16 THE NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE HOUNDS. 



later on. We find from Joe Maiden's diaries that the 

 average yearly kill of foxes during Maiden's tenure of 

 office was about 35, tlie highest 46, and lowest 23. The 

 writer remembers him well as a bluff, zealous old hunts- 

 man, with cheery voice and manner, and a determination 

 to show sport and to be with his hounds which was 

 surprising, considering his age and his infirmity already 

 referred to. He must have been a first-rate performer in 

 his best days, and no doubt his hound knowledge and his 

 management in the kennel had much to do with the signal 

 success of the pack in the days of Mr. Davenport. Old 

 Maiden had a brusque way with him, and would stand no 

 nonsense from subordinates. It is recorded of him that a 

 nervous second whip came to him one day in the hunting- 

 field and said, " This 'ere 'orse will break my neck." "Who 

 ever heard of a second whip having a neck ? You go and 

 turn them hounds," was the only reply Maiden vouchsafed. 

 Not long before his death, old Maiden asked Mr. Davenport 

 that he might be buried in Maer Churchyard, so that foxes 

 might sometimes come and sport over his grave, as he 

 said. The request was granted, and, strange to say, 

 within a year of his death the hounds actually killed a 

 fox literally on his grave, which was taken from them by 

 Mr. Henry Davenport to be broken up on the Maer terraces 

 adjoining the churchyard. Some curious incidents appear 

 in Maiden's diaries ; for instance, he notes that on one 

 occasion, November 15th, 1853, when the hounds met at 

 Swynnerton Hall, and found at the Pilstones covert, the 

 fox, in the course of the run, climbed to the top of the 

 steward's house at Trentham, but was dislodged and 

 killed at Hanchurch, after a good run of an hour and a 

 half. Again on November 5th, 1852, the meet being at 

 Adderley, he records as a singular occurrence hunting was 

 stopped in the afternoon by rain, thunder, and lightning. 

 On November 29th, 1847, the hounds met at Siddington 

 ToUbar ; they ran a fox to ground at Alderley, where 

 eight traps were found set round the earth. The fox 

 escaped getting into any of them, but the hounds got into 



