BILLESDEN COPLOW POEM. 201 



version of it being that Mr. Smith took refuge in the bank, and sent 

 out a sovereign to the coal-heaver in order to avoid further punish- 

 ment. Not only would such conduct have been totally at variance 

 with the character of Mr. Smith, but the improbabiUty of the story is 

 further evident from the fact, that the combat took place before 

 sovereigns were in existence in the shape of coin. 



No. III. 

 BILLESDEN COPLOW POEM. 



{Referred to in note, page 20.) 



The run celebrated in the following verses took place on the 24th of 

 February, 1800, when Mr. Meynell hunted Leicestershire, and has 

 since been known as the Billesden Coplow Run. It will only cease to 

 interest, says a writer in the Sporting Magazine, when the grass shall 

 grow in winter in the streets of Melton Mowbray. They found in the 

 covert from which the song takes its name, thence to Skeffington 

 Earths, past Tilton Woods, by Tugby and Whetstone, where the field, 

 as many as could get over, crossed the river Soar. Thence the hounds 

 changing their fox, carried a head to Enderby Gorse, where they lost 

 him, after a chase of two hours and fifteen minutes, the distance being 

 twenty-eight miles. A picture descriptive of this famous run was 

 painted by Loraine Smith, Esq., who was one of the few who got over 

 the river ; it was until very lately in the possession of Robt. Haymes, 

 Esq., of Great Glenn, Leicestershire. In this painting, which shows 

 the field in the act of crossing the Soar, we see Mr. Germaine, who has 

 just crossed it, and he was the only one out that day who did so on horse- 

 back. Mr. Musters is in the middle of the stream, and on the point 

 of throwing himself ofi" his horse, which is too much distressed to carry 

 him over. The other horsemen in the picture are Jack Raven the 

 huntsman. Lord Maynard, and his servant, who are all three coming 

 up towards the stream. Mr. Loraine Smith, " the Enderby squire," 

 who of course well knows the locality, is crossing a ford on foot, and 

 leading his horse higher up the stream. The hounds are seen ascend- 

 ing the hill on the opposite side, in full cry, leaving Enderby village 

 and church to the left. The song was written by the Rev. Robert 

 Lowth, son of the eminent bishop of London of that name. The 

 reverend divine was one of the field, being on a visit at Melton at 

 that time, and wrote the song at the request of the Honourable 

 George Germaine, brother of Lord Sackville, afterwards duke of 



