MEET AT SETGHFORD HALL. 125 



Infirmary Ball at Stafibrd) is from the Staffordshire 

 Advertiser of January 12tli, 1884 : 



" The usual meet of the North Stafford Hounds after the ball took place at 

 Seighford Hall on Wednesday. The Hall itself is a picturesque object, but the 

 goodly gathering of ladies on the terrace, with the scarlet coats of the gentlemen, 

 and the fine pack of hounds (with Dickins at their head) in the foreground, added 

 much to the pleasant scene. The usual hospitality of the host having been dis- 

 cussed, the Moor Covert was drawn, but, being situated on low ground, which 

 also extends half a mile on one side, it makes a bad place to get away from with 

 the hounds when Reynard chooses to take that line. Very soon after the pack 

 had been put into the covert, a fox broke away over this impassable lowland, so 

 we had to make our way as best we could. Those who preferred the fields to 

 the road through the \allage found the parson's wicket nailed fast, which 

 necessitated a nasty ditch full of water being negotiated. Here the first mishaps 

 of the day commenced, for one or two ' did not remain,' as the distinguished 

 foreigner said when his horse jumped a fence and he fell off. The hounds, 

 fortunately, ran in our favour, and we soon caught them up going at a good 

 pace. They crossed the road from Seighford to Stafford, and on to Oldford, 

 then to Clanford, by Seighford Grange to the Four Lane Ends, when he doubled 

 back, running through the Long Covert to Cooksland, on towards the Moor 

 Covert, where he was found ; but, leaving this to his left, he ran nearly the same 

 line as before, but this time, instead of turning to his right, he veered to the left, 

 and let us in for a nasty-looking brook. In such a contingency there are various 

 ways of proceeding, there being ignominy on one side, and danger on the other, 

 and all being in full view of each other, it makes the position anything but 

 agreeable. Some went at the obstacle with a firm will ; others attempted it, 

 thinking it may be their last plunge ; while a third section, evidently of opinion 

 that discretion is the better part of valour, take the back track, disappearing 

 when least observed. Poor Eeynard's struggle ended within two or three fields 

 of this brook, being killed in the open after a smart run of forty-eight minutes. 

 After drawing two or three more coverts, the hounds were trotted on to Shallow- 

 ford Gorse. The good arrangement of keeping the field at the gate a field from 

 the gorse was again observed, against the desire of some rather impetuous spirits, 

 who gave vent to such exclamations as, ' We shall never hear them ! ' ' They 

 will go away and we shall know nothing of it ! ' ' The wind is blowing the sound 

 the other way ; we had better go ! ' But we had not been more than two or 

 three minutes before we saw Dickins, through an opening in the trees, raise his 

 cap on the other side of the gorse. All is right now ; give scope to your ambition, 

 put his head straight ; sit still and let him go. They are away, and there is 

 plenty of room for all. The hounds are all together, skimming the ground 

 like a flock of pigeons. The road from Walton to Whitgreave is soon reached, 

 and across the Black Planting seems his line ; but he keeps more to the right — 

 perhaps he found the pace too hot — making a straight line for Aston village, 

 where there was a slight check near some cottages ; but Dickins made a good 

 cast, and stnick his line again. The fox made straight for the river Trent, which 

 is here impassable, so we rode for the bridge at Aston, and found the hounds had 

 marked their quarry to ground in the neighbourhood of the Orange Hayes, in a 

 drain in front of the house of Mr. Ashcroft, who is a substantial English yeoman 

 of the good old sort, and a staunch fox-preserver. The length of this run was 

 twenty-five minutes, and the distance four miles as the crow flies. Thus ended a 



