Lord Portsmouth's. 337 



BrusMord Wood ; Aslireigney for Riddlecombe, Ash 

 Wood and Coldliarbour Brakes ; Portsmouth Arms for 

 Gratley Wood and Northcote Coverts. Nearly all these 

 coverts are of natural growth and workable size. 



East of the Taw we have Thelbridge Cross near 

 Witheridge^ a very favourite fixture, whence hounds 

 nearly always find in Mr. Thos. Strong's Gorse close 

 by, or in the coverts of Mr. W. Cornish Cleave, who 

 may be said to have purchased his estate (with Brown's 

 Wood in the centre) chiefly with a view to assisting 

 the hunt in that direction. Pedley Wood is one of the 

 leading draws : and Kennerleigh Wood, the property 

 for generations past of Sir Stafford Northcote's 

 ancestry. It is told that a Northcote won both the 

 wood and the manor of Kennerleigh from a Dowrick 

 of Dowrick (in the parish of Stanford) at a game of 

 piquet. The Northcote of that time was considered 

 but a poor hand at the game by his neighbour, who, 

 again, fancied his own play so highly that he did not 

 hesitate to wager the manor of Kennerleigh (some 

 2000 acres) against a comparatively insignificant sum 

 of money. The Northcote won the game and the 

 manor — whereupon the Dowrick had the hands of 

 cards and even the markers passed down to posterity, 

 by causing a facsimile of them in Italian marble to be 

 inlaid in a stone table. The table is still to be seen — 

 a warning to reckless gamblers — at Dowrick House 

 (Mr. Ireland's). Not very long ago two maiden 

 ladies, relatives of Mr. Ireland's, entertained an old 

 woman of the parish one Sunday afternoon to a cup 

 of tea, served on this very table. The servants asking 

 the old dame afterwards how she had fared — she 



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