The Burton and the Blankney. 45 



Wickenby Wood some years ago they liad_, on 

 successive Saturdays^ two of tlie best days on record 

 in tlie annals of Lincolnshire. The one contained a 

 run with a point of eighteen niiles^ nearly up to 

 Caistor. On the second they had a gallop of extra- 

 ordinary pace : and it is said that hounds covered an 

 eight-mile point in thirty-two minutes ! And it is 

 further related as a fact that^ in the last field their 

 fox turned back stone-blind from exhaustion^ and 

 cantered right in among the hounds. Some of the 

 trysting places in the woods of the Wragby neigh- 

 bourhood are (on either Monday and Tuesday) Clay 

 Bridge, for Stainton Wood and so on; Stainfield 

 Hall, Apley, Langworth Bridge, ^ewbold Common, 

 &c. On Tuesdays^ too, they often meet quite near 

 Lincoln. Greetwell is frequently chosen; as from it 

 they can either draw Fiskerton Long Wood or north- 

 wards to Barhngs, Sudbrooke and Dunholme Gorse. 

 At Stainton is a wood celebrated for the stoutness of 

 its foxes. From it the Burton had, last season_, some 

 of their longest and best runs ; and not unfrequently 

 found themselves carried to the far extremity of the 

 Wragby woodlands. In fact, they had nothing better 

 than on one snowy day, when the ground appeared 

 barred against hunting, and only one or two men 

 attended the meet. Yet, with scarcely a check, they 

 ran from Stainton Wood, past Wragby, just clear of 

 the big woods, and killed at Edlington — only the 

 second whip and one other rider accomplishing the 

 line taken by hounds. 



North of the Wragby woods is a fine wild open 

 country, including a good deal of grass, chiefly in the 



