JOHNA.SEAVERNS

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY IN ESSEX,

LORD ROOKWOOD.

LEAVES

FROM

A HUNTING DIARY

IN

ESSEX

H. BEAUCHAMP YERBURGH

("McADAM "

"And plainly as the field moves off
In a still lengthening line,
Now might 'McAdam' note the name
Destined in print to shine."

Lay of Matching Green, 1SS3, by R. Y. Bevan.

VOL

XonC>on :
VINTON & COMPANY, LIMITED,

9, NEW BRIDGE STREET, LUDGATE CIRCUS, E.G.

1900

These Two Volumes

are

Dedicated

to

The Right Hon. Lord Rook wood,

ivit/i

grateful remeuibrances of the many happy years of good

sport zvith the Essex Hounds enjoyed under his

rdgime as '' Sn^ HenryI'

by

the Author.

prp:face.

Let me at once acknowledge that any interest these
"Leaves from a Hunting Diary" may possess for those who
have hunted in Essex, or who may be hunting in years to
come, will be due almost entirely to the photographs and
sketches with which they are illustrated, and to the extracts
(never before published) from the interesting hunting journals
of the late Charles Ranken Vickerman.

It is, therefore, with no small feeling of gratitude that I
have to express niy thanks to those who have so very kindly
and generously placed photographs of themselves and their
favourite hunters at my disposal for this work. To that ex-
cellent amateur photographer, Mr. Arthur Salvin Bowlby,
I am particularly indebted.

To Mr. H. A. Cole I owe a good deal for the very con-
scientious way he has rendered the sketches from nature.
I am also under a deep obligation to Mr. C. Vickerman
for giving me every assistance in carrying out his father's
wishes relative to his hunting journals.

A good many of my "hunting leaves" have from time to
time appeared in print, mostly in the Essex Times. To the
proprietors of that paper, and to the proprietors of the Essex
County CJi7'onicle, Essex. Weekly News, The Field, and County
Gentleman, for permission to reproduce such accounts, and for
a similar sanction from the proprietors of Bailys Magazine
for the use of their portraits of Mr. C. E. Green, and the late
Mr. Henry Petre, General Mark Wood, and Mr. Henry
Vigne, I return my warmest thanks.

That my productions will be read by any who have not
taken part in the runs herein mentioned I do not expect.
Essex is not Leicestershire, nor have I the pen of that

X. PREFACE

disciple of \Miyte Melville. Brooksb\% whose vivid descrip-
tions of stirrini( runs in his book, "The Cream of Leicester-
shire," first inspired me years ao-o with the ambition to some
day brini^" out some illustrated hunting leaves.

With the exception of the Friday country (the northern
part), which I seldom had the opportunity of visiting, most
of the principal coverts within the boundaries of the hunt are
included in these illustrations.

H. B. Y.

CONTENTS

Chapter I.

PA(5 E

Lord RookwooJ — Lady Rookwood — Lancelot RoUeston — -Desdi-
chado — ^Janies Bailey —Some hard riders with the Essex in
1879 — Making acquaintance with Essex ditches — November
frost — Richard Beale Colvin— George Dawson —R. Womersley
— Harry Bagot — Epping Bury — ^Albert Deacon— J. Todhunter
— Captain Meyer — Cub Hunting in 1881 — The Crcmc dc la Crime i

Chapter H.
Hervey Foster — Pilgrim — Major J. F. Foster — Katafelto — The
Bold Trimmer — Cubs in Bushwood — Barnsleys to Forest Hall
— W. Bambridge — Disastrous Days — General Mark Wood — A
Big Jump— Empty Saddles^Col. Lockwood — -Bishop's Hall —
Robert Lockwood — Friar — Bull's Eye— Watchman — The Cus-
tomers in 1873 — The Warren Fox— A Wet Season — Full Cry
through Waltham Abbey — James Green — Across Country from
Parndon Hall — Who's for Epping ? — Rolls Park— Col. S.
Howard — Bob Ward — Hertfordshire Woodlands — Arundel —
Boyton Cross — Edward Gibson — Screens — Matching Green,
1883 — Roothing Ploughs — Multum in Parvo — Phantom ... ... 33

Chapter HL
Major Tait — West Essex Polo Club — Qui Vive — Kitty — Meets not
Advertised— St. George — Duke and Duchess of Albany at
Easton Lodge — Xmas Eve, 1883 — Chasseur — Beau Walmsley —
Harlequin — Kingston — Bob Chapman — Abigail — E. A. Ball —
Dynamite and Waterford — Lost in the Fog — Chance — The
Lord :\Iayor has a Day — F. Green — Blue Beard — Grafton—
Cub Hunting in 1884 — Hounds Staked — Mr, R. Parkes Breaks
his Arm — Bob Ball — Boycott — The Abridge Policeman —
Thornwood Gate — The Run of the Season — A Broken Back —
A Regular Trap ... ... ... ... ... .. ... 55

Chapter IV.
Tyndale White— The Mahdi— Wesley Hunts the Hounds— Walking
the Plank — J. Perry Watlington — Lord Onslow — Cub Hunting
in 1885— A Wet Season — Early Hours — Mliss — Sparrow
Hawks — Israel's — Latchmore Banks — Takeley Forest — Dun-
mow High Woods — The Knights and Dames of Matching
Green — A. Caldecott — Blind Fences — Hounds Staked — The
Blue Peter — Unhorsing Sir Henry's Carriage — Blue Gates —
Over the Saw Pit — Skating and Hunting — The Close of Sir
Henry's Mastership — Bill Richmond— Lady Betty — A Broken
Arm — Snow and Frost — White Roothing — The Friar Shuts Up
— Bosphorus — Afternoon Runs — Red Tunics — The Great Run
from Toot Hill— A Sly Trick 99

CONTENTS

Chapter \'

Loftus Arkwright — A Fatal Thunderstorm — Wet October —
Matching Green, 1886 — James Duke Hill — Canfield Hart — The
Melton Doctor — Knight of Kars — T. Usborne — The Dunmow
Clothier — A Cat and Mustard-pot Day — Harlow Bush Common
— Dobbs Wood — The Skewbald Horse — St. Leonard's, Nasing
— William Sworder — Shalesmore — Xmas Eve, 1886 — A Long
Frost — Matching Green, 1887 — The Knight of the Black Cap —
The Great Stag Run on Xmas Eve, 1887 — Unrivalled Sport
— George Brown — Suart's Caress — Bye Days — Bentley Mill —
The Surrey Deer — F. Avila — Matching Green, 1888 — The Kind
Samaritan — Canfield Mount — The Kildare Flyer — The Stranger
Scores — Canfield Thrift — The Wake Arms — Penned in the
Warren — A Fence we don't get in Essex ... ... ... ... 130

Chapter VL
Mark Hall— Loftus J. W. Arkwright— A Red Letter Day— Diana—
The Polo Pony succumbs — Harry Bagot — Vulpecide — A Pre-
mature Request — The Last Day in the Roothings — Newman
Sparrow — The Hart, The Mount, and The Thrift — How Henry
John got Home — Bye Days — The Prince of Wales at Easton
Lodge — A Blank Day — The Royals — Henry Vigne — Wm.
Hurrell — The Reptonian — Crawley's Advice — Row Wood — A
Clinker from Forest Hall — A Hard Day — Mr. Bevan's Horse
Dies — The Celery Hare — Mr. Vigne has the best run of half-a-
century — Quite Quiet — Engulfed — Merrylegs — The Run of the
Season — Harlow Park — Lieut. -Col. the Hon. W. H. Allsopp ... 164

Chapter VH.
Darnley — Architect — Sir Claud de Crespigny — Hypatica — The
Funker — Mr. Colvin's Golden Lady — Jackdaw — Totnes — Rose
of Devon — The River Dart — A Good Win — Lord Alfred — Hop
Bitters — St. Devereux — True Love for Germany — Bryn —
Verbena — A Bad Conveyance — A. J. Tweed — Woodside —
1890-91, a Poor Season — W. Symes' Grumpier — Snow Wreaths
— The Queen of the Valley — W. Morris — Ed. Neave — The
Merry Fiddlers — Let Well Alone — \\'orkman — Henry Petre —
A Mud Bath — Capt. Du Cane — Matching Green, iSgi — A Deal
in the Hunting Field — Dr. Syntax — Weston's Patent — Griffin's
Wood — The Peel Family — D. Cunliffe Smith — The General
Meeting — Mr. Green Resigns ... ... ... ... ... 194

Chapter VHP
Cubbing in 1892 — C. E. Green — Charles Crawley — The King
William — A Foggy Matching Green — Curtis Mill Green — Rose
Hall — Navestock Church — Over the River — Home at 2.30 —
Leisure Hour — Mr. E. Barclay's Harriers — T. J. Mills — The
Fagot-stick Fox — R. Waltham — Lewis Phillips — Maries Farm
— Cubbing in 1893 — Hard Ground — Farmers Complain of
Small Fields — The First October Gallop — F. Green, jun.,
breaks his arm — Harlow Park — Rundell's Grove — Duchess
comes to Grief — H. J. Price has a Bad Fall — J. Sands —
Dagnam Priory — Bedford's Chaffey Collin's Run — Hatfield
Town — White Roothing — Cedric — Collin's Leap ... ... 227

CONTENTS XIU.

Chapter IX.

PAGE

Gilston Park— E. Salvin Bowlby — The Annual Meeting, March 17th,
1894 — The Mark Hall Run — Full Cry past Maries— Andrew
Roddick — The Duke of York's Own Loyal Suffolk Hussars — A
lovely country bar the wire — The Admiral to the rescue — The
Lea Valley — The Melles Family — Bones and Brigadier — ^The
German Officers — A late draw — Golfing weather — The Essex
Stag Hounds — Grange Farm — A scent on the dusty ploughs — •
Sampling a blind 'un— Sheffield Neave, M.S.H. — Stratford^
Captain Digby Neave —Leinster — ^False Prophets — Luffman's
Earths — Twenty good days — -Newman Gilbey — The Challenge
— The Denouement — John Swire — York ... ... ... ... 261

Chapter X.

Trouncer — Forbidden Ground — More Vulpecide — Passingford
Bridge — A Successful Cubbing Season — Col. Cook, his Observa-
tions— Parson Fane — Lady Warwick as a Whip — IMatching
Green, 1894 — ^^^^ Wood lalank for the first time in 11 years —
Were they Satisfied ?—R. Tilling — Mrs. Mcintosh's Gorse —
The Fox of the Year — -The Old Hero Dies — Easton Lodge^
Good Sport — Empty Stalls — Brook House — Lockjaw — A Sad
Fatality — Bobbingworth Wood — Daybreak — Cart Shed Wood
— Mr. Millbank's Fox Escapes — Nasing Common — Mr. C.
Bury's Foxes — Nicking In — Foxes' Wood — A Real Clinker —
Sonnet — Really the Briars Concealed Him — High Roothing
Springs — Mr. P. Gold's Bad Luck — Jacob Marriage — A Good
Purchase — A Contrast — The Doctor — Away for the Lavers —
The Double Ditch — Parish Councils — A Happy Village — The
Beachetts — Mr. Bosley's Fox— Peterboro' Show — The Pick of
the Kennel — Mr. Benton Stakes his Horse — Sam Fitch — The
Grey Cob — The Evening Gallop — Only Three Left — 'Ware
Wheat, Sam ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 290

Chapter XI.

Gaynes Park — The Romford Vale — Mr. Frank Ball to the Rescue —
Gamecock — Bower Wood — Badger Digging — W. H. Pemberton-
Barnes — Claybury Wood — Easter Monday, '96 — The Wire-
Haired Terrier — Barking Side — Whitechapel — Norton Heath —
What Sport ? — A Good Run in a Gale of Wind— Braunston
Gorse — The Charm of the Midlands — Back Again — Lord's
Wood — In Spite of Fog — Ball Hill Woods — The Army and
Navy— Cheating the Frost — Nearly too Late — Sir Charles
Smith's Coverts — Short but Sweet — Another View of the
Beachetts — Fox Hunting Statistics — The Advantages of the
Game — A Conditioning Day — Little Laver Mill — Willingale
Spain and Willingale Doe — Capt. C. D. Bruce — Roy — Capt.
G. M. Tufnell— E. Tufnell— A Trappy Double— Sleigh Bells— ^
Havering Park — Edward Barclay — Cireystoke — Lucky Fridays
— M. Tosetti — The Martyr ... ... ... ... ... ... 322

Chapter XII.

T. Bosley — Weald Hall Coppice — Frozen Out — The Fox and his
Enemies — Bandy at Elsenham — Essex v. Puckeridge Hunt —

CONTENTS

E. Ethelston — The Break up of the Cireat Frost of '95 — The
Ice Carnival— Really good going, Sir !— W. Sims Horner — A
Root Ditch — Poles' Wood — One, Two, Three, over they come —
Jugged Hare at Sewald's Hall — The Influenza Cure— Bosley's
Fox— In or Over is Mr. Lobb's Motto — Fourteen all told— The
old Guard — Pyrgo Wood — Riding away from Hounds — Leonard
Pelly — The usual blank at Forest Hall — No Commoner, surely !
— Splash of Rain— Brick Kilns again— Full cry from Man
Wood — Essex for ever — Diana to the front — Moor Hall — A. C.
Oldham — A Good Finish

355

Chapter XIII.
Bell House— The Essex Kennels, 1808— The Point to Point Races
at High Roding Bury — Pyrgo House— Luck in Horse Dealing
— G. Sewell — Duchess — A Wonderful Recovery — The Merry
Midlands— Crick Gorse— Scylla and Charybdis— Brooksby —
The Quorn Countrie— The Coplow — John o' Gaunt — Barnsleys
—Hunt Changes — E. E. Cockett — Northamptonshire Brooks-
Bailey's Plunge — Canes — The Sequel to a good Stag Run —
W. H. Sewell— Jack— Over the Iron Railings— The Hunt
Button — One of the worst frosts in the memory of man — A
Retrospect — Blooding our young Nimrods — Cubbing Notes in
'95 — Weston Crocker — Blizzard — True Blue — One fence in
October worth a dozen later — Roydon Park— In the Heart of
the Roothings — Garnetts — The Queen of the Hunt — A. R.
Steele— The Pleshey Tonic — A Bid Photo of a Good Horse —
Havering- Atte-Bower — Loughton Shaws — Bellows to Mend ... 386

Chapter XIV.
Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, K.C.M.G. — Warhes — Netteswell X —
The Weald Brook— Latton Park to Matching Hall— The Mex-
borough Thoroughbred — The Scarlet Jacket — The Evening
Gallop from Man Wood — The Rector of Abbess Roding —
Marshall— A Tricky Fence— The " Black Bull," Fyfield— The

Dido Brand — Nevill Dawson — The " Green Man," Harlow

Sticking to Hounds— Reaping the Reward — A Riddle Unsolved
—Black Mondays--The Hunt Staff— Courtfield Wood— Con-
flicting Evidence — Casualties — Too Late — Poplars 415

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS TO
LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY IN ESSEX."

Allsopp, Lieut. -Col. Hon. W. H., Junior Carlton Club, Pall Mall.
Arkwright, Loftus, M.F.H., Parndon Hall, Harlow.
AviLA, Frederick, Theydon Hall Farm, Theydon Bois.

Backhouse, J. E., Bank, Darlington.

Baddeley, W. H., Whitehall Hall, Chingford. (Two copies.)

Balfour, John, Moor Hall, Harlow.

Ball, Edward A., Egg Hall, Epping.

Ball, Richard Francis, Theydon Copt, Epping. (Two copies.)

Bambridge, Mrs. W., The Green Man, Harlow.

Barclay, Edward E., M.F.H., Brent Pelham Hall, Buntingford. (Two

copies.)
Barclay, Ford, 14, Berkeley Street, \V.
Barker, John, The Grange, Bishops Stortford.

Barron, Richard Bankes, Gilstead Hall, South Weald, Brentwood.
Basham, Frederick T., Hubbards Hall, Harlow.
Bennett, Mrs. Lyon, Taylors, Chigwell.
Bevan, R. Y., Egg Hall, Epping. (Two copies.)
Bidder, B. P., Bushey Heath, Herts.
Blyth, Audley, Blythwood, Stansted.
Blyth, Herbert W., Blythwood, Stansted.
Boardman, a., Bookseller, Bishops Stortford.
Bonsey, Mrs. W., The Vicarage, Lancaster.
BowLBY, E. S., M.F.H., Gilston Park, Harlow.
BowLBY, Mrs. E. S., Gilston Park, Harlow.

BowLBY, Arthur Salvin, Gilston Park, Harlow. (Two copies.)
Bruce, Major C. D., Shrubbs, Harlow.
BucKMASTER, Rev. Edward, The Vicarage, Epping.
Buckmaster, Walter S., Croft House, Stansted.

BuRNEY, Mrs. George, Box Cottage, North Church, Berkhampsted.
Bury, Ralph Frederick, St. Leonards, Nazeing, Waltham Cross.
Buxton, Edward North, Knighton House, Buckhurst Hill.
Buxton, Gerald, Birch Hall, Theydon Bois.

Buxton, Sir Thomas Fowell, K.C.M.G., Warlies Park, Waltham Abbey.
Buxton, Thomas Fowell Victor, Woodredon, Waltham Abbey.

Caldecott, Miss M. M., High Croft, Husbands Bosworth, Rugby.
Calverley, J. Selwin, Oulton Hall, Leeds, Yorks. (Two copies.)
Calverley, Captain Horace, Naval and Military Club, 94, Piccadilly, W.

xvi. LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS

Caldwell, Seymour, Navestock Side, Brentwood.

Carr, Thomas, The Lodge, Waltham Abbey.

Carr, Wilfred, RoUestons, Writtle.

Charrington, Henry, Castle Hill, Tutbury, Staffs. (Two copies.)

Christie, Charles A., Esdale House, Hoddesdon.

Christie, Norman P., Myddleton House, Hoddesdon.

Christie, Charles Henry Fehler, Wilderness, Ongar.

Christy, Theodore, Chignal St. James, Chelmsford.

Christy, David, jun., Margaretting Hall, Ingatestone.

Christy, James, Writtle, Chelmsford.

Christy, Miller, Pryors, Broomfield, near Chelmsford.

Clarke, Mrs. W. R., Debdens Hall, Loughton.

Cock, Charles H., Bridgefoot, Barnet, Herts.

CocKETT, J. E., Evergreen Lodge, Wanstead, Essex.

Cockett, E. E., Woodside, South Woodford, Essex.

Cole, Henry A., Knighton Villas, Buckhurst Hill.

Collin, C. Chaffey, Portland House, Basinghall Street.

CoLviN, Lieut. -Col. Richard B., Monkhams, Waltham Abbey.

Costerton, a. E., The Vinery, Bury St. Edmunds.

CoTTis, William & Sons, Epping, Essex.

Coverdale, H., Westwood Estate Offices, Wigan.

Cowee, Thomas, Chipping Ongar.

CowLiN, Benjamin, Epping, Essex.

Crocker, Weston, The Grange, Hatfield, Harlow.

Crossman, Douglas, Dudbrook, Navestock, Brentwood.

Crossman, J. H., II, King Street, St. James, S.W.

Cure, L. Capel, Abbess Roothing Rectory, Ongar.

Dalton, William, Burses House, Hutton, Brentwood.

Darby, Alfred, 2, CHff Town Parade, Southend.

Dashwood, Philip W., Griffin's Wood, Epping.

Davis, A. B., Victoria Buildings, Epping.

Dawson, G. H., 29, Lansdowne Crescent, Bayswater.

Deacon, George Coutts, Walnut Tree House, W^altham Cross.

Debenham, Horace Bentley, Thrifts Hall, Theydon Bois.

DocwRA, Ernest, i, Gloucester Terrace, Regent's Park, N.W.

DocwRA, John W., i, Gloucester Terrace, Regent's Park, N.W. (Two

copies.)
Dunlop, R. J., Norton Hall, Norton Mandeville, Ingatestone.
DuRRANT, Edmund & Co., 90, High Street, Chelmsford.

Edwards, Arthur J., Beech Hill Park, Waltham Abbey.
Elder, Mrs. H. H., 148, King Henry's Road, South Hampstead, N.W.
Ethelston, Edmund, Rowney Lodge, Winiborne, Dorset. (Two copies.)
Ethelston, Captain R. W., Hinton, Whitchurch, Salop. (Two copies.)
Evans, P. M., New Farm, Epping.

LIST OF SUBSCRIHERS XVll.

Fane, Colonel Frederick John, Priors, Kelvedon Hatch, Brentwood.

Field, James W., Epping, Essex.

Fitch, C. F., Elmhurst, Collier Row, Romford.

Flinn, Frank, Bishops Stortford.

Flint, Abraham, The Grange, Chigwell.

Flux, Edward Hitchings, Coopersale Hall, Theydon Garnon.

Fowler, Trevor, Northlands, Epping.

Galloway, W. M., Shelly Hall, Ongar.

Gething, H., Aberbaiden, Abergavenny, Mon.

GiBBS, Kenneth Yardley, Balcony House, Sewardstone, Chingford.

GiBBS, D. Cecil, Vineyards, Great Baddow, Chelmsford.

Gibson, Edward, Crix, Hatfield Peveril, Witham. (Three copies.)

GiLBEY, Sir Walter, Bart., Elsenham Hall, Essex.

GiLBEY, Newman, Mark Hall, Harlow.

GiLBEY, Guy, Elsenham Hall, Essex.

GiLBEY, Tresham, The Grange, Bishops Stortford. (Two copies.)

Giles, Arthur B., 45, Bryanston Street, W.

Glyn, Miss M., 12, Selwood Place, Onslow Gardens, S.W,

Godson, Ernest H., Heckington, Lincolnshire.

Gold, Gerald, Bentfield, Stansted.

Green, Charles Ernest, M.F.H., Theydon Grove, Epping. (Two copies.)

Green, J. J., Great Parndon, Harlow.

Green, Frederick, Hainault Lodge, Hainault, Chigwell Row.

Gregory, D., 41, Amhurst Park, Stamford Hill, N.

Gripper, George Bell, Brooklands, Birchanger, Bishops Stortford.

Grubb, Richard T., West House, Harlow.

Harenc, Mrs. Archibald, hi, Queen's Gate, W.

Harenc, Archibald Geraint, hi. Queen's Gate, W.

Harris, George H., Sawbridgeworth, Herts.

Harris, James, " Thornbury," 2, Tor Gardens, Campden Hill, W.

Hart, George, Weald Place, North Weald, Epping.

Hart, Hugh W., Canes, North Weald, Epping.

Hart, Francis George, Hartland Road, Epping.

Hayden, E. W., St. Helens, Epping.

Hill, Reginald Duke, Holfield Grange, Coggeshall.

Hilleard, G. E., Fairfield, Chelmsford.

Hills, Joseph, Epping, Essex.

Horner, H. W., Fern Hill, Walthamstow.

Horner, W. Sims, Fern Hill, Walthamstow.

Howard, Col. S. L., Goldings, Loughton.

Howard, Alexander L., log, Fenchurch Street, E.C.

Hull, Thomas Read, Jericho, Blackmore.

