6 THE NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE HOUNDS. 



second fox was found in a wood in Crewe Park, and took 

 them by Betley to Heighley Castle, where he beat them. 

 From the account, it appears that the woods now separate 

 and known as Heighley Castle and the Claddings were 

 then all one wood and known by the former name. Even 

 now, in their reduced and separate form, they constitute 

 a harbour where it is almost impossible to kill a fox, so 

 what must it not have been in those days ? How many 

 foxes have owed their lives to the shelterins; fastnesses of 

 the Gladdings? On the 18 th Mr. Wicksted's hounds met 

 at Adderley, and Buerton Corse seems to have furnished 

 a stout fox in the afternoon, which afforded a long run, of 

 which, unfortunately, there are no details furnished. 



Mr. Wicksted appears to have been a thorough sports- 

 man, and to have been second to none at that time in all 

 fox-hunting knowledge. 



A word here about Wells will not be out of place. He 

 had the reputation of being a very hard man to hounds, 

 and in his time he broke his collar-bone seven times and 

 fractured his ribs twice. He had been with the Bedford- 

 shire hounds for thirty-six years before he went to Mr. 

 Wicksted, during twenty-four of which he was huntsman. 

 He remained with Mr. Wicksted during the eleven years 

 he hunted the Woore country, and then went to Sir 

 Thomas Boughey, and died in his service March 30, 1847. 

 Warburton says of him, " Wells was a huntsman of 

 the old school, whose like is seldom seen in these degenerate 

 days. He appears to have adopted the maxim of the old 

 Cornish huntsman, ' Master finds horse, and I find neck.' 

 He doated upon every hound in his pack with as much 

 fondness as a father feels for his children." 



Mr. Wicksted and his hounds deserve more than a 

 passing word of notice. Although, unfortunately, his 

 diaries appear to have been lost, and there is little record 

 available of his doings in the way of sport, yet from 

 what Warburton says of him in his songs and elsewhere, 

 and from such records as are forthcoming, it is evident 

 that he was not only a thorough sportsman and fine 



