THE usual Boxing Day crowd of foot and car followers came to the Mansion at Cirencester on December 26 and were welcomed by Lord Bathurst and Lady Apsley.

Hounds had one of the busiest days of the season and ran for four and a quarter hours without stopping during which they covered some 27 miles of country. The garden of the Querns Maternity Hospital was apparently surrounded by people but there was a good fox there which made his getaway through a football match then through the back gardens behind the Beagle kennels heading for Chesterton farm and open country.

Hounds ran fast to Chesterton Wood and Swallow Copse crossing the Malmesbury and Tetbury Roads and running on to Kemble View and the Limekilns. The fox did not at once enter Cirencester Park but continued over the Coates road first. Once inside hounds ran just as well although there was a short check when pointing for the Horse Guards when they had been rather badly over-ridden not to say over driven. They soon ran on over the Broad Ride towards Alfred’s Hall but turned back to Haines Ash Bottom. The fox was obviously tiring and started to run very short but hounds were close to him and it looked as if the end was near.

Unfortunately two enthusiasts near Ivy Lodge shouted in his face and spoilt everything. When the line was recovered it was soon apparent that it was another fox but it is very hard in these woods to know just when a change occurs. Hounds now came away over the farm road to Wellhill and ran on through Daglingworth village continuing in Cotswold country over the Gloucester road to Hunton’s Gorse. They ran on left handed coming back through Snake’s Grove to Overley Wood and running straight through and so back into the Park. Once in here fresh foxes appeared from all directions and hounds continued to run around the woods with a further expedition towards Daglingworth until horses could go no more and they had to be stopped. They deserved a fox and were unlucky to go without one.

Brigadier W Selby-Lowndes DSO, Joint Master of the VWH (Earl Bathurst’s) Hunt with hounds at the Boxing Day meet on the lawns of Cirencester Park

Standard, January 3, 1953