Hull, T., jun., Jericho, Blackmore.

Jasper, W., Thorley Hall, Bishops Stortford.
Jones, Mrs. Handfield, 35, Cavendish Square, W.

XVIll. LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS

Jones, H. E., Marden Ash, Ongar. (Two copies.)

Kemp, Alfred, Braeside, Connaught Avenue, Loughton.

Ketts, \\'illiam, Buckhurst Hill, Essex.

KiRKBY, James, Epping, Essex.

KoRTRiGHT, Captain M., The Hut, Fryerning, Ingatestone.

Lawrence, N. S., High Street, Epping.

Lee, G. H., Waltham Abbey.

Lee, H. W., Gwynne House, Woodford Bridge.

Lee, Philip S., Beamlands, Seaford, Sussex.

LoBB, Arthur W., Rolls Park, Chigwell.

LocKwooD, Lieut.-Col. A. R. M., M.P., Bishop's Hall, Romford.

Love, William, Hoddesdon, Herts.

LoYD, F. E., Amwell Grove, Ware. (Two copies.)

Lyall, Roger Campbell, Hastingwood House, Harlow.

Mann, Miss Gertrude J., Hyde Hall, Sawbridgeworth.

Marriage, Jacob, Bankside, Oxted, Surrey,

Marsh, W. S. Chisenhale, Gaynes Park, Epping.

Martineau, W., 20, Tite Street, Chelsea Embankment.

Mashiter, Edward Thomas, M.F.H., Gatwick, Great Burstead, Brentwood.

Mathews, Thos., The Bury, Codford, St. Peter, Wilts.

McIntosh, Mrs., Havering Park, Havering-atte-Bower.

Melles, Joseph W., Sewardstone Lodge, Chingford. (Two copies.)

Meyer, H. J., Little Laver Hall, Matching Green. Harlow. (Two copies.)

Michell, Henry B,, Eastbury, Romford.

Miller, Henry John, Gardener's Farm, Theydon Garnon, Epping.

Morris, Wayman, Shakespeare Hotel, Dover.

Neave, Edward, 5, Warwick Road, Ealing.
Neave, Lieut.-Col. A. T. Digby, Hutton Hall, Brentwood.
Neave, Sheffield, Mill Green Park, Ingatestone.
Neill, Mrs., Newhall, Harlow, Essex.

Oldham, A. C, The White House, Headley, Epsom.

Parkes, C. R., II, Tregunter Road, S. Kensington.

Parnell, Mrs. A. H., The Vicarage, Abbots Langley, Herts. (Three

copies.)
Patchett, William, Q.C, Bury Lodge, Epping.
Peake, Arthur H., Westholme, Sleaford, Lincolnshire.
Peake, G. Herbert, Horton Pagnell, Doncaster.
Pearson, John, Pembroke, Epping.
Peel, Archibald, Westlea, Broxbourne, Herts.
Pelly, Alfred D., Vale House, Hertford.
Pelly, Edmund, Twyford House, Bishops Stortford.
Pelly, Herbert Cecil, Shortacres, High Road, Loughton.

LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS XIX.

Pelly, J. G., Theydon Place, Epping. (Two copies.)

Pemberton-Barnes, W. H., Havering, Romford, (Two copies.)

Penn, Frank, Benacre Hall, Wrentham, Suffolk.

Phillips, Lewis, Berden Hall, Bishops Stortford.

PiGOTT, Mrs. Wellesley, Shelly House, Shelly, Ongar.

Price, Howel J., Greensted Hall, Ongar.

Prince of San Faustina, Palazzo Barberivi, Rome.

QuARE, E. (M.H.), Honington House, Matching, Harlow.

Raby, Harry, Wenlock Farm, Blackmore, Ingatestone.

Raphael, Herbert H., Rosecourt, Havering-atte-Bower, Essex.

Rhodes, Colonel Frank, 17, Stratton Street, W.

Rhodes, Right Hon. Cecil, Groote Schnur, Rondesbosch, Cape Colony.

Ridley, Charles E., The Elms, Broomfield Road, Chelmsford. (Two

copies.)
Roberts, Mrs. C. W. Wyatt, Bird's Town, Theydon Bois.
Roberts, Benjamin C, Oakfield, Chester.
Roddick, Andrew, jun., Quintin Hill, Waltham Abbey.
Roffey, W. S., Manor House, Writtle, Chelmsford.

Sands, John, Dagnam Priory, Noak Hill, Romford.

Saunders, Rev. G. Ward, St. James' Parsonage, Jersey.

Savill, Harry, The Green, Stratford.

Savill, Herbert, Southfleet, Buckhurst Hill.

Savill, Percy R., Oakwood, Epping.

Savill, Philip, The Woodlands, Chigwell Row, Essex. (Two copies.)

Scott, Rev. R. Leslie, Little Parndon Rectory, Harlow.

Sewell, Arthur T., Hartland Road, Epping. (Two copies.)

Sewell, George, The Cedars, Great Baddow.

Sewell, W. H., Epping Place, Epping. (Two copies.)

Simonds, Thomas, Waveney, Hainault Road, Leytonstone.

Single, Washington, The Grove, S. Woodford, Essex.

Smith, Sir Charles Cunliffe, Suttons, Romford.

Smith, D. Cunliffe, Suttons, Romford.

Smith, R. Cunliffe, Stondon House, Stondon, Brentwood.

Smith, W., The Links, Bishops Stortford.

SoRRELL, John Brockett, Theydon Green, Theydon Bois.

Steele, Adam Rivers, Northbrooks, Great Parndon, Harlow.

Stokes, Fred, Coney Weston Hall, Bury St. Edmunds,

Suart, Alfred, 21, St. Mary Axe, London, E.C.

Swire, John, 10, Kensington Court, W. (Two copies.)

Sworder, Hugh, Epping.

Sworder, Harry, Tawney Hall, Stapleford Tawney, Romford.

Tait, Major J. C, Crows, Epping.

Taylor, Marshall, Hockerill, Bishops Stortford.

XX. LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS

Thorpe, Colin A., Berwyn, Merlin Road, Blackburn.

Thwaites, Daniel, Troy, Blackburn.

Thwaites, John, Troy, Blackburn.

Thwaites, Mrs., Addison Lodge, 7, Addison Road, Kensington.

Tilling, Richard S., North Lodge, 19, Peckham Road, S.E. (Two copies.

Todhunter, Joseph, Kingsmoor House, Harlow. (Two copies.)

TosETTi, M., West Dene, Woodford Green. (Two copies.)

Tower, Christopher J. H., Weald Hall, Brentwood.

Tredegar, Lord, Tredegar Park, Newport, Mon.

Tufnell, E. M., Porters, Boreham, Chelmsford.

Tufnell, Captain G. M., Warley Barracks, Brentwood.

Tweed, A. J., 216, Strand.

Tweed, H. R. B,, Laindon Frith, Billericay.

Tweed, Walter, Marshalls, Epping.

Upton, Mrs. J. R., Huskards, Ingatestone.
Usborne, Thomas, M.P., Writtle, Chelmsford.

Vertue, Alfred, 43, Threadneedle Street, E.C.
VicKERMAN, C. H., Hean Castle, Saundersfoot, S. Whales.
VicKERMAN, Miss, Hean Castle, Saundersfoot, S. Wales.
VicKERS, T. MuscHAMP, Walsham House, Chelmsford.
ViGNE, John H., Writtle Wick, Writtle, Chelmsford.

Wahab, Edward, Goldings Manor, Goldings Hill, Loughton.

Warner, T. C. T., M.P., 86, Cadogan Square, S.W.

Warwick, Countess of, Warwick Castle, Warwick.

Waters, Arthur, Coopersale Lodge, Epping.

White, Tyndale, Stondon Place, Brentwood.

Williams, Thomas, Epping, Essex.

Wilson, Major H. F. M., Langham Hall, Bury St. Edmunds.

Wilson, Rev. G. Maryon, Great Canfield, Dunmow.

WiNSTONE, Benjamin, 53, Russell Square, W.C.

W'ood, Charles Page, Wakes Coin Hall, Earls Coin, Essex.

Wood, Sir Evelyn, War Office, London, S.W.

Wood, Colonel Geo. W., Nithsdale, Ingatestone.

Wood, Captain H. W. W., Epping Place, Epping.

Woodhouse, Arthur L., Brooklands, Broomfield, Chelmsford.

Wrighton, J. H. Garland, 7, Bloomsbury Square, W.C.

Womersley, Dale, Brentwood, Essex.

Wye, T. H., Failop Road, Leytonstone.

Wythes, Ernest J., Copped Hall, Epping, Essex.

Yerburgh, Rev. E. Rochfort, Wrentham Rectory, Wangford, Suffolk.
Yerburgh, John Eardley, Wavendon Lodge, Bletchley, Bucks.
Yerburgh, Miss M. S., Ifield Rectory, Crawley, Sussex,
Yerburgh, Richard Eustre, Arlington House, Twickenham Park.
Yerburgh, Robert, M.P., 25, Kensington Gore, \Y. (Two copies.)
Yerburgh-Wardell, Rev. Oswald Pryok, The Abbey, Tewkesbury.

._UNTING DIARY.

ER I.

ucdot RoUcston — Dcsdichado — J a uics

ex in 1879 — Making acquaintance inth

ird Beale Colvin — George Dawson. —

/-Bury — Albert Deacon— -J. Tod hunter —

J7^T/ie Crane de la Crane.

'okwood's permission to dedicate

Hunting Diary" to him, pointing

at I first hunted in Essex, that the

. my Hfe was during his reign, and that

iC Essex Hunt, in the opinion of those most

^ut.tge, to a point of perfection never before attained

. .lals, he rephed as. follows : — "You are too flattering in

y lecollections of the happy seven years I was most closely

connected with the Essex Hounds. Any success then achieved

is far more a result of Bailey's work than of mine, and the only

diing I can really lay claim to is that 1 was the means of

^ringing into the country one of the best huntsmen I have ever

^en."

There was no flattery in what I wrote to Lord Rookwood in

^larch, '96. In spite of his modest disclaimer, I must adhere

CO every letter of it, and add yet a few words further. 'Tis true

that he brought Bailey into Essex, and that no better huntsman.

Th\v^
TiiwAifT:^
Thwaitks, '.^,
Tilling, Rial

TODHUNTER, J(

TosETTi, M., Wet\
Tower, Christopher y,
Tredegar, Lord, Tredegar Pa \
TuFNELL, E. M., Porters, Borr
TuFNELL, Captain G. M., War'^
Tweed, A. J., 216, Strand.
Tweed, H. R. B., Laindon Frith,
Tweed, Walter, Marshal

Upton, Mrs. J. R., Huskards, Ingates/
UsBORNE, Thomas, M.P., Writtle, Chel

Vertue, Alfred, 43, Threadneedle Stretu,
Vickerman, C. H., Hean Castle, Saundersfc^'
Vickerman, Miss, Hean Castle, Saundersfo.
Vickers, T. Muschamp, Walsham House,
Vigne, John H., Writtle Wick, Writtle, C"

Wahab, Edward, Goldings Manor, Goldin

Warner, T. C. T., M.P., 86, Cadogan Sq

Warwick, Countess of, Warwick Castle, ^'

Waters, Arthur, Coopersale Lodge, Ep^

White, Tyndale, Stondon Place, Brentwc]^'

Williams, Thomas, Epping, Essex. J/

Wilson, Major H. F. M., Langham Hall, B— >

Wilson, Rev. G. Maryon, Great Canfield, D"

Winstone, Benjamin, 53, Russell Square, W

Wood, Charles Page, Wakes Coin Hall, Earls ^^

Wood, Sir Evelyn, War Office, London, S.W.

Wood, Colonel Geo. W., Nithsdale, Ingatestone.

Wood, Captain H. W. W., Epping Place, Epping.

Woodhouse, Arthur L., Brooklands, Broomfield, Chelmsford.

Wrighton, J. H. Garland, 7, Bloomsbury Square, W.C.

WoMERSLEY, Dale, Brentwood, Essex.

Wye, T. H., Failop Road, Leytonstone.

Wythes, Ernest J., Copped Hall, Epping, Essex.

Yerburgh, Rev. E. Rochfort, Wrentham Rectory, Wangford, Suflbl
Yerburgh, John Eardley, Wavendon Lodge, Bletchley, Bucks.
Yerburgh, Miss M. S., Ifield Rectory, Crawley, Sussex.
Yerburgh, Richard Eustre, Arlington House, Twickenham Park.
Yerburgh, Robert, M.P., 25, Kensington Gore, W. (Two copies.)
Yerburgh-Wardell, Rev. Oswald Pryok, The Abbey, Tewkesbury.

/

Down Hall

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY.

CHAPTER I.

Lord Roohi'ood — Lady Rookwood — Lancelot Rollcston — Dcsdichado — Jauics
Bailey — Some hard riders with the Essex in 7879 — Making acquaintance h'ith
Essex ditches — November frost — Richard Beale Colvin — George Dau'son —
R. Womevsley — Harry Bagot — Epping-Bury — Albert Deacon— -J . Todhnnter —
Captain Meyer — Cub Hunting in 188 J — The Crane de la Crane.

WHEN I asked Lord Rookwood's permission to dedicate
these " Leaves from a Hunting- Diary" to him, pointing-
out that it was under him that I first hunted in Essex, that the
best sport I ever had in my hfe was during his reign, and that
lie had brought the Essex Hunt, in the opinion of those most
quahfied to judge, to a point of perfection never before attained
in its annals, he rephed as follows : — "You are too flattering in
your recollections of the happy seven years I was most closely
connected with the Essex Hounds. Any success then achieved
is far more a result of Bailey's work than of mine, and the only
thing I can really lay claim to is that 1 was the means of
bringing into the country one of the best huntsmen I have ever
seen."

There was no fiattery in what I wrote to Lord Rookwood in
March, '96. In spite of his modest disclaimer, I must adhere
to every letter of it, and add yet a few words further. 'Tis true
that he brought Bailey into Essex, and that no better huntsman,

2 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

in the opinion of many, ever carried the horn; but under whose
rc^o-iuic did he Q-raduate, from whom learn that tact, civiHty, and
urbanity without which, kill as many foxes as he mi^ht, he
could never have attained the success he has, or have retained
the position he now holds of equal popularity amon^" all classes?
Now we all owe a i^reat deal to l^ailey for the sport we enjoy.

Lord Rookwood

but we owe it first to Lord Rookwood, who recognising Bailey's
ability, exercised (uer him that influence which has yielded such
good results.

But 'tis of the Master of Hounds. "Sir Henry" himself,
that I would write. Large hearted and sympathetic, he is
universally esteemed and beloved by everyone with whom he-
is l)rought in contact, whether peer or peasant. During his
reign, which all hold in affectionate remembrance he spared
neither himself nor his purse (look how he mounted the Hunt
staff) in his endeavours to show sport. How well he succeeded

LORD AND LADY KOOKWOOD 3

the bare narrative of the i^ootl sport enjoyed cUirini^- his tenure
of office sufficiently proves. Firm, yet courteous in the field, I
never heard him swear or indulge in any stronger language than
" Hold hard, sir ! we are not out stag hunting." How well he
kept us in hand, how considerate always of the farmers'
interests.

The farmers loved him to a man, and when a strong,
clever, and wealthy opponent was brought forward by the
Radicals to try and wrest his seat in Parliament from him
in 1885, they rallied to him, and with the l)attle cry of "Sir
Henry for ever" they brought him in with such a thumping-
majority that, when resigning his seat on his elevation to

Lady Rookwood

the Peerage, the Rads had to go into the bye-ways and hedges
to induce anyone to come forward to attack the Conservative
stronghold again so secure had Sir Henr\''s work and popu-
larity made it.

On resigning the mastership of the Essex Hunt he did not
give up his interest in it ; on the contrary, by every means in
his power, by liberal subscriptions, strong preservation of foxes,
and his invaluable aid at the annual Point-to-Point and
Rundells races, he has shown how he keeps its welfare at
heart.

4 LFAVF.S I'-ROI\T A IIUNTTNC: DIARY

Lad)" Rookwood, whose ck^ath, after a \'ery brief illness, in the
spring" of i S99 came; as a ^"rcat shock to the county of k^ssex,
and which left a void that can never be filled, always took the
deepest interest in the |)erformances of the Essex Hounds,
with wliich some ot her husband's happiest years were so
closeK associated, \\heii he was known throughout the lent^th
and breadth of k'.ssex as "Sir ilenr\." She e\"er evinced the
deejoest interest in all movements, social or philanthropic, that
made for oood in the county, and w^as'of <4"reat help to her
husband in promotino- the Conservative cause. One of the
earliest and most successful branches of the Primrose League

Desdichado, after a Painting by A. Dickinson

was founded l)y her. Lady Rookwood formed yet another
link in the chain of evidence that statesmen make the happiest
and most fortunate marriao-es.

" Desdichado," known at the kennels as " Dusty Shadow,"
was a beggar to go through dirt, and like many lop-eared ones,
was a rare good sort. He generally carried Fred Firr during
Lord Rookwood's mastership, and was ridden by L^irr when he
ran first in the Welter Cup race at Rundells in 1881 and 1882,
and Essex Open Steeplechase, iSS;, ; and bx Harry Bagot
when he won the Welter Cup for the third time at Rundells in
1884. The likeness of " Desdichado" is taken from a painting

LANCELOT ROLLKSTOX 5

1)\ Mr. A. Dickinson, brother to Mr. B. Dickinson, of
Rundc'lls.

I would mention that previous to comini^' into h^ssex some
of my earhest and happiest hunting- chiys were associated with
the Soutli Notts, of which in ^^77-7^ Mr. Lancelot Rolleston

Lancelot Rolleston

(whose portrait is here yiven) and Mr. Percy Cooper were joint
masters, and if I didn't cut my wisdom teeth in their country I
certainly lost one of my best molars one blind cubbing- morninLi',
when a fellow landed ban_o- on the top of me as I lay on the
oTound, after comino- to '4"rief over a bramble-hidden ditch.

6 LEAVES ERO:\r A IIUNTINO DIARY

What capital order Mr. Rolleston kept his field in, the siiavilcr
ill luodo with fort iter in re in the background was his motto,
though on one occasion I quite expected his uplifted hunting-
crop would have descended on the head of some old boy who
was a bit too handy with his thong on the heads of some of Mr.
Rolleston's favourites after they had run into their fox.

A fine horseman, with undeniable nerve, he had a knack of
getting across country that few equalled, and none surpassed,
and though to my youthful imagination he appeared to ride
very short in his stirrups, this doubtless gave him that strong
seat over the high fences and deep drops which he was so
fond of tackling. Writing to me from Edwinstowe in April,
1896, Mr. Rolleston says, "I am glad to say I still enjoy
hunting hounds as much as ever, and last season was one
of the best I have ever had."*

Mr. Percy Cooper, alas, has joined the majority. He was
hospitality itself, and very keen about hunting in those days,
when he was living at Bulwell Hall. Always had very good
horses ; one in particular, a grey, upon which he mounted me,
was a perfect fencer, with a good turn of speed.

One of the best runs that I can recall during Mr. Rolleston's
and Mr. Cooper's joint mastership of the South Notts was on
December loth, 1877, when we met at Linby, and, after
a long trot, reached Bloomer Wood, where, finding at once,
we ran at a great pace over that country, and by Normanton,
Carnfield, and Alfreton, over the Chesterfield road above the
toll-gate and fast to Amber Mill, and raced up the valley
to Ogston Hall, where the fox was viewed just in front of
hounds ; but, managing to struggle into Ogston Carr, he beat
hounds, who had been at him for 2 hrs. 20 min. Shooting was
going on in Ogston Carr, or doubtless Mr. Rolleston would
have handled this stout hill fox. Of the large field that started
we belie\-e that the following were a few of the hard\- sur-
vi\-ors : — Mr. C. Hibbert, Air. J. Robertson, the late Bob
Howett, and, riding one of the latter's horses, Skelton the
jockey, who during the run showed the way over a plank
and a stile that proved a puzzle to many, in a far safer manner
than Mr. R. .Shaw, the then welbknown gentleman rider,
surmounted a similar obstacle, without the plank, towards the
finish, as his horse (a runaway belonging to Mr. J. Williamson)
could only manage a leg at a time, and had to be drixen home
twenty-five miles.

Mr. Rolleston now hunts the Rufford. — Ed.

JAMKS r,AiLi-:\- 7

It has l)ccii olUMi remarked that one's lirsL impressions are
the best. I)iit l^oocI as my first e.\[)eriences were of T^ssex nien,
their horses antl the country they ricle o\'er, they have been
strenothenetl, not weakened, ]j\ the pleasant and vivid
memories recalled by, roLi^hl\- si^eakin^-, two decades of sport

James Bailey

enjoyed in their midst. What those first youthful Impressions
were I would here jot down, for every story and every book
must have ;u beg'innin^' ; and the C(jnfession will out that
makin-'- this first plunoe is harder th;ui a dart at the Hioh

8 LEA\^ES FROM A HUNTINc; DIARY

roaster Brook or getting a start in a quick tiling from Harlow
Park.

Coming up into Essex about the end of the long frost of
1878-9, when the ground for weeks had been thickly covered
with snow, one certainly found the country at its best — scent
good, foxes running straight and the ditches clear ; but the very
clearness of the ditches made them appear to a beginner black
anci ividc, and it is hard to say which was the more astonished,
the horse or the rider.

Luckily, the animal I owned then (without my knowing it)
was an extraordinary good one, with a good turn of speed,
which on one occasion, November ist, 1878, the last day of
cubbing, had enabled her to be one of a little band of eight,*
who, out of a large Nottinghamshire field, saw the finish of a
\ery good twenty minutes, over a very strong line of country
in an afternoon burst from Bridgeford Gorse, in the South
Notts country, by Plum tree to Raucliffe Wood and Bunny
Park, in the Ouorn country (the wall saved the fox). She com-
bined with speed sufficient boldness to enable her to jump
the flying fences of the Rufford, South Notts, and Meynell
countries, after such exponents of the art of getting over them
as Mr. Egerton (Master of the Rufford at that time), Mr.
Mappin, Mr. Chandos Pole and the Rev. Dick Fitz Herbert
and his sister, for where they went she could generally follow.
She derived from her early training in Wales the cleverness
of a cat ; but though taking to banks like a duck to water, the
chtches fairly puzzled her at first, and she used to jump
unnecessarily high and big over them.

There was safety in this, as although she would occasionally
whip round like lightning on the very brink of a ditch (my own
fault, for I was always a bad jockey) and deposit me at the
bottom of it, I can only recall one occasion on which she
actually got in herself. This, however, has been kept ever
fresh in my memory by the frequency with which I have since
been chaffed about my ddbut in Essex, as sans hat, sans stirrup
leather, we were seen to disappear into what one has now learnt
to respect as the Weald Brook, which, with its steep, rugged
bank, is almost as deceptive as a Pytchley bottom.

This was in PY-bruary, '79, in a good run from Matching
Park to North W'eald, when as old Dobson, who was then

"-■= The Master, Mr. Lancelot Rolleston, his huntsman, G. Shepherd, and
Mr. Bob Hewett were there. The late Mr. N. Charlton got down. The
others I cannot recall.

