MR. WICKSTED'S MASTERSHIP. 11 



to finish the season. Lord Anson was well known to 

 fame as a master of foxhounds in the Atherstone country, 

 and is mentioned wdth distinction by "Nimrod" in his 

 " hunting tours." The present Lord Lichfield has kindly 

 furnished the writer with extracts from his ancestor's diary, 

 and other documentary evidence, which prove beyond all 

 doubt that in those early years of the nineteenth century 

 Lord Anson (he was created Earl of Lichfield in 1831) not 

 only frequently drew Orange Hayes and the Sandon and 

 Seighford coverts, all of which now belong to the North 

 Staffordshire Hunt, but also Ranton Abbey, Shugborough, 

 Orgreave, and Teddesley, now belonging to the South 

 Staffordshire and Albrighton Hunts, and occasionally, 

 during the same period, Lord Anson's hounds used to 

 meet at Ingestre. Lord Anson gave up keeping fox- 

 hounds in 1830, on being appointed Master of the King's 

 Buckhounds, and we gather that most of the visits of 

 Mr. Wicksted to Shugborough with his own hounds must 

 have taken place between 1830 and 1836. Of Lord 

 Anson " Nimrod " says that he " was fond of hounds ; 

 his fondness for hounds has, much to his credit, made him 

 a sportsman — his fondness for hounds has made him one 

 of the best and hardest riders of the present day." 



It was in Mr. Wicksted's time that the Woore country 

 acquired the hunting reputation that has lasted in full 

 vigour to the present day, and it must have been a source 

 of great regret when he retired, in 1836. 



During these years the only records of hunting on the 

 Stone side of the North Staffordshire country are accounts 

 of a pack of staghounds kept by Sir Clifford Constable. 

 On October 8th, 1827, they had a great run of two hours 

 and forty minutes after a stag named "Nimrod," which 

 had been turned out at Walton Heath, near Stone. 



Sir Clifford Constable seems to have done the thing 

 in capital style, and the " turn-out " was Lincoln green. 



An entry in a diary of Thomas Fitzherbert, then 

 owner of Swynnerton, shows that these staghounds were 

 hunting in 1825, when they met at Tittensor on January 



