194 HUNTING IN MANY COUNTRIES. 



or at a smaller spinney near Ledbury. Mr. Pitt goes on to 

 say that hounds ran by Canon Frome, Stretton, and to 

 Cowarne Gorse (this place I mentioned), then turned left of 

 Cowarne Big Wood, and by Ode Court to Westhide Gorse, and 

 over a nice vale country to Stoke Edith. He then mentions 

 a long string of woodlands, and observes that he always 

 thought they changed foxes at Stoke Edith. As well as I 

 recollect, Mr. Morrell thought so, too; but some men in charge 

 of wood waggons — to whom I referred in my account of the 

 run — had seen the fox we were then hunting close at hand, 

 and from what they said the fox they saw was black and 

 dirty. Mr. Pitt says hounds then went through Haughwood 

 (1,000 acres), and this woodland I remember, also that I 

 thought it a part of the Stoke Edith coverts. We next crossed 

 Fownhope Park, and here Mr. Pitt remembefrs watching 

 hounds feather the line down to the river Wye. He infers 

 that hounds crossed the river hereabouts, and says we had 

 to go a quarter of a mile to the right to cross at Holme Lacy 

 bridge, and that hounds killed their fox at Holme Lacy. I 

 had, therefore, the three chief points of the run — viz., 

 Co\\arne, Stoke Edith, and Holme Lacy — correct, and I know 

 I am correct in saying that the pace was fastest in the middle 

 of the hunt — between Cowarne and Stoke Edith — and slowest 

 from the last-named j^lace to the river. Anyhow, it was a 

 great hunt, and even now I cannot give the point, for Paunce- 

 ford is not to be found in my map of Herefordshire. 



Mr. Pitt follows on with some account of the veterans of 

 the Ledbury who were hunting when I was at Malvern, 

 mentioning Dr. Shev/ard and his two old mares, one lop- 

 eared and the other " a grey stargazer that was fed on old 

 wliite peas." They were a wonderful trio, the Doctor and 

 these two mares. Both the latter were almost, if not quite, 

 thoroughbred, and the Doctor certainly was, while he was 

 such a light weight that his mares had very little to carry. 

 " Old John Newman," of the Hill Farm, Cradley, who died 

 some eight or ten 3'^ears ago at the age of ninety-two, is also 

 referred to, and Messrs. Wynnall, of Dymock, Dr. Wood, Dr. 

 Tanner, and others. Mr. Pitt having lived all his life in the 

 Ledbury country, of course, knows it well, and he sends me an 

 amusing account of a hunt breakfast which took place at 