A (iOOD LITTLE UN 9

hunting- the hounds, co.ild not (jLiite go the pace, the first vvhi[),
Dick \'eo, ditl the work for him.

In sheer ignorance of the vakie of this httle mare, for she
was as good in harness as the hunting-hekl, I parted with her
for a mere song. Subseqiientl)', being ridden very hard when
only just up from grass, she devek)ped megrims, and was of
no further use as a hunter.

B. Dickinson and Gallagher

One more anecdote about Httle Gallagher and I have done
with her. My kither, who was as fond of a good joke as he
was of a good horse, when he first saw her remarked to his
groom, with a very grave face, in my presence, that she had a
bio- kiicc. I anxiously began to inspect her thinking that there
must be something wrong ; when, after a few seconds of sus-
pense, the old groom replied, " Yes, there s a pair of V'w."
Certainly, for a good bred one she had good bone.

Now, in those first ^days in Essex I can call to mind
very few horses ; but those that impressed themselves most
on my memory, and often tempted one to break the tenth
commandment, were the property of the Master Mr. Loftus
Arkwright. Indeed, they were a splendid lot of horses for
the Essex country.

"Harkaway" was perhaps my favourite, a beautiful bright
bay with very bent legs, a birthright. He was a very safe
conveyance, big jumper, and generally carried Dol)son.
" Candidate " was another ; possessing- magnificent quarters,
he would jump the biggest fence standing. One, not a

lO LEAVES ERO.M A HUNTING DIARY

kennel horse, which I admired, coveted and eventually
possessed, was Georg-e Dawson's old hunter " Leicester,"
nineteen if he was a day. I gave as many sovereigns for
him, with another tenner if he survived the season ; this he
did, and eventually George Dawson had him back again at
a fair discount for depreciation. F"ormerly the property of the

Stephen Dobson

late ^Ir. Ind, wIkj once refused a blank cheque for him, he
passed previous to Mr. Dawson owning him int() the hands
of Mr. F. Green and carried him several seasons. A noted
buck jumper he would occasionally kick the saddle off his back,
and in his old age would indulge, when very fresh, in about
twenty kicks straight off. 'Certainly the. horse was an
e\tra(jrdinary performer in a countr\-, and uirned out in

MATCiiiNt; (;reen, 1S79 II

every way <'i capital purchase, for he taught me more about
huntiiiL;' in one. season, taking" care of me in tlic process,
than I had gained in all my former experience, for although
entered with the Belvoir at the e;irl\' age of eight or nine, my
opportunities of practice as a younger son of a coimtry parson
were few and far between. Of those who comprised the field
in those days, who shone conspicuously in the van, I shall
have more to say anon, my intention being, as far as possible,
to introduce my readers to rider and horse as they appear on
the scene, letting each season speak for itself.

Brief were my diary entries in those early days, and in their
scant description of a day's sport bear a marked resemblance
to the powers of observation possessed by the man who, having
sailed round the world could only recall, when asked what he
had seen, " That there was water below and sky above on
most occasions." Let me devoutly hope that the friendly
reader who scans these pages will not exclaim ere halfway

through, "Would to that these diaristic notes had

never expanded."

First entry, Saturday, February Sth (s/V). — " Had two splendid runs with
the Essex Hounds."

Second note, Saturday, March ist. — Met at Harlow. Found near
Harlow, ran to N. Weald. Splendid run, lost leather and hat.^^

Third extract, Wednesday, March 5th. — Hired a hunter from Bam bridge
£2 2s., had three croppers by hovse coming doimi (evidently this had to be
included as it implies a partiality for vohiiitaries upon ordinary occasions),
making number up to eleven in Essex.

Subsequently learnt (this not in diary) that I had paid £2 2S, for the
privilege of qualifying that blood chestnut of Bambridge's for a local
steeplechase. Nothing like a loose seat went clear of him every time.

1879. — Next item, Saturday, October i8th. Breakfasted with Cowley j at
Harlow at 8.30. Met the Puckeridge at Thorley Wash 10.30. R. B.
Colvin was out, had a good run of thirty-eight minutes in the afternoon,
with a kill in the open, obtained mask, home 7 p.m., rode polo pony.

Matching Green, Monday, November 3rd, 1879, opened with a threaten-
ing sky and mizzling rain. But before giving a description of it perhaps
it would not be out of place to say a few words of the doings of these
hounds during cub hunting. Although they began a month later than
usual, they have certainly shown some very good sport. The new
huntsman, James Bailey, is a thorough workman, and, ably assisted by
Fred Firr, first whip (brother of Tom Firr, huntsman to the Ouorn),
has accounted for several brace of cubs, some of which have led their
followers through merry spins in the open, and there being apparently

- No doubt stirrup leather was meant.

t Mr. Cowley was then hunting from the Green Man, Harlow ; he was a very hard
rider and possessed two very good hunters, which were equally serviceable as a
tandem team ; the leader, a chestnut mare, being one of the best gate jumpers I ever
clapped eyes on.

12 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

no lack of tlieai, the prospects of sport for the ensuing season are very
promising. To return to Monday and Matching Green. Sir Henry
Selwin Ibbetson, field master present, having allowed liberal law for
late comers, gave the office to the huntsman, and the hounds were thrown
into Brick-kilns Wood, which, although of great extent, was drawn
blank. Man Wood, a regular stronghold for foxes, was fortunately quite
near, and the hounds soon made it too hot for Reynard, who quickly faced
the open, and ran straight to Down Hall, where he escaped by going to
ground. In this short but lively burst several eager sportsmen came to
grief. I certainly thought a gallant colonel'' who led the field — or that part
of the field which chose to follow him — over a stiff gate, deserved a better
fate than the bottom of a Roding ditch. After seeing the hopelessness of
getting the fox out of the earth, the hounds were taken back to Man
Wood, and their merry music soon proclaimed a find. The fox, an old one,
quickly went away, pointing for Down Hall, but, swinging to the right, he
made for Row Wood, which the hounds rattled him round, making him fiy
from its leafy precincts, then, with scarcely a check, through Bromshaw
Bury springs, they ran him to earth at Canfield Mount, at which point,
the pace having been so hot, and the fences so big, not more than a dozen
men were up. Conspicuous among them were Mr. George Dawson, a well
known bruiser with these hounds; Mr. Hervey Foster, Mr. F. Green, on
his good bay " Glynn," Mr. H. R. Bagot, on a vcvy fast and neat coh,] and
Mr. R. W'omersley. During the latter part of the run occurred one of
those accidents which are all the more serious as they can be avoided. A
gentleman j (whose horse fell with him on landing over a fence) was jumped
on, and narrowly escaped a broken leg. The volley of abuse which greeted
the perpetrator will, let us hope, be a sufficient warning for him to be
more careful in the future. Thus ended, with this exception, a very
pleasant day, though it was a matter of regret that hounds did not obtain
blood, which they so richly deserved. Too much credit cannot be given
to Bailey, who, although a stranger in the country — which with its wide
and blind ditches, is no easy one — is always with his hounds.

1879. — On Saturday, November 8th, met at Thornwood Gate, once
a turnpike, and probably better known in the old coaching days, situated
about a mile from Epping, most of the prominent members of the hunt
being present — Mr. Arkwright on wheels, drawn by a pair of useful ones,
and always somewhere thereabouts wherever hounds go ; Mrs. Ark-
wright on her favourite grey; Sir H. Selwin Ibbetson, riding "Fritz";
Mr. Perry Watlington, Mr. F. Green on a good weight-carrier ; Captain
and Mrs. Tait, Mr. Hervey Foster, Mr. George Dawson, Mr. A. Edwards,
Mr. Bawtree, Mr. Walmsley, Mr. R. B. Colvin, Major Howard, Col.
Lockwood, &c. The farmers, I am glad to say, were also well represented
during the day, among them being Mr. W. Symes, Mr. G. Brown, Mr. J.
Scruby, and Mr. Green, of Parndon. Mr. George Hart, one of Essex' best
sportsmen, was not out. If we had had a good run this day, I should have
had something more to say about the aforesaid farmers, as they are all
men who know how to go when hounds run, and the thicker the fences
the better they like it. A long string of horsemen, mingled with carriages,
approached Orange \\'ood, the first covert to be drawn ; and not in vain
either, for the Essex hounds know how to find a fox when there is one, and
make him seek safety in flight, which they did on this occasion, with a

* Col. Lockwood, M.P. t Little Gallagher.

X Poor Gribblc, killed in the Egyptian War, 1882.

^.-#.1

14 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

crash of music that would have dehghted old Jorrocks on a bye day ;
though, perhaps, he would have objected to the first fence, which had to
be negotiated by those who meant to secure a good start. Safely over it,
we turned sharp to the right and entered the road with the cunning ones,
in order to avoid an awkward fence, then met hounds in a grass field after
300 yards of hard riding, and enjoyed a few minutes of bliss as hounds raced
over the grass, towards Copped Hall, through a line of gates. Reader, did
you ever catch a swinging-gate with your knee as you galloped through on
a pulling horse ? Well, what's almost as bad is to have the same gate just
close in your face, with a pushing, crushing crowd behind you, calling out
as they arrive, " Lift it, push it, shove it ; can't you open it ? let me come,"
&c. Such was my fate, only to find, after gettmg through, that hounds
had checked ; and, although tliey hit the line off and carried it over the
London Road into the forest, they could not do much more with it ; and
those who followed got their hats knocked about among the small forest
trees for nothing. A move was then made to Riddens Wood, and soon a
chorus of view-holloas proclaimed that a fox was away. Bailey soon
clapped the hounds on the line, and, with an indifferent scent, they ran to
Beech Hill Park, in the shrubberies around which place he was lost ; and
here many seized the opportunity of partaking of Mr. Edwards's hospitality
in the shape of refreshments for the inner man. A long trot brought us to
Galleyhill Wood (the property of Mr. R. B. Colvin, a staunch preserver of
foxes). Sed hoc die, it was drawn blank ; but Deer Park, an adjoining
covert, produced what we wanted, but, owing to a bad scent, hounds
could only hunt for a few fields. A heavy fog, which had been hanging
about more or less the whole day, and the lateness of the hour, put a stop
to any further proceedings. So, lighting our cigars, we jogged contentedly
homewards, reflecting that if we had not had a brilliant run, yet we had
seen some foxes quite capable of giving us one on a better scenting day.

Wednesday, Nov. 12th, 1879. — As unpropitious a day for sport as one
could well imagine. The wind blowing a gale and bitterly cold, giving
rise to the most gloomy anticipations of sport, which a sharp trot to
Harlow Common, our rendezvous, did not serve to dispel. I was not
surprised to see a large field out, as Essex sportsmen have a reputation for
not being easily deterred by stress of weather ; and they certainly did not
belie it on this occasion. Covert coats and plenty of confidence in hat-
guards were the order of the day as we stood shivering in the icy blast
which swept across the common, waiting for the usual law to expire, which
Sir H. Selwin-Ibbetson, our field master, so considerately allows to late
comers. And here let me pay a tribute to the efficient way in which he
manages the field, for by checking people from surrounding all sides of the
covert, foxes have a chance of getting away.

" Knew there would be no scent." " Wants a good rain before there
will be any." " Wish I hadn't come out." These and similar croaking
remarks greeted my ears as we trotted towards Latton Park coverts, which
are always full of foxes. The hounds soon forced a young one out, but
doubling back directly, he left a mouthful of fur behind as he regained
the covert. Luckily for him, at that moment an old dog was viewed away,
and the hounds were quickly laid on, and hunted slowly over the first
field (a stubble one, mark). Crossing a lane, in which anyhow one eager
sportsman came to grief, they raced with a capital scent towards Epping,
over a beautiful line of country, nearly all grass, and the fences, thougli
blind, very negotiable, though of course here and there you had to sit
down and send your horse at them. Prominent amongst a score of good
men riding well to hounds were Mr. George Hart, Mr. George Dawson,

NO\EMl!ER, 1879 STOIM'KI) 1!V ]'Kr)ST

15

Mr. Walinsley and tlie hard ridin^^ and popular secretary, Mr. Hervey
Foster. Falls, like apples this year, were few and far between, and of so
harmless a character that they would scarcely have alarmed a dividend-
expecting shareholder in an accident insurance company. Entering the
Forest close to Epping some slow hunting ensued. Turning to the right,
they crossed the line where a longish check let in those gentlemen who,
no doubt, greatly rejoice that tollgates have been done away with. In
spite of the persevering efforts of ]3ailey, for which every one gave him the
highest praise, hounds were doomed to be disappointed of their fox ; for,
though they hit off the line and carried it through the Gaynes Park
Woods, they could never get on killing terms with him, scent failing
entirely when we got on the dry stubbles. Altogether this was a capital
run of over an hour, the first five-and twenty minutes of which was very
fast ; so the sportsmen who faced the elements were well rewarded ; but,
unless we soon have some rain, the ground will be getting too hard even
for macadam.

Gaynes Park Woods

Starting to the Meet at the Hare and Hounds, Roxwell, on Saturday,
November 29, we felt very doubtful as to vv^hether hounds would turn up,
owing to frost. The day before the hounds were advertised to meet at
Tyler's Cross (a good many turning up), there had l:)een a sharp frost
over-night, but under the rays of a genial sun it quickly disappeared, when,
to the astonishment of all, at 12 o'clock a hunt servant brought the dispirit-
ing intelligence that hounds were not coming. It was a bitter disappoint-
ment, as there was not a trace of frost to be found anywhere after the sun
had passed the meridian and the country rode remarkably well, as three or
four of us proved by going home straight across it, a few intricate banks

l6 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIxVRY

and the stile out of the Bury Road giving quite a zest to the performance. '-'■
But let me hark forward. It was a very sporting looking field that met at
Roxwell, composed of members of various hunts; one or two well-known
performers with the Stag Hounds being there. The first covert (the Osiers)
was drawn blank ; the second (College Wood) held a fox ; though, unfortu-
nately, not a straight-necked one as he ran a ring for thirty-five minutes.
One thing rather struck me during this run, when the hounds were crossing
a ploughed field partially covered with snow, it was very hard to distinguish
them, their colour and that of the ground being so similar. The going was
remarkably heavy, the snow balling freely in horses' feet. The prospect of
a sure find at Screens somewhat compensated for Boyton Hall Springs
beino- drawn blank. On the way there, those who missed the road by the
fields derived some amusement from the task of extricating themselves out
of a boggy lane. It was almost dark before we were galloping as hard
as we could through the spongy and snow-clad rides of Screens to a ringing
view holloa. The hounds ran at a ratthng pace to Berners Wood, a short
but merry burst, in which Mr. Tabor and Mr. H. R. Bagot both took
advantage of a good start and kept it. As we rode homewards it was
freezing hard. Very few people anticipated that we could have such a
severe frost after last year's experience, but the uncertainty of our winters
still affords a topic of conversation for o'l toaaoi.

In a good run of one hour and thirty-five minutes from Lord's on
February loth, Mr. F. Green riding his horse " Hardware" injured him so
badly in two falls that he had to be killed. On the last day of the same
month, at a High Ongar Meet, Mr. Roland Bevan made his dchiit with the
Essex Hounds, and he has doubtless not forgotten the Thaxsted Meet on
March 24th, when after running for two hours and ten minutes, they lost at
Linton, in Cambridgeshire. Mr. F. Green did not reach home before
12 at night.

If I have not written any account of these hounds during the last
few weeks, it is not from lack of sport to write about, for they have
killed a good many foxes lately, all of which have taken a good deal of
killing, and have consequently aflforded capital sport. It is simply due to
laziness on my part, and nothing else. One thing struck me forcibly
the last time I was out with the hounds : — that, though towards the close of
the season, foxes, from one excuse or another, are more hard to find, yet
the number of sportsmen who assemble to see them found by no means
diminishes, but rather increases. Is it because fences are more easily
defined, and gaps through them more numerous, or because, the days
getting longer, there is less danger of being lost after a hard day ?

Certainly the truth of my statement was borne out by last Saturday's
(March 13th) meet, which took place at the Green Man at Harlow, at
half-past-eleven, after a meeting of those interested in the hunting of the
country. Apropos, I think it must be a matter of congratulation to one and
all of the members of the Essex Hunt, that at this meeting Sir Henry
Selwin-Ibbetson undertook, with a certain guaranteed subscription, to take
the entire management of the hvmt. I believe he had previously bought
the hounds from Mr. Arkwright. I am sure none of us could wish for a
better master, and we can forecast the prospects of sport next season with
every feeling of satisfaction.

Though no brilliant run took place on Saturday, it was a day of enjoy-
ment to most, for who could help enjoying themselves on such a glorious
day, the sun's rays, though powerful, being tempered by a gentle breeze

* Mr. Ba^ot was one.

AFTKK THE ANNUAL MEKTINC 1880 17

delightful in its softness ? The knowing ones, however, said it was too hot
for scent, but the hounds quickly proved the contrary, for, getting on to a
fox in Harlow Park, they soon rattled him out of it to Latton Priory, from
the further side of which covert he was viewed away. Settling on to his
line again, a momentary check occurred on the common, but a few hounds
picked it up without any assistance ; and a woman frantically waving her
arm in the distance proved that the line they were taking was the right
one. From this point the pace quickened, and a short but merry hunt of
about fifteen minutes terminated in a drain in the middle of a large grass
field. At an early part of this spin an amusing incident occurred. A
heavy weight in black voluntarily quitted his horse on his refusing a
fence. No doubt the heavy-weight thought that his horse would jump the
fence without him if he would not jump it with him. There were a good
many keen spirits out, and it would be hard to say who had the best of it.
A gentleman in mufti on an underbred cob was well to the fore, and a good
many others were as close to hounds as they could be without riding over
them. Miss Deacon, ably piloted by her father, was going right well.

Parndon Woods were next drawn blank ; not so their popular and
hospitable owner's larder, for Mr. Todhunter provided us with refreshments
ad libitum. Directly afterwards in one of his home coverts the hounds
got on to a fine dog fox, which being headed, was unfortunately chopped.
" Lucky it was not a vixen," was freely remarked, and as freely assented
to. Another fox was soon found at Pinnacles, and the hounds simply
raced from here to Mark Hall, about a mile and a half. A slight check
ensued in the park, and a determined view-holloa was at the same moment
given. Bailey immediately went for it, but at the same instant hounds
commenced running harder than ever in the opposite direction. Bailey
not seeing this kept his horn going, and so Firr had to whip them off,
which he did not succeed in doing without difficulty ; the view-holloa
resulting in nothing, hounds could not hit off the old line again. Beckford
was certainly right when he advised that hounds should not be lifted to a
view-holloa as long as they show a line, as it may often happen that there
are two foxes on foot. Though this gallop was so short, yet it was so fast
that it was not hard to distinguish the leading sportsmen ; Mr. Green, of
Parndon, hitting off the brook at the right place, certainly had the best of
it, closely attended by Mr. George Hart.

A good many more coverts were drawn, but all blank, the foxes evidently
being determined to have a holiday as well as their neighbours. It was
with regret that I heard, whilst riding home, that a valuable horse,''' which
had got into a ditch in the morning had since been shot, and that another
out of the same stable had died in harness, or, rather, I believe I should be
speaking more correctly if I had said, been killed in harness ; for it seems
that, following the chase on wheels, the ill-fated animal was driven into a
deep lane, and, no doubt, partly suffocated by the collar, fell down. Sitting
on its head did not apparently improve matters.

On November 27th, 1880, Mr. C. E. Green made his hrst appearance
this season with the Essex Hounds, when they met at the Kennels and
dropped in for a very good run, for it was a rare scenting day. Grief was
plentiful and change of horses frequent, commencing with Col. Lockwood
lending the huntsman his horse " Slapper " after he had come to grief and
lost his nag through the bridle giving way between Moor Hall and Heathen
Wood. In the second run from Down Hall, Sir Henry, with another horse,
came to the rescue of his huntsman, who was the wrong side of a locked

* Mr. Ethelston's,

1 8 LEAVES P^ROM a HUNTING DIARY

gate on the bridge over the brook when the hounds broke covert and raced
up the hill by Sheering Wood across Hatfield Heath and through Mr.
Pamphilon's gorse. It was anything but an easy country, but they failed
to shake off the leaders, Mr. F. Green, Mr. G. Dawson, Major Tait,
and Col. Lockwood ; Mr. Green and the Colonel both coming to grief ere
the fox was pulled down in the Barrington policies after a rattling run of
one hour and ten minutes.

Richard Beale Colvin

Mr. R. B. Colvin has tasted the sweets and disappoint-
inents that belong- to a Mastership of Hounds, having held

LADY gwkni)Olp:n colvin

19

that onerous position lonoer than most men who venture to
undertake it. For five seasons from 1885 he hunted the East
Essex, and for three the Essex and Suffolk, of which pack he
became Master in 1891, carrying- the horn himself That Mr.
Colvin was very successful as a Master, those who knew him
best can easily understand, for few men combine such a charm
of manner with such genuine sincerity. His early training in
woodcraft (he kept Beagles from 1879 till 1883) proved useful
when it came to killino" foxes, and he always showed undeniable

Lady Gwendolen Colvin

sport. P)ut Mr. Colvin comes of a hunting stock, for his
father was one of the keenest sportsmen Essex ever pro-
duced, and hunted his own harrier pack for many years from
Monkhams. In 1895 Mr. Colvin married Lady Gwendolen
Rouse, youngest daughter of the second Earl of Stradbroke,
and though she is not here depicted on horseback, we may
say that she can sit a horse as well as anyone, and ride him
better than most, for she comes of a family devoted to the
chase ; her brother, the present Earl of Stradbroke, has kept
harriers for many years at Henham Hall, in Suffolk.

