WEEK AT MARKET HARBOROUGH 93 



favoured as some of the rest of that choice Httle 

 country, but it is very good all the same. There are 

 few prettier valleys in Leicestershire than that of the 

 Eye, on one slope of which is a chain of small patches 

 of woodland stretching from Allexton and Stockerston 

 to Nevill Holt, with Watson's Gorse last of all just 

 above the Kennels at Medbourne, and looking over 

 the Welland Vale in the Woodland Pytchley towards 

 Wilbarston and Stoke Albany. Just over the brook 

 on me opposing slope to Stockerston are Wardley 

 Wood and Stoke End, two beautiful Cottesmore coverts. 

 What more natural than that a fox should cross from 

 one to the other and then run out towards the Fitz- 

 william borders by way of Lyddington, or across by 

 the Quaker's Spinney to the Manton Valley ! This 

 does happen from time to time, and it is always 

 present as a possibility. In any case there are plenty 

 of foxes and much sport in a quiet way on Mr. Femie's 

 side of the brook. Nor is there often a crowd to 

 hinder us from seeing what sport there is. Some- 

 times too, but more rarely because of the railway, a 

 fox will run from Blaston Spinneys by way of Vowes 

 Gorse into the Thursday country. But these woods, 

 though not very extensive, have a value to the hunt 

 in that they are practically the only woodlands within 

 its limits. 



Nor is the meeting of Mr. Fernie's your only chance 

 of seeing hounds in this country, for the Cottesmore 

 will often come to Wardley on that day, meeting it is 

 true at some distance from Harborough, but not so 

 far as to be out of reach. Living as I did one winter 

 beyond Harborough, I seldom missed a Saturday with 

 the Cottesmore for the sake of seeing the hounds and 

 the huntsman in these delightful coverts, where sport 

 is almost a certainty. A friend, too, who like many 



