The Bicester and Warden Hill Hunt. 197 



Bicester country — doubles being very frequent, thougli 

 none of them are strongly built. Coverts for tliis 

 meet are none too plentiful ; thougli Blackgrove Gorse, 

 on Sir Astley Cooper's property, is a sure find j and a 

 recently-made covert on Mr. Lee^s Hartwell estate is 

 very promising. The Bicester here join the Whaddon 

 Chase (Mr. Selby Lowndes^) ; and so have frequently 

 to fall back for a second draw on the Wootton Coverts, 

 the Claydons or Chearsley. As has been already 

 pointed out, the fact of the staghounds choosing 

 Thursday for their day of meeting — instead of Monday, 

 as in the time of the late Baron Meyer de Rothschild — 

 leads to a good deal of inconvenience to farmers and 

 field; and it is eminently desirable that a better 

 arrangement should be established. 



Saturday with the Bicester is in the northern length 

 of their country, past and beyond Banbury. The meets 

 of Aynho Park, Souldern Gate, Croughton, The 

 Barley Mow, Finmere, Tusmore Park, and Baynard^s 

 Green, with Astrop, and Thenford (the two last being 

 also occasional Monday meets), are all considered 

 within reach of kennels, and hounds accordingly go to 

 them by road on the morning of hunting. But for Heli- 

 don, Byfield, Fenny Compton Wharf, Prior^s Marston, 

 Lower Boddington, Trafibrd Bridge, and Thorp Mande- 

 ville, the pack has to be sent overnight to Kennels at the 

 last-named place— this happening every alternate week. 

 The former places of meeting are very numerously 

 attended, being within easy reach of Banbury, Brackley, 

 and Bicester, and there are plenty of foxes in the area 

 embraced within these three points — though it is 

 rather a poor scenting country, of light plough, and 