20 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

1880. — The meet on Saturday, December i8th, was at Thornwood Gate,
and I was glad to see present most of the members of the hunt who were at
the same fixture last year, among them being our popular master, Sir H.
Selwin-Ibbetson, riding "Fritz"; our secretary, Mr. Hervey Foster ; Lieut. -
Col. Howard, Mr. R, Wood, on " Ireland," and Miss Wood, Major and Mrs.
Tait, Mr. G. Dawson, Messrs. F. and C. Green, Mr. Todhunter, Mr. A.
Capel Cure, &c. ; the farmers being ably represented by Mr. George Hart,
Mr. Sworder, Mr. W. Symes, and Mr. Geo. Brown. The day was cer-
tainly propitious for fox hunting — cloudy, with temperature not too high.
No fox at home in Maries and Orange Wood, and with a certain amount of
disappointment we followed the hounds as they proceeded to a covert near
Copped Hall, which borders on the forest, and towards which the foxes in
that neighbourhood generally make. Bailey had hardly entered this covert
before he viewed a fox away, and in almost less time than it takes to write
it, he had his hounds out of covert, and on the line of what proved to be a
rare good fox. Disdaining the forest, he set his mask for the open, and a
very handy bridle road only just enabled the field, by galloping their
hardest, to keep near the now flying pack. It was a pretty sight, after
going about half a mile, to see hounds crash full cry through the fence of a
narrow belt of trees and race up the opposing hill, a grass field, then a
ploughed one ; and here I cannot do better than describe this part of the
run verbatim, as I had it from a rustic who enjoyed the unwonted sight.
" He was a foine fox, sir, and I seed him well as he came toilin' across the
plough, which balled on his feet, so that he could hardly get along, and he
was scarce twenty yards in front of four hounds who wer' leadin' the others
when he gained the fence. If he ha' had another fifty yards to go on the
plough they must ha' had him, as they were pullin' up to him every yard,
but soon's 'e got on the grass, away he went." At this point Mr. G.
Hart, Mr. G. Dawson, and the huntsman leading, entered the field with
the hounds, and galloped down to an unjumpable brook. Mr. Hervey
Foster, on a very clever horse, slid down a bank, a good six-foot almost
perpendicular drop, and, with a scramble, got safely up the other side, and
was well rewarded, for hounds never faltered, but raced away towards
Orange Wood. Mr. R. W^ood and his sister and a stranger got over the
brook all right, and they and Mr. Hervey Foster had it all to themselves
for the remainder of the run up to Nasing Common ; time, seventeen
minutes from the find. The remainder of the field were pent up in a corner
until someone found an accessible place, which, safely over, they galloped
and jumped in the wake of the hounds in a vain effort to catch them ; but it
was no go, the pace was too hot, and unless they got over the brook with
the hounds they were out of it. Most of the field came up at Nasing
Common, and followd Bailey in a long cast which he made, a successful one
too, as far as finding the fox went, for up he jumped, dead beat, in the
middle of a field ; but, being close to a large wood. Galley Hill, which was
no doubt his home, he managed to save his brush. Parndon Woods were
next drawn ; but the rain, which had now begun to come down in drenching
showers, quite destroyed all traces of scent.

Wednesday, December 22nd, 1880: the meet was at Down Hall, and, in
spite of a pouring rain, a great many availed themselves of the hospitality of
Sir H. Selwin Ibbetson, and did justice to a very good breakfast which had
been provided for them. The rain, which commenced at 7 a.m., went on
all day, with scarcely a check, and I expect very few had a dry garment on
by the time they reached home. The chief sport of the day was afforded
by two foxes who had taken refuge in a high tree covered with ivy, when
the hounds were thrown into the Down Hall coverts. A yokel, a long

TFIE I\\' TKKT-: FOXES

21

ladder and pole, were called into requisition, and soon made that tree too hot
for number one, and down he came like a cat, but merely gave us a ring ot
about ten minutes, when he was lost ; but this short spin emptied more
than one saddle. Having given number one up, number two was dislodged
in a similar way, but this time hounds were laid on quicker, and he gave us
a nice gallop of about thirty minutes, but, like his companion, he did not go
very straight. It was a merry burst, and everybody enjoyed it, but I never
saw so much grief in so short a run ; riders were severely handicapped
trying to catch their runaway steeds with top boots full of water, and
clothes saturated with rain.

George Hogarth Dawson

A good man on any horse was George Uawson before he
met with the accident to his hip in a polo match at Silver Leys
in 1880. Inflammation set up by the accident stopped his
hunting altogether for some time. Although heroic remedies
were tried in the hope of curing the injury (he was tired, for
instance), they did little good. Deprived of all power of grip,
he took to ridino- side saddle fashion.* As time went on, he

* See photograph of Matching Green, i88g.

2 2 LEAVES EROM A HUNTING DIARY

o-radually became better, and can now ride a pony with some
degree of comfort and a great deal of pleasure. Blessed with
a good eye to hounds and wonderful knowledge of the country,
a fox is rarely run into without his being present, any day he
is out.

R. Womersley

A brother-in-law of George Dawson's, a very keen man to
hounds in the seventies. He was a rum 'un to follow, a
bad 'un to beat, when I first made his acquaintance in '79.
His " Newman Noggs," " Treasure Trove," a beautiful bay, and
a little chestnut as bold as a lion, (but not always perfect over
timber Mr. Dawson — eh ?) — were three as good horses as any
mortal could wish to ride. Mr. Womersley took very keenly
to polo, and was one of the promoters of the West Essex Polo
Club.

Is it an old woman's tale that dipping your fingers into water in which
eggs have been boiled produces warts ? It may be so or may not, but
that drinking coffee in which two fresh eggs had been carefully cooked just
three and three-quarter minutes about 4 a.m. one October morning some
eighteen years ago — to be precise, October 11, 1 881 — produced no ill effects,
a certain individual can testify who, after a hack of some thirteen miles,
found himself at Takeley Forest at 6.30 a.m., and later at Wallbury Dell,

THE CREME DE LA CRERIE 23

the outside covert on the north-east side of the Essex country. It was a
good cub which went away from Brown's Osiers that morning, and
crossing the brook that surrounds them gave his foHowers a merry dance
over the open— a very bUnd open, to Gladwyn's Gardens, very few
besides Bailey, Firr, Mr. B. Dickinson and a stranger from the Puckeridge
Hunt, attempting to ride to them over the leafy fences. Sir Henry came
up with the intelligence that a fox with his tongue out had been viewed
going away, but the merry gallop (the diary entry) a very enjoyable one
was over.

Eagerly looked forward to, and none the less so because it fell on the
latest possible day in November, the opening meet was held on Monday,
November 7th, at (it need hardly be written) Matching Green, under the
favourable auspices of a southerly wind and a cloudy sky. An unusually
large number of sportsmen had assembled to meet Sir H. Selwin-Ibbetson,
M.P. His huntsman, Bailey, supported by Firr, Littleworth and Crawley,
looked as fit as the hounds, which, after a hard and very successful season's
cubhunting, were in first-rate condition. A rather longer time than usual
was allowed for late arrivals, owing to a drag tooled by the secretary, Mr.
Hervey Foster, being expected. It was not, however, until hounds were
on their way to covert that he drove up, with a load of as good sportsmen
as ever crossed country — in fact the cvemc de la cveme of straight riders,
Messrs. F. and C. Green, R. Ball, R. Bevan, P. Hargreaves, and A. Suart.
The hounds were not stopped, a canter across the grass landing the late
arrivals well on their way towards the coverts in front of the numerous
pedestrians, who, directly they saw what was up, made a rush after them.
The hounds went into Brick Kilns Wood, the first covert drawn, with that
dash one likes to see. Soon a whimper, gradually getting louder, then a
burst of music which sent one's blood tingling through one's veins,
proclaimed a find. Unfortunately for Reynard, he was not stout-hearted
enough to face the open until it was too late ; for, when he broke at last,
hounds were so close to him that he sought shelter in Capt. Meyer's garden,
and was soon run into. Whoop ! brought up the field, who had gone
galloping after a holloa, another fox having gone away at the same time.

Here many took the opportunity of tasting Capt. Meyer's celebrated
home-brewed ale before jogging on to Man Wood, where, although there
were a lot of foxes on foot, it was some time before hounds could get away
with one, which they did at last with an indifferent scent, and hunted him
slowly though perseveringly up to Hatfield town, leaving it on the right.
There was a check here, but Bailey made one of his usual casts, and
hounds, hitting it oft" over the road, kept driving steadily on. Shortly
afterwards a shrill view halloa was heard, and Bailey, losing no time getting
to it, soon had his hounds on better terms with their fox than they had been
before. I had only a bird's-eye view of the rest of the run, for — hesitating
too long over a brook, which Mr. Hervey Foster safely negotiated, and
which having stopped a welter weight in pink I did not feel warranted
in essaying— I cantered along for a bridge over which the rest of the
field had gone. Hounds must have raced here, for when I got over they
were fading rapidly out of sight ; a straggling and also a struggling line of
sportsmen (for a good many were off") enabled me to steer my course in the
right direction, and to come up with the hounds who had killed their fox
close to Pamphilon's earth. After the hounds had broken him up they
were thrown into Quick Wood. A quick find and a forrard away set the
eager field galloping after hounds in the direction of Down Hall, the fox
making for the well-known ivied tree, where, being headed, he ran to
Matching Park, and from there to Moor Hall, back again to Down Hall,
where he was lost.

24

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

Few better-hearted or more hospitable men ever kept
hunters than the late Captain Herman Meyer. How few of
us who commenced hunting- in the seventies or eighties
have not quaffed at some time or other his famous hunting-
beer ? Coming of a stock that had owned land in Essex for
many years, he succeeded his father, Christian Paul Meyer,
who built Little Laver Hall, and for a period of some thirty
years, ending in 1886, hunted regularly with the Essex Hounds.

Captain Herman Meyer

He took a keen interest in the Volunteer movement, and com-
manded the Epping and Ongar Corps from 1875 to 1886: at
their annual dinner he was a very good hand at inducing fresh
members to join his corps, the audior falling a victim to his
persuasive eloquence on one occasion. Cricket found in him a
staunch supporter, for he captained the Matching Green and
Ongar Club with great success, and as a Justice of the Peace
on the Ongar Bench he tempered justice with mercy. That he
was a close observer of nature the following letter, culled from

A MEET AT EPPING BURY 25

the Spectator of January 29, i 89S, clearly indicates. He could
hardly be otherwise, living- in a house miles away from a
station, surrounded with woods full of foxes and pheasants : —

FASCINATION BY A FOX.

\To the Editor of the " Spectator.'']
Sir, — I see Truth has cast doubts on the accuracy of the account of a
fox fascinating a pheasant by circling beneath its perch, described by your
correspondent in the Spectator of January ist. Mr. Meyer, of Little Laver
Hall, near Ongar, Essex, told me many years ago a parallel story. He saw
a fox, which had got into his hen-roost, circling round and round under a
cock, which would unquestionably have fallen off his perch into the fox's
jaws had not my friend shown himself and frightened the beast away.

I am, Sir, &c.,
Shelthorpe, Sandown, Isle of Wight, H. J. Lister.

January 14th.

Wednesday, November gth, the meet was at Harlow Common, where
the celebrated Harlow Bush Fair, lately done away with, used to be held.
A finer day could not have been chosen for hunting ; it was as balmy as
May. To see the way the ladies worked in covert (Harlow Park) was a
sight alone worth coming for. They were soon racing after a fox, a
gallant one, for, not heeding the carriage and foot people in Harlow Road,
he went straight across it into Latton Park. By the way, hounds were
running, there was no time to be lost to seek for a way through the wood
or gallop round it. Which was it to be? Seeing Mr. Sworder and his
son slipping round the wood, I luckily followed, and galloped fast, to be
just in time to see hounds come out the other side and race towards
Parndon Woods which they soon reached. The scent was bad in Parndon
Woods, but hounds went through them both on to Epping Green, which
a gentleman in pink must have found more damp than pleasant to sit
down on. Taking to the fields again, they ran over Nasing Common to
Nasing Coppice, where he was lost. Another fox was found at Latton
Bushes, and ran through Harlow Park over Hastingwood Common to
Belgium Woods, where the ladies were close on to him ; but, managing
to give them the slip, he ran to Matching Park, and through that to Moor
Hall, where he got to ground only a minute in front of hounds, and saved
his brush. From the line he took, I think he was the same fox we had
given a good bustling to about a week previously from Belgium Wood.
It was a capital run — time, fifty-five minutes. Mr. J. V. Walmsley and
Messrs. Sworder were among the few lucky ones who saw it.

Wednesday, Nov. i6th, 1881. Meet, Epping Bury. Present: The
Master, Sir H. Selwin Ibbetson, M.P., riding " Multum in Parvo," Mrs.
Arkwright, Lieut. -Col. Howard, Mr. and Mrs. R. Wood, Mr. Hervey
Foster, Mr. Todhunter, Lieut. -Col. Lockwood, Mr. G. Dawson and Miss
Dawson, Mr. F. Green, Mr. C. E. Green, Mr. R. Ball, Mr. W. F. Roffey,
Sir Lumley Graham, Mr. H. R. Bagot, Mr. B. Dickinson, Mr. and Mrs.
Keppel, Mr. O. Finlay, Mr. Steele, Mr. Wyllie, Mr. W. Sewell, Mr. H.
Sworder, Mr. Melles. Trotting through the Bury Farm fields to covert,
it was some satisfaction to think that the foxes, which generally make for
the Epping Forest from the Copped Hall Coverts, would hardly be able
to reach it in the face of the strong wind that was blowing. The forest
is a pretty safe harbour of refuge for foxes, scent being generally very

26

LEAVES EROM A HUNTING DIARY

bad, and there being no chance to hft hounds, as a fast trot is about
all the pace that can be managed, on account of the trappy nature of
the ground and the closeness of the trees. Crossing the well-known
Cobbins Brook by a bridge, the hounds quickly drew a plantation which
fringed the afore-mentioned brook for some distance. With several others
I did not leave the coign of vantage, the Bridge, until hounds were
on their way to the next covert. Orange Wood, some three fields off.
Cantering leisurely towards it with another man, and discussing the best
side and corner to get to, we suddenly saw the hounds running like steam
away from us, and then as suddenly turn and swing down to Orange
Wood. A halloa away at the same time from the side opposite to that
they were entering gave some score of us a capital chance of a good
start, as we had some exciting moments to wait while the ladies, giving
tongue, were racing through the woods towards us.

y/<^lt<^iu?n*^

Epping Bury

Over the fence they came with a dash. One moment of hesitation on
the plough, and down hill they raced towards a bullfinch-lined brook of
certain depth and uncertain take off. That it was an awkward one three
empty saddles proved, but nearly every fence has a weak place, so several
were soon o\er. The hounds pressed on up the next field (a grass one),
closely attended by Mr. G. Dawson, Bailey, and Firr, but were in and out
of the lane leading from it before anyone could find a way out. Firr took
the initiative by sliding his horse, a remarkably clever grey, down a bank
as steep as the side of a house. A bank out of the lane, another grass
field, and you had quickly to make up your mind which side of Ball Hill,
which hounds had entered, you were going to take. Those who followed
Bailey and Mr. G. Dawson to the windward side were right, for the fox
turned and gamely tried to make his point, the forest, up wind. But

p:ssex brooks 27

about a mile at the pace was enough for him, and, sinking the wind, soon
completed what might be called the inner circle of this run. Past Orange
Wood again, by which time all those who had got a good start, and all
who had got a bad one, and those who had not got a start at all
and had not wanted one, were pretty well on equal terms. Crossing the
road over a razor bank, a tail hound did his best to upset Firr by entangling
himself in his horse's leg ; but a good scramble and they were both all
right. Turning to the left, past Hunters' Hall, hounds could hunt but
slowly as scent was catchy ; but the fields were small, so the fences came
fast and thick enough until Nasing Coppice was reached. The fox was
viewed here, but, seemingly havmg had enough of woods, he left Nasing
Coppice on his right, and turned towards Nasing. Hounds ran very fast
over the grass fields near Nasing ; but an ominous cry from Bailey of
" 'Ware wire, gentlemen ! "* made us cautious enough to take the fences
after him.

When we came up to Galley Hill scent failed ; so Bailey made a long
cast in the direction of Maries, and, hitting off the hne, hounds carried it
over Cobbins Brook once more. The crossing at that point occupied some
time, and caused no little amusement ; for a man in black, who seemed
to know all about it, piloted the field into and round several bends in it.
I may as well here mention, for the benefit of your readers who do not know
the Essex brooks, that they have nearly always sound gravelly bottoms,
with deep pools here and there ; but the banks being generally, as I once
heard a whip say, very " underminded," and rather too far apart (the latter
impediment is not uncommon in other countries, I believe), make them
nearly always unjumpable. The Cobbins Brook is no exception, and is
best got over by sliding down and scrambling up. To return to the man
in black, he led us on until (fortunately for those who felt nervous about
their swimming powers) he was pulled up by a post and rails, and with
perpendicular banks on each side about ten feet high, it was a case of right
about face. But at last a place was found which could be managed on a
clever horse, and some bushes being pulled out near a cattle-drinking place
the remainder were able to get over. Hounds, however, were unable to
own to the line much further, and it was given up close to where the find
took place, thus nearly completing the outer circle. Time, one hour twenty
minutes. Another fox was found in Deer Park, and, after a sharp twenty-
five minutes, was run to ground in a drain. He was bolted, and got clean
away from the hounds, who were close to him, but getting into a drain
again his second bolt was not so successful; "whoop" and the shades of
night brought the day's sport to an end.

Arriving at the meet at Moreton on Wednesday, December 14th, 1881,
one found everybody discussing the good sport the hounds had been showing
lately. Only the Monday previous, when they met at Swallow's Cross,
they had a very fast forty minutes and ran into their fox, the pace being
so fast that no one could live with them, Bailey being the nearest, and he,
according to my informant, two fields behind. The dog pack were evidently
very keen after the extraordinary run which they had two days before, in
which I am told that hounds ran one fox an hour and fifty minutes, with
only one check of two minutes among some cattle, and pulled him down in
the open, every hound up. The first to get hold of him was the puppy
hound Chanticleer, which the Master himself had walked. The distance
covered was between twenty-one and twenty-four miles, though probably

* We had to thank Mr. Charles Bury for getting this wire taken down. — Eu.

28

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

nearer the latter. That only four, beside the Master, who was riding his
grey horse, " Stockbridge," and the hunt servants, were up in time to see
the fox broken up, is a thing not to be wondered at. Scent was so good
that hounds could own to it right across the fields, and ran with their heads
up the whole time.

Albert Deacon

To come to the present : Moreton Wood being blank, a move was made
to Norwood and Envilles with the same result ; but Brick-kilns Wood, as
usual, had a tenant, and hounds, quickly evicting him, he made for Man
Wood, but, doubling back, he ran through Brick-kilns again, breaking on
the opposite side. Bailey quickly had his hounds on the line, and they ran
fast and well to Norwood, when there was a slight check. Picking it up

A MEET AT CLAY15URV 29

again they swung over the road, quickly to recross it, by which time the
ladies had fairly settled down to their work, and raced their fox in the
direction of Beauchamp Roothing up to the church, leaving it on the right,
then through Abbess Roothing to Row Wood, which the fox reached
scarcely a minute in front of hounds. Time up to this point one hour and
ten minutes, most of it very fast. The best of the run was now over, for
although hounds, when they got on the line again from Row Wood, ran
fairly well to Man Wood (by the bye, a double post and rails out of plough,
and a rotten-banked brook, presented themselves on the way, the former to
be flown by Mr. P. Hargreaves and Firr, which speaks well for the stamina
of their horses, and the latter to hold a hard-riding man on a chesnut horse),
hounds were too far behind their fox, with a failing scent, to do much good.

They got away from Man Wood with a fox, most likely a fresh one, and
ran to White Roothing, where he was lost ; horses had had quite enough,
and had very little jump left in them. Prominent among those who rode
well to the front through the whole run were — Mr. Sworder, of Tawney
Hall, whom few, if they saw him ride, would believe will be 70 next birth-
day ; and Mr. Mills, of Garnish Hall, a neighbouring farmer, who has
probably hunted with the Essex Hounds longer than most, having been
entered in the late Mr. Conyer's time.

Monday, December 19th, 1881. — The meet was at Claybury, but not
finding there or in the surrounding woods, a move was made to Gen.
Wood's coverts, where the dog pack soon got away with one of the
right sort. Changing their fox at the Osiers, they had a good hunting run
of an hour and a half in which Bailey showed great perseverance, a drain,
inacessible to terrier and spade, unfortunately robbing hounds of their well-
deserved fox. Mr. G. Hart did a good deal of the piloting in this run.

The morning's sport on Wednesday, December 21st, 1881, when we met
at Nasing, was characterised by a good sharp gallop from Galley Hill and
a ring from the same wood, the fox taking a line which differed from that
usually selected, as he broke covert on the Waltham side. Not many, I
am told, were with the hounds when they crossed the road at the bottom
of the hill, and fewer still when, in ten minutes, they ran into their fox in
a new-built cottage near Warlies.

The next fox they got away with from Galley Hill stuck to the woods,
running through Deer Park (where I fell in with them) and adjoining
woods, crossing the brook to Warlies, and then back to Galley Hill, where
he managed to give hounds the slip. Foxes were viewed in all directions
in this run, which, combined with a bad scent and a high wind, made it
rather a puzzling matter for huntsman and hounds. Nasing Coppice was
next drawn. That few expected we should find here was evident, for
hounds were away at the bottom end and a good way down the common
before anyone knew it, the first to do so being Mr. Miller, who disappeared
over a most uninviting looking drop on to the common. What a rush there
was, for hounds were going a great pace up wind over the common. They
did not go halfway across before they were over the line, the fox having
turned sharp to the left ; but, hitting it off, they went up the hill as fast as
they had gone down, reaching the top between Deer Park and Nasing
Coppice, where they were momentarily at fault ; however, they required no
lifting, but working it out, they were again in full swing. Leaving Mr.
Nicholls' farm on the right, they ran through Ball Hill, then bearing
to the right over some nice fences, stiff enough to cause a good average
number of croppers. Mr. Walmsley, acting the good Samaritan, had hold
of one riderless steed, which he was not able to stop before reaching a fence;
it certainly looked as if they meant having it together. Crossing the

30

LEAVES P'ROM A HUNTING DIARY

Cobbins brook, hounds ran fast to Warlies Park and over the Wahham
Road, Mr. Bambridge being the first to discover an assailable point in the
rail and ditch out of it ; a slight check, but two of the hounds never left
the line, and the rest of the pack coming up, they worked it out.

Another road to Waltham was crossed, mostly in single file, the hedge
into the road being a thick one, and the one out thicker. After going about
a mile, the Forest was entered just below High Beech, a good four-mile
point as the crow flies. Hounds ran very well through the Forest for
about two miles, close up to Theydon Bois, never swerving an inch off the

The Deacons on their favourite hunters

line, although some of the wild forest deer crossed right in front of them.
It looked as if the fox meant going right through the Forest, but he pre-
ferred sticking to it, and ran hounds out of scent near Fairmead Bottom,
Next day so sharp a frost set in that on Christmas Day people were skating
not twelve miles from the kennels. However, a rapid thaw enabled hounds
to be out the following day, when they met at Weald Gullet. To hunt,
skate, and hunt again in less than one week has seldom, if ever, I should
think, been the fortune of Essex sportsmen before the Christmas week of
1881.

" Stud Groom," a chestnut horse by " Lowlander," the late
Miss Deacon's favourite hunter, was well known to all followers

THE DEACONS

31

of the Essex Hounds. Standing- i6-il, he possessed a o-ood
turn of speed ; and at the Rundells steeplechases won twice,
on each occasion being steered to victory by Mr. R. B. Colvin.
Miss Deacon, on an average, rode him twice a week with
hounds, and without over-riding them was always close up.
Just before she died she expressed a wish that " Stud Groom"
should be kept as a pet ; he was therefore turned into a

J. Todhunter

loose box for some time, but not thriving without exercise,
he was given to Mr. Walmsley. one of his late owner's
greatest friends, and at his death came back to Briggins.
One of his legs giving way, three years after this, he was
shot at Harlow kennels.

It is a pity that we have no portrait of Mr. Deacon's
famous hunter "King Charming," by "Blood Royal," which

32 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

he bought at Tattersalls' for 395 gs. This horse, a dark
chestnut, standing 17^ hands, carried Mr. Deacon for about
four seasons, when he died from blood poisoning.

