The North Staffordshire. 255 



on tlie west^ between tlie manufacturing district and The 

 Meynell. The steep grassy slopes and lofty moor- 

 lands (the former fenced, as throughout Derbyshire, 

 with high stonewalls) are almost at once impracticable 

 for foxhounds — or at all events for their followers. 

 The same bleak hills roll away thus over half the 

 county of Derby, till at length they begin to melt 

 down where Lord Fitzwilliam and The RufFord once 

 more take up the thread of foxhunting. In this 

 wild unhunted space Buxton is the only name of note 

 — a refuge whither many a crippled and gouty sports- 

 man flies to fit himself for the saddle or the gun. 



It is only the strength and size of their woods that 

 allow of the North Staffordshire being a four-day-a- 

 week country. A great mass of coverts occupy its 

 centre and south-west. Foxes are thoroughly pre- 

 served, everywhere ; and are as wild and strong as 

 they are plentiful. The country, too, — unlike the 

 South Staffordshire — carries an excellent scent every- 

 where (excepting, perhaps, some very few coverts). 

 It is thus a very favourable one for hounds ; and in 

 many parts a very charming one for riders — both 

 sections of pursuers making full capital out of the 

 green covering with which most of the open ground 

 is clad. 



The country, then, may be thus described, as we 

 traverse it from west to east — ignoring altogether the 

 brick-and-water-and-smoke area above Stoke, and 

 bearing in mind that hounds only cross the Stoke-and- 

 Uttoxeter railway for a couple of meets at the foot of 

 the Derbyshire hills. The western edge — from Crewe 

 down to Market Drayton and as far inwards, say, as 



