34 THE isORTH STAFFORDSHIRE HOUNDS. 



was quickly cleared up, for the gallant Master, bent on sport himself, and seeing 

 a tidy smattering of pink jackets, to say nothing of a few of the right sort in 

 black, gave the word, and we were soon on the move for Draycot Woods, in the 

 first of which we found almost directly; but, being unable, after dodging about for 

 some time, to make anything of our customer, we gave him up and trotted on to 

 Bromley Wood, where one of a better sort was viewed crossing a ride, and the 

 hounds being ' halloo'd ' on to him without loss of time, he broke away at once 

 with his head for Chartley, but being unfortunately headed back into cover, he 

 broke again at the opposite corner and went at a rattling pace up to Fulford, 

 which he left a little to the right, and presently reached the Sandon and Leek 

 road. We were no sooner over the ' pike ' than the hounds settled down again 

 to their work, and went better than we have often known to be the case ' with a 

 southerly wind and a cloudy sky.' Leaving Hilderstone in the rear on our left, 

 he crossed the hills and dales till we found ourselves in the Hardiwick plantations 

 near Sandon. Here there was little or no check of consequence, for our fox was 

 evidently a game one, and was no doubt considerably aided in his laudable efforts 

 to show sport by the keen bracing air which swept across the hills. Having got 

 well clear of the plantations, he bore to the left, leaving Sandon on the right, and 

 after a severe gallop over some very uneven ground, we reached Sherratt's Wood 

 in Leigh parish. This he merely entered, and, turning to the right, seemed for a 

 time inclined to visit Chartley Park ; but a second thought seized him, or perhaps 

 hearing the hounds too near his brush to be agreeable, turned homewards again, 

 and, after crossing a long range of country, reached Hilderstone Hall. Up to this 

 point there was very little breathing time, and we had once run him in view across a 

 drumble near Milwich, but on reaching the lane near the Bird-in-Hand we lost him, 

 and all chance of picking his bones seemed gone. By means of a judicious cast 

 made by the gallant Master — whom we were glad to see not only hunting his own 

 pack in the absence of Maiden, but always well forward — the hounds once more 

 ' hit it off,' and settled down upon the scent, which they carried on in spite of 

 wind and weather, roads and lanes, up to Fulford and through the Stallington 

 covers into Moddershall Oaks, near Stone, where the gallant pack were seen 

 dodging him about when the writer of this left. Of those who went well perhaps 

 the most noticeable of all was a youth on a racing pony (which had evidently 

 seen hounds before), who, notwithstanding the length and severity of the run, 

 contrived to keep a good place throughout. 



'• Yours, etc., 



" Verax." 



The above run is thus briefly described in Joe 

 Maiden's diary : "Found in Bromley Wood, ran through 

 Hardwick Heath, Hilderstone, Birchwood Park, Sherratt's 

 Wood, and by the Bird-in-Hand to Moddershall Oaks, 

 where he was lost owing to fresh foxes getting on foot. 

 Time, four hours." 



From the Staffordshire Advertiser, November 29th, 

 1856 : 



" These hounds had an excellent run on Monday last. The meet was Dilhorn 

 Hall, and the morning v;as the very reverse of what a sportsman could have 

 wished — stormy and windy beyond description — so much so that it could not 