" Katherine," of whom we have a portrait, was, however,
the best hunter Mr. Deacon ever had ; she also was a chestnut,
and was purchased at Tattersalls', and ran twice at Rundells.
Falling with Mr. Colvin on the first occasion, she managed to go
the course with ly^ stone on her back, when Mr. Deacon rode
her himself in the Briggins Cup ; Mr. C. E. Green coming in
first on his horse, the " Joke," carrying 16 st. i lb.

Anyone who hunted in the late Mr. Arkwright's time will
recognise the pleasant features and genial smile of old Dobson,
for that is the name by which I have always known him. He
carried the horn for Air. Arkwright from 1866-7 to 1878-79
with conspicuous success, and as kennel huntsman to Sir
Henry Ibbetson proved himself an invaluable servant. Mr.
George Dawson was one of Stephen Dobson's warmest
admirers, and took a very active part in promoting the testi-
monial that was given to him on his retirement from active
service.*

Mr. Todhunter is as likely to give up hunting while he can
throw a leg over a saddle as he is to cease preserving foxes
conjointly with Mr. J. Green, of Todd's Brook, in Parndon
Woods ; the woods which have provided the Essex with some of
their best and most exciting runs. Mr. Todhunter has for
many years been one of the pillars of the Essex Hunt. Long
may he continue to enjoy the sport for which he has done so
much is the hearty wish of all those who are so much indebted
to him.

* See photo, page 10.

Hervey Foster

CHAPTER II.

llci'vcy Foster — Pilgrim — Major J . F . Foster — Katafclto — The Bold Trimmer —
Cnhs in Biishwood — Barmleys to Forest Hall— IV. Bambridgc — Disastrous
Days — General Mark Wood — A Big Jump — Empty Saddles — Col. Lockwood —
Bishop's Hall — Robert Lockivood — Fnar — Bull's-Eye — Watchman — The
Customers in 1873 — The Warren Fox — A Wet Season — Fidl Cry through
Walt ham Abbey — James Green — Across Country from Pavndon Hall — Who's
for Epping ? — Rolls Park — Col. S. Howard — Bob Ward — Hertfordshire
Woodlands — A riindel — Boy ton Cross. — Edivard Gibson — Screens — Matching
Green, 1883 — Roothing Ploughs — Multnm in Parvo — Phantom.

HERVEY EOSTER will never be forgotten, not even
when the wail of the huntsman's horn awaking" the deep
echoes of Ongar Park and the surrounding- woodlands shall
have become a thing of the past, for he has left behind him
a sweet memory which, from father to son, will be handed
down to generations yet unborn. It could hardly be other-
wise, for he had a charm of manner and a gift of ingratiating
himself with all with whom he was brought in contact such as
few possess. A sportsman to the backbone, horn and bred
in PLssex, his high courage, courteous manner, and generous
nature made him the idol of the farmers and the dean iddal
of a Hunt Secretary : just as his fine riding, his quick dashing-
style, always taking a line of his own and that instantly, found
many imitators, but no rivals. Had he been spared to us, how
many point-to-points would he not have won, for with his
knowledge of pace and quick eye for a country he quite ex-

3

34 leavp:s from a hunting diary

celled in tliis form of steeplechasing, which he was the first
to introduce into the Essex country. Cold blew the wind
through the trees, as, beneath the shadow of his father's ivy-
covered church at Theydon Garnon, in the spring- of '^J, five
years after his dreadful accident, poor Hervey Foster was laid
to rest in the presence of those comrades who had ridden side
by side with him in many a stirring gallop and thrilling race.

Untrainpled let the grass this Spring revive ;

No breath of Spring can give us back our dead.
On " Pilgrim " once a victor, he is now

The last lone pilgrimage compelled to tread.

— R. Y. Bevan.

Pilgrim

Perhaps " Pilgrim " was one of the best horses he ever
owMied. ¥oY portrait see Matching Green, 1888, while a photo-
graph of a painting of his intelligent head is here reproduced.
He was a marvellous little horse to jump, and could gallop like
clockwork. I can vividly recall the distance he cleared over
hurdle, hedge, and ditch combined in one of my fields the day
Hervey Foster purchased him, I think for ^50. Going a rare
header over a yawner in a run from Man Wood to Down Hall
at the opening meet the little horse never forgot it, and I
very much (juestion whether he ever fell again. Second in the

MAIOR

K REDE RICK EOSTER

35

point-to-point at Rundells in i(SSi to Sir Henry's " Multum in
Parv^o," carrying 1 1 stone 7 lbs. On the same day he occupied
a similar position for the Lightweight Cup, and finished up by
winning the Consolation Stakes. At the following meeting at
Rundells he was first in the red-coat point-to-point race, nine
starters, owner up.

Major John Frederick Foster

Alas ! that he too should have been called upon to " cross
the bar " in the prime of life. Eldest son of the late Rev. Sir
Cavendish Hervey Foster, of Theydon Garnon Rectory, though
not so devoted to hunting as his brother Hervey, he was
sufficiently fond of the pastime not to lose the opportunity of
freely enjoying it in a land where it could be enjoyed par
excellence, to wit, in the Emerald Isle, where the family seat
is situated. He paid frequent visits to Essex, where he had
double ties, having married a daughter of the late T. Chisen-
hale Marsh, Esq., of Gaynes Park, and rode to hounds in as
quiet and neat a way as he dressed for parade, a ball, or a
dinner.

36 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

I believe the last gallop Hervey Foster ever had with stag hounds in
Essex — before he left the county for Ireland — was on Tuesday, February
28, 1882, when they met at High Easter Bury. How well I remember
this my first gallop with stag hounds ! My impression that hunting
with them was a very formidable undertaking made me feel uncommonly
nervous, very much the same sort of sensation a good many not unnaturally
feel at their first steeplechase. A large field assembled to meet the
Master, Mr. Henry Petre, including most of the regular followers of
the stag hounds, few of whom were at that time known to me, but
Mr. James Christy was there, Mr. Percy Tippler on his celebrated horse
" Katafelto," while the fox-hunters were represented by Mr. Hervey Foster
on " Satanella," the ill-fated black mare that shortly afterwards in a
steeplechase in Ireland turned a complete somersault over a stone wall,
crushing him and injuring his spine : injuries from which he never
recovered; Mr. William Symes on " Miss Templar," and Mr. H. J. Miller
on his famous grey mare ; Mr. Jimmie Walmsley, who said, " Now, Miller,
to-day for the honour of the Essex Hounds," while I was riding my
favourite " Bosphorus."

There was a rare scent, and at the very start it became a steeplechase,
as the field, rapidly thinning out, we ran by Good Easter, Mashbury,
Chignall, and over Mr. J. Christy's farm at Writtle, where we turned
left-handed and crossed the river below Chelmsford, the Broomfield side
of the town, fifty minutes from the start, by which time there were very
few with hounds. Mr. Christy, riding his black horse " Hawks-eye,"
got bogged just in front of me on the Chelmsford Sewage Farm at
Springfield (he has since told me that this horse, a noted puller, went
through several hands afterwards, amongst them Edward Lawrence of
the Cock Hotel, Epping, but none could ever steady him with hounds ;
finally, going for a London cabber, he went steadily enough). But the
hero of the run, Hervey Foster, had not come off unscathed ; as he rode
his blood mare as straight as a dart, he took a regular crumpler over one
ditch and lost his hat at another fence ; while equally well placed with
him rode Percy Tippler, ever and anon twisting his whip in his hand as
the deer-like " Katafelto " fenced on superbly, taking just in front of
Mr. Miller one unfastened gate that only wanted a push to open it, while
far behind was the Master tootling his horn like mad to bring on the tail
hounds, as we had only a couple or two in the front, and we had been
riding at the stag for a mile or two. Clattering into Chelmsford, Messrs.
Hervey Foster, Tippler and Miller went straight through the churchyard.
Whether they jumped the wall or not I cannot say. Running down to the
Maldon and Chelmsford Navigation at Little Baddow, we took our deer
close to a foot-bridge that spanned it. The only survivors of this rattling
one hour and thirty minutes being the Master, Messrs. Hervey Foster,
Tippler, H. J. Miller, Mr. W. Symes and "Bosphorus," and the Fox-
hunters were naturally rather elated with the sport, and their success.
Unluckily, Mr. Miller had lost a fore shoe, and sustained a bad over-reach.
Getting to Chelmsford, Mr. Hervey Foster went to seek a blacksmith and
returned laden with horse-shoes from wrist to shoulder, to ensure a fit,
(the smith following behind), and then shared with Mr. Symes and Mr.
Miller in the pleasure of two horses between three from Chelmsford to
Ongar, for the mare was ver}? lame. Hervey Foster was always ready to
help a fellow-sportsman.

Never has there been known a more successful season with the above
pack than that Avhich has just passed away. The wheel of fortune has
indeed gone round in one continuous circle in sportsmen's favour, although

LOUGIITON SIIAWS '^']

a gloom has been cast on the proceedings of tlie last few weeks by the loss
of a true friend to this hunt in Mr. Perry Watlington, who Avas universally
esteemed. A very large field had mustered to meet the hounds at Brook
House on Saturday, March 25, 18S2, among whom I noticed the following: —
Sir H. Sehvin-Ibbetson on " Stockbridge," Sir Charles Smith, Mr. Hervey
Foster, Major and Mrs. Tait, Lieut. -Col. Lockwood, Mr. K. and Miss
Wood, Mr. and Mrs. Waters and Miss Fane, Mr. and Mrs. Elder, Rev. L.
Capel-Cure and Mr. A. Capel-Cure, Mr. Vigne, Mr. Bury, Mr. G. Dawson,
Messrs. F. and C. Green, Mr. R. Bevan, Mr. Lawrence, V.S., Mr. J. V.
Walmsley, Mr. J. Longbourne, Mr. Edwards, Mr. Wyllie, Messrs. E. and
R. Ball, Mr. P. Hargreaves, Mr. H. E. Jones, Messrs. J. and L. Pelly, Mr.
W. Sewell, Mr, Allsopp and Mr. Roffey. I was sorry to see so many farmers
absent. That hard-riding septuagenarian, Mr. Sworder, of Tawney Hall,
had not sufficiently recovered his recent accident, when hounds last met at
Brook House, to put in an appearance, although, fortunately, he was soon
well again. Mr. Hart and Mr. G. Brown were also absentees ; but I
noticed Mr. Sworder's sons, Mr. Mills, of Garnish Hall, Mr. Saward, of
Patch Park, Mr. Green, of Parndon, Mr. W. Symes, and Mr. B. Dickin-
son, of Rundells. There were several Essex Union men out, and a large
London contingent, who rode hard and fell freely.

The day's proceedings were slightly delayed by a meeting, which was
held at the Secretary's house, to arrange about the steeplechases, which,
owing to their success last year, are to come off again at Harlow Bush, on
Tuesday, April nth. Two point-to-point races, over three-and-a-half miles
of country unknown till the start, one for members of the hunt, the other
for farmers, being the great attraction.

A fox having been viewed in the morning in the neighbourhood of
Theydon Garnon Rectory, the surrounding fields and coverts were drawn,
but without success, so we adjourned to Loughton Shaws, a few inter-
vening fences being productive of grief to at least one individual. Hear-
ing him call out, " Hold up, old man ! " I turned my head just in time to
see him come a buster over his horse's head, though why everyone laughed
I don't know, as it was entirely the horse's fault. Taking the right side of a
blind fence which leads down to Loughton Shaws, I had the satisfaction of
seeing how cleverly some horses could jump, as they had to come over the
fence I have alluded to. If I had wanted to choose two confidential
hunters, I should certainly have picked out the Messrs. Ball's, a bay and a
grey, as they came over one after the other as clever as cats. Scarcely had
I observed this dual leap before a welcome whimper was heard. Mr.
Hervey Foster's face was a study when he remembered he was on a pony.

Luckily for him, Mr. C. Green's second horse was at hand ; he did not
require much solicitation from, its owner to exchange mounts. Reynard,
not liking his quarters, soon came out of the forest side, but seeing a horse-
man at the corner of the covert he doubled back, and broke the other.
Bailey soon had his hounds on the line, and by the way they first settled
down it looked as if they meant running ; but the fox had taken a sharp
turn, and hounds flashed over it ; a holloa to the right was heard, and
hounds were soon running towards the river Roden, which, unfortunately,
the fox did not cross. There was a beautiful open country beyond, and we
should probably have had a good run ; turning to the right, hounds ran very
well over the meadows by the side of the river, which, in a wet season,
would probably have been under water, but that day rode quite springy.

A brook soon presented itself, which was safer to ford than jump, as a
good many discovered when they found themselves in it. The hounds soon
crossed the line near Chigwell Lane Station, some enthusiastic navvies

38 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

lifting two convenient gates off their hinges to let us through. The chase
now bore towards Loughton Rectory, when a false alarm of " 'ware wire "
was raised. The fence, an insignificant one, supposed to contain it, was too
much, however, for a mouse-coloured pony, and brought him and his rider
well on to their heads. Leaving Loughton Rectory on the left, and
crossing the road, scent began to fail ; hounds hunted slowly towards
Goldings, before reaching which a trappy double presented itself, and was
productive of grief to nearly all who tried it ; one man, I am told, had the
misfortune to break his horse's leg. Hounds were baffled as usual when
tliey got in the Forest. Bailey made a cast round Colonel Howard's house,
thinking the fox might have got into some drain, but not a trace of him
could be found. Time, about 40 minutes. Two hundred odd up, all of
whom seemed to have enjoyed their gallop. In preceding years the last
day of the season has generally commenced at Col. Howard's, who this
year was in India, but apparently the hounds could not let the day pass
without paying a visit to the place where they have formerly been so well
entertained. The whole length of the Forest from here to Epping (four
miles) was drawn without result, also the lower Forest, the Ongar side of
Epping, where a fox managed to give hounds the slip, being viewed away
after they had gone to Gaynes Park and Ongar Park Wood, from which
so many good runs have taken place this season. To-day they were
tenantless— a matter of no surprise at this time of year.

With Sir H. Selwin Ibbetson holding the reins of office, Bailey acting as
his huntsman, Firr, Littleworth, and Crawley as whips (I hope the rumour
of Littleworth's leaving is not true), the prospects of sport for the next
season are very good. I therefore cannot conclude better than by quoting
" Brooksby's " advice, that sportsmen had better see to the early con-
ditioning of their horses, as cubs will be unusually forward next October.

September 9th. — Ned Ball will probably have forgotten, until he sees
this note, that at the raising of the curtain of the season 1882 he and his
brother Bob had to start from my house at 3.15 to be in time for the first
act at 5 a.m. at Down Hall. A good show of cubs, a brace to hand and
a fair number of people out, completes the entry in the journal.

A fortnight later at Brick Kilns still, 5 a.m. Who now remembers
that terrier, smoke and water, failed to evict a cub which went to ground
opposite Captain Meyer's house? And Dawson I'll wager it has slipped
your memory that on Monday, October 2nd, you started with me at 4.15
a.m. to a six o'clock meet at Row Wood, that we followed not the old
fox from thence, but gave some cubs from Poplars a merry hustling,
killing a venturesome member who came away to Row Wood. And Bailey
coming down at the first fence would be puzzled now to tell who caught his
horse.

How many times have we met at Epping Bury at 6.30 a.m. for cub
hunting since that memorable Saturday morning, October 7th, 1882, when
Mr. Trimmer, the " Austrahan," made his first essay in the hunting fields
of England and all but cut down and hung up to dry a large contingent
of men to the manner born, and men who knew a trick or two about
fox hunting, eh ! and cub hunting too, in leafy October.

How many times has such a litter of cubs been found in Orange Wood
as were routed from its inmost recesses on that occasion — one, two, three,
out they came, but not until number four was stealing away down the
hill over the fallow, towards the boundary fence did Bailey blow his horn.
The hedge had been cut, the fence trimmed, through which the sound of
hounds running could be heard, if only a glimpse of their fast vanishing
forms could be seen.

TIIK AUSTRALIAN

39

But trimmed or not, in or over, a good many would have followed the
hold "Trimmer" and Mr. C. E. Green had they guessed at the fun
beyond, as up hill and down dale, over fair fences, hounds pressed on, across
the grass without a check, leaving Ball Hill on the right to Deer Park,
where the huntsman, who had been in difficulties, managed to come up,
not another soul in sight. Leaving Deer Park the scent was so hot
that even a iield liberally dressed with gas-lime did not put them off, and
there was no check before reaching Galley Hills, where the field got up.
Working round by Monkhams and Warlies, we killed in Deer Park, but
I question if the hunted fox were the owner of the " In Memoriam "
mask which now adorns my walls, for Mr. Carr, who was then farming
and still farms near Deer Park, viewed a customer with his brush down
stealing back to Orange Wood. Sir Henry, Bobby Wood, F. Green, and a
host of others, will remember this cheery morning. Didn't you buy
Sir Henry's "Madrid" that day, Mr. Green, after having given liim as
his first little jump a five-barred gate ? I know you never regretted his
purchase.

Orange Wood

Mr. Vigne's Harriers were at the same fixture two Saturdays later.
The day was uncommonly wet, so few turned up to meet them, Messrs. W.
Sewell, Pelly, Ketts, Miller and G. Willis pretty well comprising the field.
My only note of the day is that, having to leave after the first gallop, which
was brought to a sudden termination by the hare found on Mr. Symes' land
being drowned as she essayed to cross the Cobbin's Brook, on returning to
look for them I met Mr. Pelly, who had spent most of his morning getting
out of a ditch and the rest of the day in looking for hounds — which Mr.
Pelly it was my readers must find out for themselves.

Sir Henry always liked even a cub to have a chance, so we may fairly
surmise that the animal which was found and chopped at Moor Hall on
Monday, October 23, when the hounds met at High House, Harlow, did

40 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

not receive fair play, otherwise the entry would not have been made at this
result, " The Master was very indignant."

Of the following, including Major, Mrs. and Miss Tait, Mr. and Mrs.
Keppel, Mrs. Waters, Mr. R. Wood riding " Stockbridge," Messrs. Brown,
Trimmer, Dickinson (2), H. J. Miller, Sworder (2), R. Ball, T. J. Mills,
who were present on that particular morning, how many have passed away !

And to see cubs routed out at g a.m. on Thursday, October 26th,
came old Mr. Fane, Mr, F. Green on " Gamester," Mr. A. Suart, Mr. H.
Philby, Mr. E. Felly and many others, to Loughton Shaws. Mr. R. Wood,
who in the absence of the Master had charge of the field, kept us back so
long that hounds slipped away over the line and reached the forest before
we could overtake them, Mrs. Tait getting a fall en route without any serious
damage.

It is more than doubtful whether we have found cubs in Bushwood,
in Hill Hall Park, since that Monday, October 30th, when we met at
Thornwood Common and by easy transition reached the Gaynes Park
Coverts with a fox from the Lower Forest. Messrs. Longbourne and
Bevan, names not already mentioned, I extract from notes as being
present at the nice little hunting-run that finished off at Tawney Hall.

Every one out at Matching Green, but few left at the finish of the
afternoon run, which, beginning at 2.30 at Man Wood, ended about an
hour later at Canfield Hart, having taken us past Rossgrove's House.
Among the few I find the names of Messrs. C. E. Green, R. Ball, C.
Meek, A. Suart, R. Bevan and G. Capel Cure. Mr. R. Lockwood was
riding a horse of Mr. Jones's, and Colonel Lockwood Sir Henry's " Dread-
nought," which put him down, the Master being mounted on " Zata " and
" Nell Gwynne."

On Monday, Nov. 13th, 1882, they met at Abridge : a cold easterly
wind with sharp rain at commencement of day. A fox jiiniped up near
General Wood's and crossing the road at the back of his house, &c. Mr.
R. Lockwood's version is different and certainly fuller ; you shall have it :
" Found no foxes but bolted one from Alder Wood, ran by Conduit
Wood to Forest through without a check to Foxboroughs, turned to the

left by S Farm to Havering by the mill to Tom Surridges' back into

the Big Wood through Goodwin's Gardens to Apes, where I viewed him
out the other side through Alder and Soapleys to Clarks, and ran to
ground in my orchard. Bolted him, ran through Conduit to Apes Grove,
through that and round by Adlams up to the kitchen garden and lost him
in the Fagots. Time up to my house, i hour 10 minutes ; 40 minutes
after that we lost him. Grief was numerous ; Amy amongst them. I
rode a clever one of Taifs ' Orangeman,' ' Slov/ but Sure.' Chinty,
Dolly and children, saw the whole thing in the carriage. Ball, Suart, a
Gunner and Miller went well."

On Wednesday, Nov. 15th, the liounds met at Tylers Cross, and in
spite of the wind being, as in the famous Billesden Coplow run, north-
east, forbiddingly keen, there was a good muster. Tattle Bushes, Pinnacles,
and surrounding coverts, were drawn blank, when, about two o'clock, we
found ourselves at Barnsleys. Hounds were thrown in, not a whimper.
We were just beginning to despair when a holloa was heard. Away went
most of the field to the other side of the covert without knowing where
the holloa came from ; but the Master, who was on his favourite " Multum,"
with a quiet smile on his face, and a few others, stood perfectly still. They
were right, for in a few moments — they seemed very long ones — Bailey was
seen galloping at the top end of the covert blowing his hounds out. Getting
them together they quickly proved that other conditions besides a southerly

FROM T.ARNSLEYS TO FOKKST HALL

41

wind and cloudy sky proclaim a liuntini( morning ; for settling on to the
line at once, by the way they raced there was evidently a scent. It was
not good enough, as events proved, to enable them to kill the three-year-
old fox they were after, a well known customer of a light sandy colour.
Near the end of the run I heard a sportsman say to his friend, " We must
have his head, but it is no use reckoning the chickens before they are
hatched." But I am digressing too much. There was no check but a
sharp turn to the left taking us over a stiff line at a rattling pace to Belgium
Springs, half way to which an unjumpable ditch threw most of the field
out, with the exception of Mr. Bambridge and Mr. Sworder. A welcome
check, however, allowed most of them to get up, and a holloa on the right
from Mr. Edwards, of Magdalen Laver Hall — who, I am sorry to say, is

William Bambridge

giving up his farm, which will be regretted by all sportsmen, as, although
he does not hunt himself, he likes to see others enjoy the sport — showed
that our friend had not stayed in covert. Crossing the road by the Rectory,
we bore past Mr. Miller's farm, leaving it on the left, a gate at this spot
proving no obstacle to Mr. Fowler, of cricketing renown. Several un-
commonly blind fences, and we found ourselves in the road to the left of
Weald Bridge, crossing it in close order. It looked as if our fox meant
Ongar Park Woods ; but no, he evidently knew a better line. Some nice
galloping over pasture, and we went in and out of another road below High
Ongar Farm ; the going out necessitated fording a brook in single file and
cramming through a thick fence. Hounds ran at a good pace to Blake

42 LEAVES EROM A HUNTING DIARY

Hall Coverts, skirting which, they crossed the Moreton Road and the river
Roden, and hunted slowly up to Forest Hall, from which point they never
again got on terms with their fox, the sleet which began to come down in
sharp showers entirely obliterating all trace of scent.

