. Germaine. A famous 

 picture was painted of the run at this point by Mr. Loraine 

 Smith, and, according to him, the only men who got so far 

 were himself, Mr. Germaine, 'Jack' Musters (Byron's rival 

 in love and Assheton Smith's in sport), Lord Maynard, his 



