EARLY ANNALS. 3 



In the latter part of the eighteenth century and the 

 beginning of the nineteenth, the Woore country seems to 

 have been only hunted as an outlying part of the Cheshire. 

 It appears, however, to have already begun to earn a 

 reputation for carrying a good scent and furnishing stout 

 foxes, as is shown by the following extract from a letter 

 written by Mr. J. B. Glegg, of Withington Hall, to Sir 

 Harry Ma in waring : — 



" In the early days of the Nantwich country, from 1805 onwards, there was 

 great sport from Ravenmoor to the hills. Leech was constantly on them, and 

 we hardly ever failed in the Admiral's cover and going direct as a line over that 

 fine country. I don't ever recollect to have seen finer sport constantly than at 

 that time and over that country. The hounds then hunted the Woore country, 

 and had a wonderful run from Buerton Gorse, went through Oakley Park (Sir 

 J. Chetwode's), crossed the Drayton road below the Loggerheads, just skirted 

 the Burnt Woods, left the Bishop's Woods on the left, Hales on the left, right 

 on through the Small Woods at Knighton, and killed at Batchacre Park (Mr. 

 Whitworth's, in Shropshire), eighteen miles as the crow flies, in an hour and 

 forty-five minutes. It was an extraordinarily fine run, and to within these few 

 years that fox's pad was on the stable-door here." 



After having been hunted over more or less inter- 

 mittently for some years, in 1822 Mr. William Hay, of 

 Dunse Castle, near Berwick-upon-Tweed, who was evi- 

 dently an ardent fox-hunter, undertook the Woore 

 country, which is said to have been hunted previously 

 by Sir Thomas Mostyn. Mr. Hay had commenced his 

 fox-hunting career by hunting the Holderness country. 

 During his term of management (1822-25) the kennels 

 were at Market Drayton, and, besides the Woore country, 

 he used to meet regularly at Seighford, Sugnall, the 

 Loggerheads, and Keele. In 1825 Mr. Hay migrated 

 with his pack to Warwickshire, and it may be of interest 

 to many who have had pleasant experiences of Will 

 Boxall, for many years the popular first whip,* of the 

 North Stafford Hounds, to learn that Mr. Hay's first 

 whip in Warwickshire was also a Will Boxall,f and is 

 alluded to in high terms by "Nimrod." When Mr. Hay 

 gave up the Woore country, it was taken by Mr. 



* And now the huntsman. 



t Grandfather of the present North Staffordshire huntsman. 