However, it was a capital hunting run. Those that like pace had it to
Belgium Springs : and from there to Forest Hall the distance as hounds
ran was at least 7 miles as the crow flies, a good performance so early in
November. Of those who went well it would perhaps be invidious to
select any, though no exception will be taken to Mr. Hart on a five-year
old, and Mr. Sworder on one of his own making. A boy on a cob deserves
mention for the plucky way in which he rammed him along, no doubt
finding it better sport, if not quite so exciting as bombarding Alexandria.
Of course there were numerous disasters, a cart rope and spade being
wanted in at least one case, and six croppers equally divided between two
others, who seemed rather pleased than otherwise. Mr. Trimmer, a hard
riding Australian, came to grief, I am afraid, as he did not show up at the
end of the run.

Met in the rain at Claybury on Monday, Nov. 20th, where the huge
asylum now rears its head, not only met but found immediately. But
scent was not holding if the cherry brandy was acceptable on the top of a
fall near Mr. Alfred Suart's. A sharp fifteen minutes ring from Loughton
Shaws, and another cropper, is all I can extract from the diary notes of
that day.

Starting from home at midday on Monday, Nov. 27th, I came across
hounds running hard from Brick Kilns to Man Wood, taking us close to
Down Hall ; our fox turned back and led us along at a good pace by Abbess
Roothing, close to High Easter, beating us near Lords.

It was in this run that Major Tait had the misfortune to stake a
valuable horse, wdiich with the fatality that has been known to attend an
engine driver taking his final journey before retiring on his pension, he
rode for the last time, having sold him to Sir Henry for /80 a few days
previously. Another man broke his horse's back, and there were several
other disasters. Old Mr. Sworder and Mr. Chisenhale Marsh were going
very strong in this run.

I can see the quiet smile on the great Colonel Anstruther Thompson's
face now, as he stood watching one or two of us have a cut at the
Dagenham Brook on Monday, December 4th, and fancy that smile
broadened out into a pretty considerable grin when Firr, though running
his horse at it (he was riding " Desdichado ") with energy and determina-
tion, dropped short. The Waterloo veteran, however, stood stock still,
for the brook was not an easy one, and there being no ford handy, hounds
had it all to themselves for half-an-hour on the other side. I am afraid he
could not have stayed out with us till the evening, for in the rattling
gallop from Curtis Mill Green at 3 p.m. (a big ring to Passingford Bridge
and over the river to Hill Hall) I find no mention of his name, but only
Bobby Wood's, Bevan's and Hargreaves' as being right to the front.
Bobby Wood was riding his grey horse " Glenmore," and I have a distinct
recollection of his giving us a lead over a very nasty foot-bridge.

FROM MR. R. LOCKWOOD's DIARY.

Saturday, December 23rd, 1882. — A lovely morning. Rode " Glenmore "
to High Ongar. A large meet. Mark on " Transit," Green, D. Smith, A.
Waters, Tufnell, &c. h'ound a brace in Witney Wood, and ran by Spains
Wood to Norton Heath up to Blackmore Woods, and lost 55 minutes.

NEW year's day 1883

43

Had first fall from the Gre)-, " Not our Faults," Mark also came down.
Found a brace in Screens and ran by Newton Hall, Chalk End, leaving
Good Easter on the left, and turned by Mashbury Mill up to Boyton
Hall, had two rings there and killed at Chignal. • One hour 20 minutes,
at times fast, and land awfully heavy. Plenty of grief; Sir Henry down
on the new Brown from Roxwell. Grey went splendidly, never making a
mistake, but sun puzzled him at times. Went to gruel at Screens and
rode home wilh Hargreaves, 22 miles, [My journal credits me with 16
miles home and a hack on afterwards to Loughton. — Ed.1

General Mark Wood

New Year's day, 1883, saw a large field, including Mr. R. Wood, riding
"Glenmore;" Colonel Lockvvood, " Gehazi ; " Mr. Hargreaves, "Ugly
Boy," &c., turn up at Harlow Common, also, mirahile didu, the following
coverts drawn blank : Harlow Park, Latton Park, Barnsleys, Vicarage
Wood, Mark Hall, and several others. An outlying fox near Pinnacles
afforded an outlet for our energies in the Parndon and Maries Wood
direction and brought several down, not omitting Messrs Borwick and
C'hisenhale Marsh. Two days afterwards we ran from Church Wood,
Doddinghurst, to Hutton Railway Arch, and, I suppose, to w^ork the

* My Diary says in the open near Boyton Hall.— Ed.

44 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

stiffness off after the long hack home accounts for my going out after
luncheon the following day to have a gallop with Mr. Vigne's Harriers.
In the middle of a good run near Laxtons, when Mrs. Arkwnght was going
very well to the front, I had a very near shave of losing an eye. Jumping
under a tree, I tore a piece out of the eyelid, which required the surgeon's
scissors to make it presentable, and over-reached my horse directly
afterwards. We did not whip off till 4.30. George Sewell and Charlie
McKee having seen most of the fun on foot. Miss Wood on " Luck-
penny," and her brother on " Glenmore," were out all day.

A day of accidents for horses was Monday, January 8th, when we
met at Passingford Bridge, and after a morning in the Pyrgo country with
a bad fox, in a run from Apes Grove Mrs. Thomas killed her horse, Miss
Wood put " Luckpenny's " shoulder out, and I lamed my horse badly.

The grey pony, however, suited the Mate better on the good day we
had, Saturday, January 13th, with the wind due east, when we met opposite
Coopersale Lodge ; a large muster including Colonel Howard (Mr. W.
Sewell escorting Miss Nelly Starbuck who obtained the brush, and who
subsequently became Mrs. W'illie Sewell), Messrs. F. and C. Green,
J. Pelly, E. Ball, A. Capel Cure, Major, Mrs. and Miss Tait, &c., &c.
From Gaynes Park over the cricket ground, by Jordans, through Willis's
stack yard, hounds never checked vmtil they ran to ground at Theydon
Grove. Bolted by Fitch's terrier, he crossed and recrossed the line,
seeking refuge in Baxter's farm buildings not before he had upset a pretty
servant maid and ruined her clean print dress. The gallant Bailey was off
his horse in a jiffey, but became so blown running in and out of the
out-houses, that when he tried to reach the hounds, who had dispatched
their fox in front of the house, he went flat on his face amongst the laurels.

Mr. Green has the head of that fox should you wish to see it.

On the same day, in a rattling good gallop from Bush Wood in Hill
Hall Parkto Loughton Shaws, Bailey, who was riding " The Quaker," made
an extraordinary good jump over the brook on the right of Barbers where
it was guarded by a rail on the far side, clearing some 24 (?) feet, while Mr.
Hargreaves and several more of us were trying to scramble in and out ;
and further on, near Loughton Shaws, Mr. C. E. Green was seen doing a
little exploring on his own account up a brook into which his horse had
swerved. W^hat an enormous field we should now have, if we met on a
Saturday at Coopersale Lodge !

Of the meet at Fyfield, on Wednesday, Jan. 31st, Mr. Courtenay
W^arner, M.P., has probably a better recollection than most of us, for it
was in a run from Leaden Wood, in the afternoon, that he had the bad luck
to put his ankle out. The morning had been wiled away in a hunting run
from Witney Wood to Blackmore. A sharp burst up wind from Screens,
finishing off with some slow hunting near Mashbury Mill, had given most of
the horses enough before the afternoon run came off.

A fine but gusty day when we met at Pleshey, on Saturday, Feb. 3rd.
Green gave me a lift to the King W^illiam and Tait performed the same
kind office for W. Sewell. After drawing Langley's, and all the neighbour-
ing coverts without finding, we arrived at Wilson's Springs about 3 p.m.,
and had a capital 25 minutes from ihat covert, the first fence on the
left of it, if I remember rightly, a broad water ditch out of which, on
a former occasion, I saw Hervey Foster emerge as black as a tinker.
Running up towards Leaden Roothing, saddles emptied fast, and at the
finish of the gallop, near the banks of the river Roden in flood, " Nell
Gwynn," the horse the Master was riding, went head over heels into
a covered up ditch, giving him a thorough soaking. He had crossed the
river to see if the fox had taken refuge in an old pollard tree.

GENERAL MARK WOOD

45

We men of Essex ouo-ht to be grateful to the memory of
this erstwhile distinguished member of the Jockey Club, a
brilliant ornament of the racing and social world in his day,
that he left behind him two such worthy representatives of his
name as " The Colonel " and " Bobbie," and that he inculated
in them that love for fox-hunting from which we who now live
in the county derive so much benefit.

For with Bishop's Hall closed against fox hunting, you
might wipe the country on the south of the river from Passing-

The walk over in 1895 (very good on the flat)

Alan Lowndes
Col. Lockwood Miss Lowndes H. B. Y.

Mrs. Lockwood "Jim"

ford Bridge to Woodford off the map for all the benefit you
would get from it. "A very good cross country rider, though
very partial to the Shires," writes one who shared many a
gallop in his company.

Col. Lockwood is one of the strongest pillars of the Essex
Hunt, one of its most influential members, and is certainly one
of the most popular men in the county of Essex, the Western
Division of which he has represented in the Conservative
interest since 1892, when he was returned by an overwhelming-
majority. No one was bold enough to challenge his possession

46

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

of the seat in the election of 1895, when he had a walk over.
His love for politics (for he assures me that he loves the game)
robs us to a great extent of his welcome and cheery presence
in the hunting field, but he is always ready at any personal
sacrifice to take the chair at the numerous social functions
organised by friendly societies, cricket and football clubs
within his division, and I am not quite sure that he draws the
line at mothers' meetings. So we never quite lose sight of
him. But 'tis of hunting, not politics, that I would write.
Long may it be before the Colonel shall give up this pastime.

Very good over iron railings

Col. Lockwood, M.P., returning thanks for his unopposed election in 1895

which keeps him in health, and to which in the seventies and
early eighties he was so devoted, when he shared with his
brother and Hervey Foster the reputation of being the three
best men with the Essex Hounds. No one can touch him
now on the flat or over' iron railings {I'idc illustrations).

Robert Lockwood, second son of the late General Mark
Wood, of Bi.shop's Hall, Lambourne, better known as " Bobbie
Wood " when 1 first met him, was blooded over forty years ago
with the Essex Hounds. Probably there is no member of the
Hunt who has been more closely associated with its ups and

48

LEAVES FROM A HUNTINC DIARY

downs sinct' that period thcin Mr. R. Lockvvood — certainly no
one has taken keener interest in its welfare. A contemporary
of the late Hervey Foster, he \ied with him in his ardour for
the chase, and helped him with his secretarial duties when he
was laid up by his had accident, taking- ov^er the work alto-
gether when he resigned the post, and giving, during the several

Robert Lockwood

years he held the office, general satisfaction. It was a cause
of deep regret to one and all when on the score of ill-health
(rheumatism, I believe) Bobbie Lockwood had to leave the
damp clays of Essex — for there were many of us who had
hoped one day to have seen him at the head of affairs as
Master; and had he elected to ha\e hunted the Hounds himself,
no one could have done it better, for he was a born lumtsman,

FRIAR 49

and in many a run on coming" to check have I seen him
(\u\<^i\y pa ddvio- out the missing Hnk, while nearly everyone else
was talkino- or gapino- about.

I should only have had one doubt about him coming up to
one's expectations as a Master, and that would have been on
the side of slowness — which might have resolved itself into a
case of all hunt and no ride, so fond was he of hound work.
I)ut when hounds ran who could go better ? And who was
there — or who is there you would more readily mount upon
a favourite hunter than the subject of this memoir ?

Friar

A Splendid horseman, with grand nerve, he never jumped
an unnecessary fence, but , he was ahvays with Iioiinds, no
matter what horse he was riding. That he has had some good
ones in his time the accompanying portrait of one, and short
account of the other, will amply prove.

Friar. — Light iron grey, i6. i, by
" Lovett," g. d. by " Irish 7'hunderbolt."
wood writes, of —

"Thomas Forrest, iith Hussars, in
hunter, and one of the finest hunter jumpers I ever saw, and
certainly unequalled over stone walls and timber. He cleared
a five-foot (as measured) wall with me, the celebrated Bob

4

"Outfit," dam by
Bought, Mr. Lock-

i88-

a very fast

50 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

Chcipman and Huoh Owen being the only others out of a
field of 200 who managed it. I ran him at Oaksey in the Open
Race, and he was beaten by a horse of Hugh Owen's called
'Cadean,' out of a training stable, I believe, giving him a
stone. He also won at Punchestown two years running when
belonging to Forrest. Rather a difficult horse to ride, being hot
behind other horses, but taking a line of his own in a good run,
it was a pleasure to sit on him. Even in the fastest run over
walls, when I have known hounds to go a four-mile point in
less than eighteen minutes, he never left their sides, about half
a field from them, where I consider a man who rides to hounds
ought to be."

Mr. Lockwood subsequently sold "The Friar" to Mr.
Edward Ball, but the latter was never quite at home on him,
as he found him such a raking great jumper.

Bulfs Eye. — " I ought to remember this good chestnut
horse, seeing that I rode him in the Light-weight Point-to-
Point at Good Easter in 1887, and had the bad luck to kill him
at Thaxted in the Point-to-Point races the following year.
He certainly was a bold, generous horse, and an extraordinary
fencer, with a good turn of speed, and when he fell dead with
me, and Mr. Lockwood subsequently came up. I did not
wonder that he shed tears at the loss of so gallant a hunter,
which no money could replace. I felt pretty queer myself, and
for a long time was very shy of riding other people's favourites.
So when, nine years afterwards, I was riding a horse belong-
ing to Col. Lockwood (Mr. Lockwood's brother), in a Point-to-
Point race, I was not sorry when it was over, especially as the
horse had found a purchaser before I started on him."

The following notes, dated May 28, '96, are by Mr. W. E.
Oakley, late Master of the Atherstone Hounds, and the
breeder of " Bull's Eye" : —

"'Bull's Eye' was by 'Watchman,' by 'Rattle,' out of
' Gonalstone,' ' Ratde ' by ' F^allow Buck' by 'Venison,' dam a
bay mare that I bought of Whitfield the book- maker, supposed
to be thoroughbred, and winner of steeplechases. She carried
all my Hunt servants in turn, and bred me about five clinking
good animals. ' Watchman ' Captain Machell bought for
me. He was the property of the late George Bryan, and won
many races (.see Calendar). This horse I used until his death,
and I may safely say never got a bad one, and out of all sorts
of mares. In fact, at one time I had over forty horses in
condition sired by him, and over 1 50 went through my hands
altogether.

THE CUSTOMERS IN J 2) 5 1

" I sold my hunt horses every third year, and was Master of
Hounds for twenty years. I give the names of some of his
prooeny, many of which were sold for very high prices at
FattersalTs. ' Bird Tenter,' who carried l^Irs. Oakley bril-
hantly for many seasons, was shot. 'A i.' carried myself and
Mrs. Oakley for se\-eral years, was up to 15 stone. He
went to the stud. ' Smuggler,' ' Watch-dog,' ' Signalman,' all
carried me until their death, and were shot. ' Watcher,'
'Charley,' bought by the Duke of Westminster; 'Coastguard,'
bought by Chandos Pole and re-bought. ' Protector ' carried
Mrs. Oakley ; also ' Watchfire,' who was the dam of ' Cen-
turion,' winner of many races. ' Legion,' another winner, and
' Promotion,' now at the stud, and others too numerous to
mention (Mr. Oakley had just come to the end of his sheet of
note-paper — Ed.) 'Bull's Eye' carried Sam Hayes, my first
whip, and was sold at one of my sales. He was a gallant
good horse, but no better than any mentioned above."

I offer no apology for giving the following e.xtracts from
Mr. R. Lockwood's Hunting Journal, for they are quite to the
point, and very interesting, showing as they do who were the
first fiighters in 1873-74. Some of the entries in the Journal
signed " Mark Wood," are particularly piquant and pithy.

vStarting well at Matching Green, on November 3, ''j;^,
with a decent run and a kill from Brick-kilns, the Colonel
riding "Luck-penny" and his brother "The Erog," we find
the following were among those who enjoyed good sport
following a Hunt breakfast at Down Hall five days afterwards
— Sir H. Selwin Ibbetson, Mr. Hervey Eoster, Colonel
Somerset, and Mr. Speed from Blake Hall.

The Monday country appears to have been well stocked
with foxes at this period, and Messrs. Tufnell, Brace and
Hervey Eoster well to the fore in the run from Curtis Mill
Green on November 10, with the Colonel out of luck, as his
horse " Luckpenny " downed him. Colonel Howard's grey,
however, gave his brother a pleasant ride. Eour days after, in
the Colonel's own country, " Luckpenny " gave him another
nasty fall, and in a run from the Osiers his friend Captain Willis
appears to have distinguished himself on a horse called " Blue
i^osts." Who was the customer who had a neat fall over the
double near Parndon W'oods, when Hounds met at Thorn wood
Gate on November 17 ? The diary sayeth not, only that Captain
Willis came down from town and was mounted again upon
"Blue Posts," the Colonel riding "Badger" and his brother
" Comical." No great sport recorded, but quite a nice run

52 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

on Saturday, November 22, after meeting at Waples Mill on
a very frosty and windy day. Finding at Leaden, they ran to
Park Wood, completing- a slow hunting run and a big ring in
I hour and 40 minutes. Finding again at Garnett's. the fox
made straight for Old Park, turned to the left by Beachetts and
Harveys, to ground at Olive's Farm near Dunmow, the last
thirty minutes of the run being very fast. The Colonel*
having got a very bad start was able to obtain a good bird's-
eye view of the proceedings, and notes that his brother, on
"Comical," and Howardf had about the best of it. Hervey
Foster was well to the front on " Acrobat," until he lost his
hat and most of his bridle at a brook. Mr. Deacon went well
at first, but came down a mucker at the same stream. Walms-
ley also came to grief, and staked his horse. Mr. Usborne
came on his back heavily, following the Colonel on the grey.
Miss Caton went well, in spite of a bad start. Dobson, on
" Speculation," was never headed for long. Messrs. Francis
Grubbe, Chetwode, Ridley, Petre, Walmsley freres and some
farmers went well. P.S. — F. Astley and Mr. Price also quitted
the plate.

Over-reaching his horse, " Luckpenny," badly at a Nasing
Common meet on November 24, the Colonel was fortunate
enough to be mounted by Mr. Arkwright on the " Shah,"
Allen's second horse, which appears to have been soon pumped.^
Hervey Foster, riding " Lady Godiva," was going well, while
among those out the following names occur : — Messrs. Foster,
Crocker, Odell, Howard, Bury, Sir C. Smith and Sir Fowell
Buxton. And to share a bad day's sport in the Norton Heath
country, on Wednesday, November 26, came Mr. and the two
Miss Pryors, Mrs. Arkwright, Messrs. Foster, Howard,
Chetwode, Westhorpe (on a new horse, " Royal Horn," by
" Trumpeter"), Royds, and Cunliffe. A brace of foxes in
Mr. F'ane's coverts on P>iday, November 28. Through the
Menagerie and up to Stanford Rivers Hall was sufficiently far
and fast to bring out the riding qualities of Messrs. Brace and
Hervey Foster, the latter on " Acrobat," and to land a gentle-
man on a roan horse in a fearful ditch, over which Miss Caton
had flown like a bird.

From Lancaster Springs, near Down Hall, on Saturday,
December 6, a lovely hunting day, they had a clinking good

* He had not, of course, attained that rank then, but we all know him
in our part of Essex by that title now. — Ed.
t Colonel S. Howard.
X The Colonel did not spare them much in those days. — Ed.

MRS. R. LOCKWOOD

53

run to Latton Park, and on to Parndon Woods, Messrs.
Walmslev and ]\Iao;uire beino- well in it.

Mrs. R. Lockvvood never posed as one of the hard riders
of a hard-riding- field, but was sufficiently enamoured of the
s[)ort to enjoy the social side of it, and was probably never
bored by her husband's description of a oood run or the short-
coming's of particular hounds.

Mrs. R. Lockwood

On 8th December, " Blackmore," there is a note that Sir
Arundel Neave came out for the first time. A week later, the
first day since the frost (not a very long one — Ed.) the hounds
were at Bentley Mill, and to meet them came the Misses
Tower, Handbury, and others. The following extract will
please a huntsman : — Wednesday, December 17: Rose at 6.30.

54 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

Started at eight in the gig, picked up Hervey Foster on my
way to Ongar. A lovely non-hunting day. Rode from Ongar
to Axe and Compasses. Found at Leaden, ran to Lords, by
Dobb's Wood to High Easter, Good Easter, Margaret Roding,
Leaden brook, and killed at Pleshey after 2 hrs. and 20 min. —
Two good runs are noted from Screens on Saturday, December
20 (a glorious, warm, sunny day), and further that young Caton
was nearly killed by a fall from his pony, and that Messrs.
Walmsley, Deacon, Royds, Maguire, Usborne, Pryor, Mrs.
Arkwright, and Miss Caton were out.

Bitterly cold at Nasing Common on Monday, December
22, and a capital scent. Found in Parndon Woods, and ran to
Parndon very fast and very straight. The two Miss Palmers
went well. Found again in Mark Hall, and ran a tremendous
pace to Latton, where they checked for 20 minutes,* eventually
running by Maries to the Lower Forest and Ongar Park in
15 minutes. Sir C. Smith, Deacon, Caldecotts, Bury, Riddell,
Pomeroy, Howard, and many others out. vSaturday, December
27th, 1873 : " I say, what a day we did ave." Bob and I
left B. Hall in a perfect storm of rain and sleet at 8.45, securely
packed in the gig with " Chambord " in the shafts. We halted
at Sir Cavendish's, where we breakfasted, and then, with
Hervey as charioteer, driving Tweed's white horse in Sir
C.'s dog cart, we drove to Harlow, changed horses at the
" George," and galloped to Hatfield Town, doing the last seven
miles in eighteen minutes. Largish meet. Day now cold, but
fine. P'ound at once and ran very fast to Barrington Park to
ground; time, 10 minutes. Tufnell and Riddell both down.
Drew Row Wood blank, found in Down Hall, and ran across
the river to Matching Green, and on to Matching Park,
Lancaster Springs, Moor Hall, across to Sheering Street,
through Kennel Wood, where he was viewed by Allen
making for the Kennels, crossed the Harlow road, but was
too done to get any further, and was pulled down close to
the Turnpike after i hr. 10 min. Bob and I then came home,
walking all the way, as the mare was lame. Grief copious all
day. Usborne opened the ball when he came on his head;
Bob left " Comical's " back, and Hervey Foster had a heavy
roll close to IVLatching Park ; he also refreshed himself a second
time close to Lancaster Springs ; rolling into a pond with his
horse on him, he was nearly drowned, but was extricated by
Howard and Chetwode. Many out, including Sir Henry,

■■' A pretty long check this.— Ed.

