DRAYCOT WOODS. 75 



hunting season and afterwards. There is not much fault 

 to be found, as a rule, with either farmers or landowners 

 on the score of fox-preserving, and it is a rare event 

 indeed to hear of anv illeoitimate slaughter of our noble 

 foe. The woods at Sandon (the Earl of Harrowby's) are not 

 extensive, but there are several nice small coverts, including 

 Gayton Gorse, some of which generally hold a fox, and 

 often provide a good sporting gallop to Chartley and the 

 Meynell country. 



Moddershall Oaks near Stone is a pretty sure find ; 

 but the Moddershall foxes are not, as a rule, very 

 good travellers, generally contenting themselves with a 

 ring round by Hill's Nurseries and the Stallington 

 coverts and back again. Downs Banks and Kibblestone 

 Gorse are two useful gorse coverts in the same district, but 

 there is no better meet in the North Stafford country than 

 the Bird-in-Hand for Draycot Woods. There are three 

 principal coverts at Draycot, the property of Sir William 

 Vavasour — Bromley Wood, about one hundred acres. 

 Hose Wood, about the same size, and New Close Sprink, 

 something like thirty to forty acres, and two small gorse 

 coverts besides — one known as Mr. Dobson's Gorse ; and 

 if these should unfortunately fail to provide the right 

 animal, there are Sherratt's Wood, Birchwood Park, and 

 Brindley's Wood, all within easy distance, to fall back upon, 

 and a new gorse near Leigh, lately made by that good 

 sportsman and staunch supporter of the Hunt, Mr. John 

 William Philips, of Heybridge. It is very seldom that they 

 all fail, and these Draycot foxes are celebrated for running 

 straight and long, and often for taking a fifteen-mile point 

 right into the Meynell country. Some of the very best 

 runs the writer has ever taken part in have been from the 

 Draycot side, and he must own to having a strong feeling 

 in its favour. The great points are, that the country 

 round is nearly all grass, carrying a first-rate scent, a fair 

 country to ride over, and the foxes are of a good wild sort, 

 who generally disdain to turn and twist until they are 

 dead beat, but set their mask for some distant point, 



