10 THE NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE HOUNDS. 



descended from Crazy by Mr. Wicksted's Harlequin above 

 mentioned, and through her the Bhinkney Comus and 

 Contest, and a number of other well-known hounds, have 

 become famous in work right up to the present day. We 

 are told that Mr. Wicksted used to see a sjood deal of Mr. 

 Eld, of Seighford, in the twenties and thirties, and no 

 doubt he hunted the Seighford district. He often used to 

 take his hounds to Shugborough, on the invitation of the 

 then Earl of Lichfield, for a few days' hunting at the end 

 of the season. There is still a tradition in the Wicksted 

 family that old Wells used to look upon these pilgrimages 

 to Shugborough, and hunting in a strange country, as a 

 very serious undertaking, and his uproarious delight is 

 still spoken of when their day's sport was crowned with 

 success. Mr. AVicksted gave up the hounds (which he 

 had kept entirely at his own expense) when he married, 

 and went to live at Shakenhurst, in Shropshire, having 

 acquired the Shakenhurst property through his marriage. 

 It is a source of great regret that the diaries both of Mr. 

 AVicksted and of Wells should have disappeared. It was 

 well known that both kept hunting diaries, and at this 

 distance of time it is quite impossible to remedy their 

 loss. The following account of the celebrated sire " Har- 

 lequin " appears in the Sporting Magazine of November, 

 1839 :— 



" Harlequin, a celebrated foxhound now in the kennel of Sir Thomas Boughej', 

 and who won a prize at the Hound Show at Osberton, was bred by Mr. Wicksted, 

 by Lord Tavistock's Adrian out of Mr. Wicksted's Elegant. Adrian by Lord 

 Tavistock's Hercules, and Elegant by the Duke of Beaufort's Edgar. " 



We have already mentioned the periodical visits of 

 Mr. Wicksted with his hounds and his huntsman, Wells, 

 to Shugborough in the time of the first Lord Lichfield ; 

 but it seems to be scarcely known, or remembered, in the 

 county, that the first Earl of Lichfield, when Viscount 

 Anson, for a number of years (from about 1819 to 1830), 

 used to bring his hounds every year from Atherstone to 

 Shugborough for a few days' hunting in Stafibrdshire, 

 often in the cub-hunting time, and again in the spring 