THE WARREN FOX 55

Deacon, Hill, Caldecotts (two), Bury, Ouares (two), Mrs. Ark-
wright, four Ridleys, Taylor of Stortford

Monday, January 5, 1874. A Stanford Rivers meet, and
plenty of sport. One run. from the Beachetts, through Ongar
l^irk by Greensted. to ground at Stanford Hall, was particu-
larly good. Sir C. Smith, Miss Howard, Bury, Newall (who
had two falls), Caldecotts, Miss Caton, Ashley, &c., were out.
Hervey Foster's horse again went into a pond. January 14 :
A lovely morning. Started at 10.30 on Sir H. Selwin Ibbet-
son's drag. Lady Fitzgerald on the box, and had a charming
drive to Forest Hall, where Mr. Newall entertained all comers
at breakfast. Sport of quite average character followed, but
the ground was very heavy, and grief terrible. " Luckpenny "
down; "The Frog" showed temper and fell three times;
Saunders was out, and rode so hard that he came in for some
censure.

A Long Barns Day, Wednesday, January 21, and a good
big fox was the one they found in a stubble field, and ran
through Screens and Berners, and straight to Willingale,
where they pulled him down, after a very fast 55 min., young
Marsh and Wigram taking- the head and brush. A few
Artillerymen out.

Ancl so with varying luck the diary runs on through
February and March, and no stoppages for frost. The fact
strikes one on looking through these '73-74 notes that foxes
made no better points then than now.

A three-year-old customer, they tell me (his mask grins down upon me as
I pen these lines), was the Warren fox that for 43 minutes stood up
in front of hounds without a check, on Monday, Feb. 5th, one of the few
Copped Hall, Warren or Forest foxes that Bailey has ever succeeded in
killing. No wonder that Mr. H. J. Miller keeps his brush as a valuable
trophy ! Out at the bottom of the Warren and round the big house he
swung, and entering the Forest beyond Copped Hall Green, came out near
the Wake Corner, straight through without a falter by Debden Green to
Loughton Shaws ; hounds nailing him on the return journey at the back of
Golding's Hill.

Another of the wet days of the season was Saturday, Feb. loth, when
I rode on with Mr. and Mrs. Waters to the meet at High Laver, and an
indifferent day's sport. Owing to the continued downpour our hounds only
went to Radwinter on Friday, in the following week, and thereby hangs
a tale— for several of us, including George Dawson, who drove with me,
but never got further than Ware, as his hunter pulled out dead lame,
Mr. and Mrs. Waters, Messrs. H. Fowler, J. and E. Felly, C. E. Green,
A. Suart, W. Sewell, Ball, Hart, Steele, Green, of Parndon, made a raid
on the Hertfordshire country, on Saturday, Feb. 17th ; our advent for-
tunately not frightening the Master, who, if scent had been better, would
doubtless have shown good sport, for we found plenty of foxes.

The farmers attending Waltham market on Tuesday, Feb. 20th, were

56 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

somewhat astonished to see a pack of stag hounds running full cry through
the town. It seems that a stag which Mr. Henry Petre had turned out
at Matching Green, on the previous Tuesday, had been lost near Maries —
it was this animal they ran through the market town and captured near the
Powder Mills.

My diary notes practically confirm Bailey's account in Messrs. Ball
and Gilbey's book of the good run from Beachett's, on Wednesday,
Feb. 2ist, but, if no soul was near him and Mr. Bobby Wood when they
ran across Hill Hall Park, the Mate (who was riding my young roan horse
which subsequently became the property of Mr. Parks) and self were
sufficiently near to know that they left Mr. Smith's farm on the right, also
Theydon Hall, entered the Forest close to Debden Hall (where Mr.
Williams was tlien living), ran nearly up to the Wake Arms and then to the
left and pulled him down by Luffman's Lodge. We were not too far off to
note that Mr. Bobby Wood had the best of it, though we ran him close
when it come to tackling the refreshments at Colonel Howard's afterwards,
and we finished up the day with a good hunting run from the Lower Forest
to Greensted Woods.

On my fortieth day that season, a foggy day too, and a Fyfield meet,
the date Monday, Feb. 26th, I have a note to the effect that in a very fast
ring of 25 minutes, with a good deal of leaping, Messrs. Dawson, Ball,
Suart and Green, were going well to the fore, and that Mrs. Waters had
a bad fall through Mr. H.J. Miller's grey mare coming down in the road
with her.

At 4.30 p.m., Saturday, March 3rd, after the annual meeting, a clear
fine day, with easterly wind and every appearance of set fair, we found
ourselves at Matching Park, and wound up with a very good 20 minutes
by Heathen Wood, through Moor Hall to a kill in P. Chaplin's garden.

Colonel Gardner assures me that he has never kept hunting diaries, so
I fear no contradiction when I find his name figuring in mine as having
crossed me at a fence near Heathen Wood, bringing me down, as my horse
could not tackle the fence at a stand. However, as I arrived in time to
see the fox demolished, I have quite forgiven him.

In spite of the set-fair appearance of Saturday's forecast, there was snow
on the ground which balled freely in horses' feet, on Wednesday, March
7th, at Hatfield Heath. For once in a way Sir Henry was late, an occur-
rence so rare that it calls for a special note, and by the time we had run a
fox from the Hart to the Forest and drawn Quick W'ood, it was snowing
heavily, so home by 4.30, and hounds not out again for a week owing to
frost. Consequently a large muster at Thornwood Gate, on Wednesday,
March 14th, Sir Henry on " Multum in Parvo," the Mate on the " Dodger,"
W. Sewell on " Ajax," Mac Evans on the grey pony (it must have been
mine), Dawson on his black mare, Dickinson on a young chestnut, Bagot
on D.'s brown mare, Hargreaves on " Ugly Boy," Messrs. C. Gieen, Bevan,
Mr. F. Green on " Madrid," (upon which good horse five days later he
won the Heavy-weight Point-to-Point). Messrs. Ball, Philby, L. Pelly and
a host of others out to ride after a fine fox from the Lower Forest, by
Gaynes, Ongar Park, and Toot Hill, to lose him near Shalesmore — and to
finish a capital day with a Latton Park rover near Obelisk Wood — the
Mate ha\ing enough left in the " Dodger" to lark home across country.

Saturday, March 24th. — A day with Essex Union at Warley Barracks.
Carnegy, Master. Across country from Parndon Hall to Epping made a
good finish to a day which had been more suggestive of picnicing than
hunting the fox, so hot was it on Saturday, March 31st. All day we had
been busy in the Galley Hill, Parndon Wood and Latton Park countries,

WHO S FOR EPPING

57

so hot, thirsty and tired ; few of us refused Mrs. Arkwrij^ht's kind invitation
of refreshments for ourselves and gruel for our nags at 6 p.m. The brown
sherry was good, and we up-saddled, and the cry resounded, " Who's for
Melton ? " No ; " Who's for Epping ? " The challenge was quickly taken
up, and if no Dick Christian was there to play the fox, Roly Bevan was quite
equal to the occasion, and we set off in pursuit of him, nor drew rein until
Bevan stood on his head over the last fence on to Epping Plain ; the
se\enth putting green of the sporting Links of the Epping Golf Club
now marks the spot ; nearly all except Messrs. Dawson and Waters
having been choked off" by the pace or the country.

£ ■•

M^3i^

4 ^^

I '^^-.^

i ^'

?^:v.:

..-.-'.. ~ •■.,,-" " _■- • ■ ' . ^ ^o

James Green

Here, says Mr. George Hart, is a specimen of a class
getting fewer and fewer every year — the true Old English
Farmer. He would tell you that it was a bad day when he
came home from hunting if he had not learnt something to
follow and something to avoid, from observing the system of
his brother farmers whose land he had been riding over. He
has generally a hunter to sell, and I should think has taken a
pretty good dividend out of them

58

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

To finish the season we met at Rolls Park on Monday, April 2nd. Mr.
Trimmer, the Australian, was still hunting with us, for I find he gave me a
mount on this occasion, and had not, as some had first prognosticated,
broken his neck by his reckless style of riding ; certainly if there was a big
blind place he always went for it 40 miles an hour. The Rolls Park coverts
appear to have been drawn blank and no fox found before the Copped Hall
preserves were reached, when Ave had a nice gallop over Copped Hall Green,
nearly up to High Beech, losing our fox, although he was viewed almost in
the jaws of the pack. However, we found some substantial refreshments
at Colonel Howard's, and another fox and no scent in the Lower Forest
Whoop !

Col. S. L. Howard

Then out spake Colonel Howard,

Grandfather of the Hunt ;
To all a word of counsel
He spake as is his wont —
" Gentlemen and fellow-sportsmen
Do give the hounds fair play ;
How can they hit the line, with all
These horses in the way ? "
— (" Lay of Matching Green, 1883." By R. Y. Bevan.)

Colonel Sam Howard was one of the most prominent and
conspicuous riders with the Essex Hounds when I first came
into Essex. A bold, dashino- horseman, ridino- great, powerful
horses that had to go the shortest way, how he lo\'ed the game,

THE DRUID

59

find how excited he used to be as his hat went to the back of
his head and he screamed the " who-whooj) ! " over some fox
he had handled ! On one occasion, late in the season —perhayxs
I ought not to tell it, but the Colonel will foroive me — he
screamed too soon, whcni, after running a fox to ground in
Weald Coppice, it was decided to dig- with()ut the precaution
of taking hounds away ; the moment the fox was dug down
to, out came the Colonel's holloa, when the hounds rushed in
and killed two vixens.

The Hunt breakfast at Goldings to fmish the season was
not the only good thing we missed when the Colonel, on the
score of health, had to give up hunting, for the Hunt lost the
personality of one of its staunchest and most powerful friends,
and the Master an aide-de-camp in checking forward young
thrusters that could ill be dispensed with.

The Druid

"The Druid." A perfect specimen of the luultuiii in pai^jo
was one of the four best hunters ever owned by that well-
known thruster to hounds. Colonel Samuel Howard, C.B., of
(foldings, Loughton. After making his mark in Essex during
the season 1872 and 1873 never once putting a foot wrong- —
and those who knew the Colonel in those halcyon days will
appreciate what this means, for his horses were always asked
to go the shortest way — he went into Surrey, and became in
the hands of a cousin of the Colonel's one of the leading
horses with the Surrey Stag and the Old Surrey Fox-hounds,
frequently hopping over timber which no one else could
tackle. That the Colonel parted with him with great reluc-
tance is as certainly true as that most of us would give our
ears to possess one like him.

6o LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

Although hunting was over in our country, the Hertfordshire woodlands
were still echoing to the cheery cry of the veteran, Bob Ward. To see
this renowned venator under perhaps the most trying conditions for any
huntsman, the hot sunny scentless days of April, a lot of us, including Major
and Mrs. Tait, ]\Ir. and Mrs. Waters, Messrs C. E. Green, Oliver,
Dickinson, Bagot, W. and G. Sewell, Sworder, Mills and the Essex
Huntsman, sallied forth on Monday, April gth, to Hertford Heath. But
though we found Bob Ward looking as hale and hearty as ever, we have to
record a blank, for we discovered no fox in the extensive woodlands through
which we meandered from 11.30 to 3.30. Nothing daunted by our lack of
sport on the previous Monday, we determined to have another look at the
Hertfordshire on Saturday, April 14th, when they met at Bell Bar. To
get there safely, in the loose dusty state the roads were in, necessitated
driving (pneumatic tyres had not been invented). One of the party who
possessed a limited stud, consisting of a cob and a hunter, put one in the
shafts and tied the other on behind, and starting at 7 a.m. arrived in
Northaw in time to do justice to a good breakfast at the Vicarage ; from
which two of the boys, one of whom twelve years later obtained his blue
in the Cambridge boat, were just starting off to school. Mr. C. E. Green
and ]\Irs. Waters driving up about this time, we jogged on together to
the meet, where we arrived early and found a large muster ; Lady Maud
Cecil, now Lady Selborne, and two of the Premier's sons being among those
present ; while the Essex County was ably represented by ]\Iajor and Mrs.
Tait, Mr. C. Bury, Mr. Hill, Messrs. Pemberton-Barnes and Hargreaves,
in addition to those names already mentioned. Of course a run on such a
hot, dusty day could hardly have been expected, but it was satisfactory
finding a brace in Sherrard's after drawing Northaw Wood and Hatfield Park
blank and to note the persevering way in which Ward followed out the
faintest clue which eventually landed a good many at 4.30 p.m. some thirty
miles from home — where the cob arrived at g.30, having led back as well as
he had come out.

SEASON 1883-84
Actually commenced, vide Lord Rookwood's note in Messrs. Ball and
Gilbey's book, on September 14th at Latton Park, but my first memo-
randum is of an early start at 5 a.m. on Wednesday, September 19th, from
INIoor Hall to overtake Keppel, and arrive in time to see a cub killed and
the huntsman flying a locked gate after another that jumped up out of a
field near the Osiers and, crossing the Sheering Road was bowled over by
hounds near Down Hall. A third whoop did not satisfy them. I wonder
whether the Master was out, for they went on to Matching Park when I
left, a good many out, including Mr. A. Deacon and his daughter, Mr.
Loftus Arkwright, ]\Iessrs. Jones, Steele, Oliver, Bagot and Dickinson.

Went out late enough with Charhe McKee Monday, October 8th, a
mild, muggy morning, to miss a very good half- hour's run from Knightsland
to Navestock, which some at least of the following had enjoyed to the full :
Sir Charles Smith and his son. Col. Lockwood, Messrs. Arthur Capel-
Cure, Keppel, Bagot, Ball, Fowler and Sworder. There was a lot of grass,
and Bob Ball on " Boycott " had fairly led the way over it. However,
before we left them we had our fill of jumping over blind fences after one of
the many cubs found in Kettlebury Springs on a journey to Greensted
Woods and back.

After despatching a Shalesmore cub on Wednesday, October 17th (a
wild, blustering morning), a capital gallop was brought off from Bush
Wood by Barbers up to Theydon Rectory, a run which only Mr. C. E.
Green (who was riding " Chance "), Mr. Harry Bagot and his sister, and

MR. BASHAM KILLS HIS HORSE

6i

Mr. H. j. INIiller managed to see b)- taking the right side of Barbers. The
Mate, who was riding •• Gipsy," came to grief. Mr. Basham had the mis-
fortune to stake and kill his horse ; another young fellow (I suppose Basham
was young then) was stunned by a kick from his horse : where Arundel
went to, who was staying with Mr. F. Green and riding his horse '• Gran-
tham,'" I do not know. Altogether a chapter of accidents, though Jenkins
on the roan horse made no mistake when he led over the gate which a cob
had refused. The Mate and self have to thank Harry Bagot for the red-
letter day from Boyton Cross at 7.30 in the morning, Saturday. October
20th. for it was only at his instigation at a bachelor dinner held overnight
that we were persuaded to go. The Mate (he washghter in those days) rode
a well known polo pony, " Limerick " (formerly the property of Mr. C. Ellis) ;
Bagot was mounted on his black mare : and " Bosphorus,"' once Mr. R. B.
Cohins favourite hunter, carried Pomponius Ego— undipped ; let it be
noted, his long jacket told on him before the run was over.

The Hare and Hounds, Roxwell

Starting at 5 am., we arrived at the meet in time to greet our friends ;
their number at the early hour of 7.30 was not legion. Capel Cure (2).
R. Ball, Teddy Tufnell, Mr. E. Gibson, Mr. H. E. Jones, Mr. H. Philby, of
coarse the Master, who was riding his new black '• Shamrock." Finding in
the Osiers at Roxwell, hounds ran hard for one hour and a quarter by
Boyton, over the hill and away for the Bushetts, but turning back came
through College Wood and Bush Wood nearly to Reformatory, across Mr.
Marriage's garden and back to Boy ton j pulling their fox down in the
open below !NIr. J. Christy's house. ,^^ .:ii v

Mr. H. E. Jones fairly played the pioneer, most of the time, and Mr. E.
Gibson, who was then living at Screens, did the hospitable host afterwards,
hot soup being a welcome feature at one of the best hunt breakfasts I have
ever sat down to; the good run in the crisp morning air having put an edge
[on our appetites as keen as razors. I wonder whether Mr. Gibson still
possesses the huge Russian bears which looked almost life-like as they stood

62

LEAVES EROM A HUNTING DIARY

on guard at the entrance to his hall. A large field on Thursday, October
25th, at the Brook House, including, the Master on " Katinka," Messrs. C.
and F. Green, Hargreaves, Bagot, Sewells, W. and G. A. Suart, Sworder,
Mills, Miller, Mr. and Mrs. Waters, Major and Mrs. Tait, Bob Ball, C.
Meek and Her^^ey Foster on wheels. A fine fox was put out of a tree in
Rolls Park, and with hounds close at his brush, gave us a capital thirty-
one minutes over a very pewy country ; Lord Rookwood, in his diary, which
he kindly lent me, says, " over a beastly country," nearly up to Buckhurst
Hill. Mr. H. J. Miller, tackling a very green fence down hill at the com-
mencement of the run, secured a place which no one could wrest from him,
and in a subsequent burst of thirty-five minutes with a fox from the Warren
hounds, ran clean away from everyone.

Edward Gibson

Edward Gibson hunted with the Essex [Hounds long- before
I knew him, but I always recall as one of the happiest days
of my life that morning when he entertained us all so royally.
An enthusiastic fox-hunter, it was a bad day for the country
wlu'.n he left .Screens. He generally, however, pays a visit to
our part of the country at the Rundells Races, and his
cheery greeting and hearty grip of the hand is something
that does vou good.

'" '

- 1 Ci.

-3

•s

^1

'^■:-\: ^ -

64 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

Yes ; Matching Green has come and gone once more, leaving us all a
year older ; and perchance, if we have hunted with the hounds that meet
there, a little wiser, not only in regard to taking our fences in a more
sober fashion, but also what is of vastly greater importance — in our care
for the farmer's interests, and thereby our own, in not riding recklessly
over seeds. A great deal of good was done last year by our Master's
timely circular, and I do not think we shall forget it. Fortunately,
farmers' prospects are brighter this season than last. Not only has the
harvest been better than any of late years, but the seed-time, so far, has
been very favourable ; wheat already shows a good plant in places, and
can easily be seen even by those not given to notice such things as
farmers' crops and farmers' fences, and think they can ride anyhow and
go anywhere with a pack of hounds, in many cases not subscribing a
penny piece towards the damage they cause. Thank goodness ! our
country is not one for cockney riders on galloping cabhorses ; for the fields
have only one gate and four ditches which are as safe to catch a cockney
as a trap is to catch a mouse who is fond of toasted cheese.

Matching Green of 1883, hke Matching Greens that have gone before,
was welcomed by us all as the commencement of the real business of
hunting, and the happy reunion of friends. No doubt there are many who
welcome it simply for the sake of seeing themselves in a pink coat once
more ; but the majority go there with one object, to ride to hounds with
one of the best packs over the best plough country in England. Yes, the
sandy Roothing ploughs when hounds run are something out of the common,
and are no more to be compared with the sticky pastures in Leicestershire
than a fine Kent golden hop is to be compared to a coarse Bavarian.
We had Queen's weather this year, and slipping along to covert behind a
pair of good horses is very conducive to a contented frame of mind.

Arriving at the meet in good time, our contentment increased and
reached its highest point as we swung leg over the saddle, and exchanged
greetings with our friends, and noted the arrivals. Certainly, there were no
pink coats visible when we first arrived ; but one soon blossomed forth
on the person of Mr. Calverly riding " Phantom." Sir Henry arrived
punctually, mounted on " Multum in Parvo," who beat all the feather-
weights in the red-coat race of 1880, and seemed in his usual good spirits,
and had a cheerful smile and word for everyone. Lady Ibbetson graced
the meet with her presence, and many of England's fair sportswomen and
brave sportsmen, both mounted and on wheels, half of whose names, even
if there were space to record, memory could not recall. Mr. F. Green's
drag had its usual load of good sportsmen. Miss Maitland occupying the
box seat, and fifty other names take only about as many seconds to write.
Mrs. Arkwright, whom we were very pleased to see out again after her
severe illness; Major and Mrs. Tait, Mr. H. Bagot and Miss Bagot, Mr.
O. E. Coope, Mr. A. Deacon and Miss Deacon, Mr. Chisenhale Marsh,
Capt. Meyer, Mr. Capel-Cure, Mr. A. Capel-Cure, Mr. A. Caldecott,
Mr. G. Hart, Mr. Porter Mathews, Messrs. Sworder (2), Mr. Miller, Mr.
Mills, Mr. C. E. Green, Mr. Usborne, Mr. Bevan, Col. Sir Lumley
Graham, Lieut. -Col. Lockwood, Mr. E. Gibson, Mr. Todhunter, Mr.
Sands, Mr. Walmsley, Mr. Roffey, Mr. H. E. Jones, Major Tower, Mr. R.
Ball, Mr. E. Ball, Mr. Hargreaves, Mr. Keppel, Mr. Tufnell, Mr. T. H.
Ridley, Mr. C. E. Ridley, Mr. Pemberton Barnes, Mr. Foster, Mr.
Dickinson, Mr. Horner, Mr. Tudor Quare and son, Mr. Sewell, Mr.
Melles, Mr. H. Stevenson, Mr. Gibbs, Mr. and Mrs. Waters, Mr. G.
Dawson, Mr. Her\ey-Foster, the two latter on wheels, both showing how
their hearts are in it to be there. Let us hope before the end of the season
they will be showing us the way, as they used to when hounds really ran.

ESSEX GATES 65

A glance at the hounds which had trotted up showed them to be in
capital condition ; Bailey and the whips in their new pink coats looked un-
commonly smart, and none the worse for their early hours during the
cubhunting ; that there is nothing like them is borne out by the number of
cubs which have been killed this year, more than in any previous season in
tills country. Yet there are plenty of foxes left, for hounds had scarcely
been thrown into Brick-kilns before they found a brace, and bustled them
merrily about. Bailey got them away on the line of a fox, who led us to Man
Wood over several extra blind ditches, each of which took toll of the eager
thrusters. Our fox found plenty of friends in Man Wood, and the pack
divided and left half of us in the lurch, and if there had been a scent and a
straight-going fox, we should not have seen hounds again. With what
hounds he had Bailey very cleverly hunted his fox over a delightful line of
country, and ran him to ground near Hatfield. We do not reckon ourselves
to be timber-jumpers in Essex, but Messrs, Miller, Waters, and Bagot kept
popping over the gates as if they were hurdles ; but, for the benefit of those
who do not know Essex gates, let me at once say they are not Leicester-
shire, nor even Lincolnshire gates, but very low ; however, the top bar is
always strong enough to turn anyone turtle.

We next went back to look for our friends whom we had disturbed in
Man Wood and l>rick-kilns, but they had slipped away. Most of us here
seized the opportunity of partaking of Capt. Meyer's hospitality, when, at
about 3 p.m., some bread and cheese, washed down by a glass of the best
home-brewed in the county, was most acceptable. There was a nip of frost
in the air as we jogged homewards on horses fit to go again the next day.

The Lower Forest

CHAPTER III.

