SPORT IN FEBRUARY, 1886. 137 



much interrupted. Not a bad record considering the 

 interruptions. 



The following interesting account of three good days' 

 sport, on February 12th, 13th, and 15th, 1886, appeared in 

 the Staffordshire Advertiser of February 20th of that year. 

 We would call special attention to the sensible remarks 

 of " H. S." on the wire question, which are, unfortunately, 

 just as appropriate and as much needed now as then : — 



NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE HUNT. 



After more than a month of most provoking weather, now raising the hopes 

 of the skaters, and then dashing them to the ground with a' thaw, only to be 

 followed by a blow to the hopes of both skaters and fox-hunters in the shape of 

 deep snow and ice-covered roads, the patience of the much-enduring fox-hunters 

 has ceased to be tried, and the followers of these hounds have been rewarded by 

 some capital sport. On Friday, the 12th iust., the meet was at Walton Hall, the 

 seat of Colonel Chambers, a great supporter of the North Stafford Hunt, and 

 a staunch fox-preserver. He has made a new gorse within a few hundred yards 

 of his house, and though it is only of two or three years' standhig, it has already 

 furnished good sport, and bids fair to be as good a fox covert as any in the Hunt. 

 On December 4th an old dog fox was found at home there, and furnished one of 

 the best runs these hounds have had this season — a good hunting run, though 

 somewhat ringing, of one hour and twenty-five minutes, ending with a fair kill in 

 the open. Every one was therefore doubly sorry last Friday when the new 

 gorse failed to hold a fox, for they knew how disappointed its owner would be. 

 After continuing their search in vain through the Hilcot and Chebsey Coverts 

 and Yeld's Rough, these hounds found one of the right sort in Shallowford Gorse, 

 a covert th'it has furnished some of the best runs in the annals of the North 

 Stafford Hunt. Breaking away in the direction of Norton Bridge Station, 

 Reynard soon began to turn to the right, and worked his way in a wide ring 

 to the Black Planting at Pirehill and on to Yarlet Hill. Here he was viewed, 

 and the hounds rattled him across the Stafford road and by Yarlet Hall down to 

 the meadows in the valley below the Orange Hayes. Here he was again seen 

 not far in front of the hounds, and they continued to bustle him along the side 

 of the Trent until a large rabbit-burrow in a hedgerow near Little Aston 

 afforded him shelter from his pursuers. Time, thirty-five minutes. Cold Meece 

 Gorse was drawn later in the day, and the hounds had not been in it many 

 minutes before Reynard was viewed stealing away towards Cold Meece House. 

 A very fast ring of fifteen minutes ensued, when he saved his brush by getting to 

 ground in a disused marl-pit. The new gorse at Cold Meece, made but two 

 years ago by the Master of the North Stafford, promises to be second to none in 

 the Hunt, both from its position and from the way in which foxes have taken to 

 it from the very first season of its existence. 



On Saturday the fixture was Blackbrook. The hounds were put into the 

 Willoughbridge end of Maer Hills, and two or three foxes were on foot at once. 

 Rattling one along the whole length of the hills to the Camp Hills end, they 

 brought him back along the top and forced him out towards Aston, and then 

 ensued the run of the season. Leaving Aston to the left, they crossed the North 



