WIRE QUESTION, 77 



Market Drayton, or Pipe Gate. The Wednesday meets 

 by rail to Stone, Cresswell, or Blythe Bridge. Friday as a 

 rule by rail to Norton Bridge ; and Saturday, either from 

 Trentham or Stoke. Any sportsman wishing to come to 

 the country for hunting through the season may find good 

 quarters for himself and stud at any of the hotels at 

 Stoke, Newcastle, Stone, or Trentham, and will be fairly 

 in the centre of the Hunt. 



The '*' wire " question is likely to come to the front in 

 the North Stafford country, as in so many Hunts, un- 

 fortunately, at the present time. There is a good deal 

 of barbed wire now used in many districts in the North 

 Stafford country, and generally mixed with the thorn 

 fence in a dangerous manner for horse and rider. The 

 Eccleshall side is thought to be the worst in this respect. 

 The Hunt has some years since established a wire fund, 

 with a view to taking down the wire at the commence- 

 ment of the hunting season, and putting it up again at the 

 finish, and it is hoped that the landowners and farmers of 

 the district, now that public attention has been called to 

 the matter, will do their best to co-operate with the 

 Master and the members of the Hunt in discountenancinsf 

 such a dangerous and unsatisfactory mode of strengthening 

 their fences. 



The Hunt accounts for the season of 1900-1 show an 

 expenditure of upwards of £400 in connection with the 

 wire fund and the fencing account, including laying 

 about five and a half miles of fences on twenty-eight 

 farms in the Hunt free of charge, at a cost of over £113. 

 The Duke is most anxious on this subject of fencing, 

 and has at considerable cost imported skilled hedgers from 

 Warwickshire in order to show the tenant farmers how to 

 improve and strengthen their fences without using the 

 objectionable wire ; and with this object in view a circular 

 has been sent out from Trentham, asking farmers and 

 others to state — 



"1. Whether there are any suitable fences for laying 

 in your part of the country. 



