74 THE BROCKLESBY HOUNDS. [1841 



The following day Smith went to Irby to arrange a 

 new system of earth- stopping. Instead of each farmer 

 doing his own stopping, in the unsatisfactory way that 

 it had been done during the last year or two, it was 

 decided to employ a qualified person, whose wages would 

 be paid by the farmers in proportion to the size of their 

 farms. 



The first run above the average was a two hours' hunt 

 from Warton Wood to ground, in view, and dead beat, in 

 a rabbit-hole near Grainsborough. Sir Kichard Sutton and 

 Mr. Dennison, who were out, expressed themselves as 

 l)eing particularly delighted with the run, and the way 

 hounds worked. 



Sir Henry Mainwaring, nineteen years Master of the 

 South Cheshire, was out on January 18th, 1841, and saw 

 some good hunting in the Brocklesby district. He spoke 

 very highly of the blood of Benedict, a hound Smith had 

 obtained from the South Cheshire Kennels. Sir Henry 

 also hunted on the 23rd. On the 27th, Will's son Edward, 

 who was mounted by Mr. Marris of Limber, had a bad 

 fall, and was insensible for some time. 



There was a very fast run of an hour and forty 

 minutes, from Great Coates Covert, on February 15th, but 

 Smith was thrown out through stopping to help a gentle- 

 man out of a drain ; hardly any one was able to see the way 

 hounds went, such a pace did they set. They ran through 

 Maud Hole and Stallingboroufirh Covert to Stallinojborouorh 

 Mill, short right-handed through Hungerhill to Aylesby, 

 short left-handed by Maud Hole to Great Coates, right- 

 handed towards Laceby, and left-handed along the valley 

 by Little Coates, to ground in Grimsby Field. All the 

 horses were very beat. 



March 1st was the date of the Hunt Steeple Race, but 

 Smith gives no details. 



Mr. Corbett, the Squire of Elsham, fell and broke his 

 collar-bone while hunting with the Burton in the first week 

 of March ; and another entry in the diary tells us that 

 Lord Chesterfield, Mr. Baring, and Mr. Stanhope made a 