Major Tail — West Essex Polo Club — Qui Vive — Kitty — Meets not Advertised —
St. George — Dtike and Diicliess of Albany at Eastoii Lod^e — Xiiias Eve,
1883 — Chasseur — Beau Walnish) — Harlequin — Kingston— Bob Chapman —
Abigail — E. A. Ball — Dynamite and Waterford — Eost in the Fog —
Chance — The Lord Mayor has a Day—F. Green — Blue Beard — Grafton —
Cub Hunting in 1SS4 — Hounds Staked — Mr. R. Parkes Breaks his Arm —
Bo') Ball — Boycott — The Abridge Policeman — Thornwood Gate — Tlie Run
of the Season — A Broken Back — A Regular Trap.

I MAKE no apology for introducing here a short bio-
graphical notice of the " clear old INIajor," as he is called
in Essex, It was written in anticipation of the inclusion with
these hunting notes of a short account of the History of the
West Essex Polo Club, with which the Major's name was so
closely associated.

Taking over the duties of Hon. Sec. to the West Essex
Polo Club in 1880, when he settled at Theydon Place, Epping,
he ever afterwards, until the break-up of the Club in 1898, took
an active interest in its management, and set an example
in polo enthusiasm which the rising generation may do well to
emulate. In spite of the great impetus given to polo in West
Essex by the advent of Mr. S. Chisenhale Marsh as a playing
member, in 1882, when he placed his splendid ground at
Gaynes Park at the disposal of the Club free of charge, it may
safely be asserted that on more than one occasion the West
P^ssex Polo Club would have died of inanition long before
'98 had it not been for the Major's unflagging zeal ; a zeal
that was so thoroughly appreciated by his fellow members that

MA [OR f. C. TAIT

67

it led to their presenting him, on the 26th August, i<'>94 with
a beautiful silver goblet, upon which was inscribed: -

" Presented by the West Essex Polo Club to Major Tait as a mark of
their sincere regard and high appreciation of his long services as Secretary,
and his valuable support as the most determined and consistent player."

In the matter of polo ponies, the Major was perhai)s
exceptionally fortunate, "Qui Vive " and " Kitty " l)oth having
a good turn of speed, and being remarkably handy. On the

Major John Crawford Tait

former he won the Club Hurdle Race in 1887, and at the same
meeting drove the pair to victory in a grand tandem race, for
which there were ten entries. Always a keen player, anyone
lo(3king on at a match could see that the Major's heart was
thoroughly in the game, and that he played with the tactics of a
good soldier, always taking his bumps and knocks, of which he
had his share (breaking his leg on one occasion) with perfect
good humour and sano- froid. his only fear in an important
match being lest he should break his eye-glass, which had to
be fixed to any cap he played in. None of his friends will

68

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

ever forget the halcyon days when he and Mrs. Tait dwelt
at Theydon Place, and dispensed princely hospitality ; it was
a case of open house, and we heave a deep sigh of regret
when we reflect that the old place no longer exists, and that
the well-known Ball and Billiard rooms where we spent so
many happy hours have been pulled down and replaced by a
modern structure.

Major John Crawford Tait on Qui Vive

That a picture of it is left, with a portrait of the Major and
his daughter's favourite pony " Kitty," is a matter of con-
gratulation to his numerous friends. In the hunting field with
the Essex, Major and Mrs. Tait for many years held a
prominent place, riding as straight as it was possible to do.
Perhaps one of the best tales I ever heard about the Major's
Essex experiences was in connection with a Polo Gymkhana.
During a tandem or hurdle race, I forget which, six or seven
competitors were down together, inextricably mixed up, the

70

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

Major at the bottom of the lot quite hidden from view, just
opposite the spectators' carriages, in one of which Mrs. Tait
was seated. Naturally very much alarmed at first, she soon
recovered, and said, "Johnnie's all right, I can hear him
swearing;" but as Charlie McKee once remarked to me, the
Major's swearing was like poetry, so harmless that we all
liked it.

Miss Hattie Tait

Miss Hattie Tait has inherited all her father's and mother's
popularity, and one of her best mounts with the Essex Hounds
was " Kitty," the favourite polo pony already alluded to on
page 68. *' Kitty '' was a fine fencer and good stayer.

Omitting to advertise Meets must have tome into favour about this
time, for I find this entry: "The Saturday meet at Nasing Common
on November loth, though not advertised, was pretty generally known " ;
also that in those days people were very fond of hanging about Nasing
Coppice to save the ride over the common. No harm appears to
have been done on this occasion, for a coppice fox was found at

ST. GEORGE 7 1

once and fairly run into, but not before Mr. H. Sworder had gone
head over heels into a very blind ditch. A very quick burst afterwards
from Spratts Hedgerow to ground near the Warren, while causing a good
many croppers, gave general satisfaction. The fences, with one exception,
were very easy, and that exception, a rotten bank, brought man after man
to grief. ]\Ir. Daniel Gingell, who was jumped on, luckily escaped with
nothing worse than having the wind knocked out of him, and Mr. Pelly
had to thank an extra strong neck that he escaped so easily. How beauti-
fully " St. George " flew a high gate I can vividly recall. He was always a
good timber jumper, and with his owner, Mr. Alfred Suart, up, those
powers were frequently put to a severe test. With what a capital twenty
minutes from the Warren we finished up the day at Orange Wood. What
a duster Bailey went over a rail in the first fence when hounds came away.
How beautifully a bold bay faced the stiff fence below New Farm. What
a pace hounds went over the grass down to Cobbins Brook, where they
gained a field on most of us, thanks to Mr. B. Colvin blocking up the next
fence, on his black horse, after Bailey had found a way over the brook.
How the huntsman was too wide awake to go after a fresh fox from
Orange Wood. Is it not all written in my journal and here condensed ?
But I heave a sigh of regret at not identifying the two heavy weights who
shone so prominently in the van.

Possibly they were the same two who, in company with Major Tait
young Evans and the Mate, rode home across country from Parndon after
galloping and jumping all day in that country on Monday, November 12th.
Note the Monday ; we don't meet that side of the country now so early in
the week. What a lot of falls there were, too ; Suart three, the Mate
on " Ajax " a couple, Chisenhale Marsh one, &c. Cording's water-
proof apron came in very handy even if it excited the friendly sarcasm of
that tough vv'arrior. Colonel Howard, when after killing two foxes in the
Pleshey country on Saturday, November 17th (the second a very brilliant
fifteen minutes from Sparrowhawks, killing in the open near Israel's), a
tremendous storm of rain and wind settled hunting for the day.

It is a long cry from Thornwood Common to Dudbrook, but how we
arrived there on Saturday, December ist, is readily accounted for by the
following notes. Several coverts being closed against hounds owing to
shooting arrangements, Sir Henry was very much exercised where to go,
the hounds having been whipped off twice from the line of foxes that had
made for the Beachetts, one an Ongar Park, the other a Knightsland tenant.
At 3 o'clock we found ourselves at Sir Charles Smith's Osiers. Miss
Fane, for one, is never likely to forget the run we had from there ; has she
not in consequence been immortalised by our bard ? —

" Miss Fane, whom rivers cannot stop ; "

but she nearly paid the full penalty for her rashness. Mr. Bazley White,
who was staying with his brother, Mr. Tyndale White, for the day, seeing
her dilemma, (her head was held under water by her habit which had
caught in the pummel) jumped off his horse and s-wain to her rescue.
Luckily, beyond a thorough drenching, neither rescued nor rescuer were any
the worse, but Mr. Bazley White deserved the Albert Medal if not the
V.C. I am afraid, however, he lost the run, which was a clinker.

When hounds first came away from the Osiers, running hard for Shonk's
Mill, they kept to the left bank of the river. The majority of us doing the
same, clattered in hot haste down the parallel lane ; as luck would have it,
the fox came across to our side, and it was in vainly endeavouring to ford
the Roden after hounds that Miss Fane nearly met with a watery grave.

72 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

A Stiff line of country at the best of times from the Osiers to Dudbrook,
Messrs. C. and F. Green, with Bob Ball close up, rode across it in the most
reckless and dare-devil style. There was a momentary waver as they
crossed the first road. Swinging on again, a nasty gully and brook, followed
by a drop in and out of another road, did not deter the leaders a second,
though they were checked a moment near Dudbrook. A single hound,
however, never left the line, and we had a quick in and out over the Ha- Ha
in the Park, and then down to a flight of rails. How well I remember twenty
of us riding abreast coming at tliem together ! The huntsman, Messrs.
C. Green and R. Ball, landed over neck and neck, while Mr. F. Green
cleared the lot in front of us all, his horse, though a " Highflyer," having
stopped dead short ; the next fence, a real blind hole, brought his cousin,
Mr. C. Green, to grief in the field, where the " whoop " over the drain wit-
nessed the finish of this rattling twenty-five minutes.

Wednesday, December 5th, will be remembered as the day the Duke
and Duchess of Albany graced the meet at Easton Lodge. One of the
three foxes found m the High Woods took a line by Hylands and over
to Olives before bemg lost near Garnetts.

Ten days later, December 15th, our hounds not being out owing to the
serious illness of Lady Selwin Ibbetson, several of us, including Messrs.
C. E. Green, Waters, Miller, Bagot and R. Ball, rode to Hutton Hall to
meet the Essex Union. I cannot say that I was fascinated with Mr.
Carnegy's style of hunting, for he wouldn't lift hounds a yard, consequently
a run from a covert near Shenfield in the afternoon, which commenced
briskly enough, resolved itself into a very slow procession across country,
and an airy nothing before we reached Galley W^ood Common at 4 p.m.

This sport, however, was considerably better than fell to our lot two
days later, for driving out with Major Tait to Little Hadham to meet the
Puckeridge we had our journey in vain, a sprinkling of snow on the ground
having kept hounds in kennel. Nothing, however, would satisfy the
Major's ardour but a gallop with staghounds, so to meet Mr. Henry Petre
at Chalk End he drove me to Willingale the next day. The following
among others turned up : Messrs. A. Suart, Tyndale White, R. Ball,
Bagot, C. Pelly, A. R. Steele, H. E. Jones, Teddy Tufnell, H. Stevenson,
Tippler, Harrison and Henry Lawrence, V.S. There was a capital scent,
but considerable difficulty in getting out of a green lane which hounds had
suddenly left at an early stage of the gallop. After twenty minutes at best
pace they were stopped, but starting again they soon got a view, and fairly
raced for the next thirty-five minutes through W^illingale, capturing their
deer in a pond near the King William. Some half dozen, viz., Messrs.
Jones, Lawrence, Tufnell, R. Ball and Harrison were in the first flight, and
unless a man were well mounted he had no chance whatever.

Almost a week's rest before going out again, and then hounds met
at the Axe and Compasses, December 22nd. After finding a fox in Screens
which hounds could not force out of covert, Mr. Gibson refreshed the
whole field at his house, and under his persuasion hounds were thrown
into Screens again. This time they fairly hustled their fox out, and we
were rewarded by a capital fifty-three minutes via Spains Wood, "Willingale
and Berners Wood.

Those who were out on Monday, December 24th, 1883, with the Essex
Hounds and saw the runs, must have spent a very happy Christmas Eve.
There was a good deal of fog in the early part of the morning, but it
gradually lifted as we jogged towards the meet at Nasing Common, the
glistening drops on the hedgerows causing misgivings about scent to some
of us. But who can account for scent ? Some very ingenious theories

XMAS EVE, 1883 JT^

about it have been propounded lately, but I do not think any of them
pretend to be infallible. Best to take your day when you can get it. Often
the most unpopular meets, and, to all appearances, the worst scenting days
afford the runs of the season.

Nasing Coppice was first called upon, and rarely is it called on in vain ;
but its foxes are getting cunning, and do not wait to be found. Hounds
were hardly in before one was viewed away by a gallant colonel,* who with
a few of the right sort was feeling his way to hounds in a determined
manner over some blindish thorn fences and the delightful grass fields
which slope down to I-]all Hill, whither our fox was evidently making.
Few knew, and none heeded the covered drain open here and there in
the last grass field before reaching the wood. Mr. Lawrence's horse was
galloping loose as we surged up to the gate into the road bisecting Ball
Hill, on the far side of which the dog pack were already giving tongue.
Some twenty got through ; then one refractory horse closed it, causing
delay to many, which they have hard work to make up again. Hounds
were out and ran down the grass field towards Orange Wood ; the next
fence, a widish brook, with a staked hedge on the far side, would have taken
some doing; but hounds swung round before reaching it, as the fox had been
headed. A holloa in the direction of Ball Hill. What lovely music as they
got on the line again ! Some went to the right of the wood, but, strange
to say, in going right went wrong ; the majority followed Bailey to the left
down a steep grass field Intuitively they all turned away from an ugly
gully that presented itself at the bottom ; only here and there could it be
fiown. Hounds were over it, and so was a well-known heavy weight on a
grey; one or two others got over, but the rest made for a gate and struck
the bridge to the right over the Cobbins Brook into Spratt's hedgerow.
That was a critical time in the run, as a holloa back v/as given at that very
instant, and half the field went for it ; evidently some other fox had been
disturbed ; foxes seemed to be strangely on the alert that day. Do they
know when there is a scent ? Taking it through the keeper's' plantation,
hounds pressed up the grass field leading to Epping Bury farm, and hunted
slowly over some beans, which the field avoided with one consent, and
reached hounds again, by skirting the beans either to the left or right ;
those going to the right towards the forest-side had a decided advantage at
the next two fences. A drop into a grass field over a very blind ditch and
fence, and an up-jump out, a high razor bank with hedge on top and ditch
the far side, must have choked off a good many, as there were very few
with hounds as they ran across the next plough towards the Bury road.

Skirting it to the right they ran over a very nice country, rather cramped
certainly, as fence succeeded fence towards the forest. " ' Ware wire," but
Bailey and Mr. Walmsley swept over it, where there was luckily a rail to
make horses rise in and out of a lane sharp. A chestnut, t which had been
going remarkably well, obstinately refused to jump out. Within a field of
the Forest, Bailey had a view of the hunted fox and clapped hounds on,
and they ran him into Griffin's Wood, a wood near New Farm, the last
fence being a forbidding looking drop. Hounds rattled their fox through
here back again full cry, and then were suddenly silent. He had evi-
dently laid up or gone to ground — luckily not the latter. Once more they
were on his track, and this time ran into him close to Col. Howard, who
at once jumped off his horse and took him from them, while Bailey was
galloping up the ride to them. Time, just forty-five minutes. No exception

* Col. Howard. f Mr. A. Suart's " St. George."

74

LEAVES FROM A HUNTINC DIARY

will be taken to the six pioneers of this run, the heavy weights having
the advantage in numbers, Col. S. Howard, Mr. C. E. Green, Mr. F.
Green on " Madrid," and Mr. Hargreaves on " Ugly Boy." Mr. H. E.
Jones, Mr. Walmsley, Mr. Colvin, sans hat, were close to them.

Ought the scribe to tell what happened as we went off to draw again ?
Yes, if only as a warning to others not to come late to a meet. There was
no mistaking those two forms we saw approaching us, one in black on a
good-looking bay, and who has an eye to hounds which few equal, none
surpass : the other in pink on a well-bred grey. It is the Colonel and
Bobby, +■ and they are done, clean done, by coming late. They cannot stem

H. E. Jones on The Colonel (See page j-j.)

the current of smiling faces and chaff very long, but turn round and jog on
with us to Deer Park, sadder, if wiser men. Another quick find, for a fox
was being bustled round in a style that made us feel pretty certain that he
would soon face the open. Unluckily headed in his first attempt towards
Warlies, he doubled back and ran through Galley Hills, which is, so to
speak, a reservoir of foxes as it feeds the surrounding country, where he
found many allies. Bailey was lucky enough, howe\er, to get away with one
in the direction of Nasing Gate. Foxes seldom break on that side, so it was

Colonel Lockwood and bis brother.

J. V. WAI.MSLKY

75

quite a new line of country to most of us, rather a twistin^^ but nice hunting
run almost down to the river Lea, which runs through Waltham Marshes,
Hounds very nearly lost their fox, as he had taken refuge in a hollow tree,
but, being discovered by a man who climbed it, he was soon dislodged ; he
only ran about six fields before hounds had him. During the run, Capt.
White, ex-Master of the Essex Union, was nearly jumped on ; and Miss
Deacon, who rides very pluckily, had two falls, fortunately not serious ones.
One man had a peculiar fall, certainly a most ludicrous one. A., feeling
hungry, took out some biscuits. "B. and C. (two brothers from Woodford

The late J. V. Walmsley

way) ranged up alongside him, and expressed a desire to share them. So
did D., whose pony, while he was stretching out his hand, moved in the
opposite direction, depositing D. on the ground. Sad to relate, D. lost his
biscuit.

On Wednesday, December 26th, 1883, the fog was too thick to permit of
hunting. I cannot conclude without saying how thankful we all feel
that Lady Ibbetson is making such steady progress towards recovery.

J. y. Walmsley, known by his friends, and they were legion,
as " Jimmie Walmsley ;" a cloud of sorrow seemed to descend
on the county when he was cut off, in the prime of life, by

76

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

typhoid fever. I ]vivc made many friends in the hunting- field,
and met scores of kind, good-hearted fellows, hut never one I
liked hetter than Jimmie Walmsley. P>ee from any trace of
jealousy in his riding, yet always in the front rank, and always
ready to catch a loose horse or help a comrade in distress, it
was an honour to ride anywhere near him. Possessing perfect
hands and lirm seat, he was the type of a linished horseman.

Harlequin

and it was a treat to see him come over a big drop or steer
a horse over the steeplechase course at Harlow. " Beau
\\'almsle\- " he might well have been called, for he was as
neat in his get-up as he was courteous in manner.

" Harlequin," a whole-colour bay gelding, standing 15.3, by
"Outfit" out of "Constance," a blood-like mare up to 15
stone, and formerly a favourite hunter of the late Mr. N. Parry,
Master of the Puckeridge Hounds. " Harlequin " was bred by
Mr. C. J Phelips, of Briggin's Park, in Hertfordshire. The

CHASSEUR "]"]

only colt his dam ever threw, he turned out a clipper, and when
six years old the late Mr. J. Walmsley purchased him on the
recommendation of Mr. G. H. Harris, V.S., who had to remain
in the room while Mr, Walmsley wrote the cheque for ^loo,
as he declared that he should chano^e his mind if he didn't,
for he doubted if he could ride him. Three weeks after-
wards he would not have sold him for ^300. " Harlequin "
proved to be a most brilliant hunter and won the followin^^
hunt chases : — ^ Essex Light Weight Cup, 1889, and the Welter
Cup on the same day ; the Open Hunters' Steeplechase Plate
in 1890 and the Rundells Hunt Cup at the same meeting,
being ridden on each occasion by Mr. Alfred Kemp. Curiously
enough, on the first occasion " Harlequin " made his appear-
ance on the Rundells Race Course in 1888 he was beaten
by Mr. Alfred Kemp's horse " Kingston," steered by his
owner ; what would have happened if " Harlequin " hadn't
fallen, breaking Bailey's leg, 'tis hard to say, for "Kingston"
finished in front of Sir Henry's " Misunderstood," who ran
third to "Harlequin" the next year. Alas, that dear old
Jimmy Walmsley was not spared to repeat his triumphs with
this famous horse ! On his owner's death he was purchased
by the late Bob Chapman for ^400 on the very day that Mr.
Harris was commissioned by me to give ^350 for him for a
friend in the Shires. He was subsequently sold for ^800 to
a soldier.

Mr. Jones [see p. 74) would rather have been photographed
on "Chasseur," the horse that would have faced a hedge on fire,
and that the Essex Bard immortalised in the lines : —
" But hark ! the cry is ' Forrard,'

And with hat cocked aside,
See Jones pick out the biggest fence,

And take it in his stride ;
Thinks he, ' Those craning duffers

Will keep us here all day ;
Will no one dare to follow

When " Chasseur " shows the way ?' "

The run from the Osiers, Roxwell, on Saturday, December 2gth, was
written out at some length in my diary notes, with the intention, which
was not carried out, of sending it to The Field. "Talk about the drip
on the hedgerows and no scent, you should have seen hounds run last
Saturday, when they met at the Hare and Hounds, Roxwell ; a big
gathering, but all who meant to be there had not arrived by the time
hounds moved off at ten minutes past eleven, to draw the first covert. By
the leisurely way the field approached it, they did not appear very sanguine
of finding, but they had made a mistake. The Osiers, be it known, is a
very small strip of covert commanded at one end by the high road,
conveniently bridging the brook which bounds it on the south side, and on

7S

LEAVES EROM A HUNTING DIARY

this coign of vantage a good many took their stand. Following Bailey
and a few others down the green ride which runs parallel with the brook, we
could tell at once by the waving sterns and eagerness of the hounds that
there was a fox on foot ; not half a minute before there was a whimper ; it was
a treat to see Bailey's face as he cheered the trusty hound, ' Yoi, Abigail ! '

" ' Must be the same old fox,' remarked a farmer. ' No sir, can't be,
perhaps it's his ghost.' By which time all the hounds were giving tongue,
and the side he would break was the burning question. After one turn
round he was away at the bottom, and with a couple of hounds close at
his brush.

" ' Give them time, sirs,' came the eager entreaty of the huntsman to half-
a-dozen thrusters. Bearing slightly to the left, by the time they had crossed
two fields and threaded a narrow belt of trees, they had fairly settled down,
and for the next ten minutes they simply flew in a perfectly straight line

..^^

m

'^Is^''

The Osiers, Roxwell

over a delightful country, the hounds tailing out as they jealously strove
for the lead ; we had the bitch pack, and they could make any fox feel very
uncomfortable in ten minutes, on a good scenting morning. Had he held
on straight, they would soon liave coursed him down, for Bailey viewed the
varmint doubling back up a furrow like a hare, while the hounds running
down another, overshot the mark, going the whole length of the field before
they swung round, only three or four of them answering the huntsman's
cry. ' The last shall be first,' they soon put into practice, and these tail
hounds went off at score and met the rear-guard of the horse brigade who
with a bad start had been having a very stern chase. After going three
or four fields their prey was viewed, into and away from Boyton Hall
Springs. Hunting slowly through a cabbage field, we were pulled up by a very
stiff obstacle, a wide blind ditch with a strong bullfinch on the far side (what
Dick Christian would have called a stitcher). It was most edifying to see

EDWARD ASH BALI.

79

tlie way a heavy-weight negotiated it, for he cahiily walked his horse into
tlie ditch and scrambled over it, but his quad was too blown to attempt
the bullfinch until he fetched his wind, when he struggled over all right; the
rest preferred to follow Bailey where a gate-post stuck in the fence was the
only alternative.

" Hounds were now running as eager as ever, and were not a field behind
their hunted fox when Bailey viewed him into Berners. Turning sharp to
the left, they gave us no breathing time as they raced for Screens.
' Must have changed,' the huntsman muttered, ' the hunted fox could
never have got through so quickly in front of hounds.' He was right,
as the sequel will show, for although hounds ran straight through Screens,
and on over the Park, nearly up to Blackmore High Woods, they could
not account for him. It was then decided to go back and look for the

Edward Ash Ball on Harcourt

hunted fox. Viewed away from some rough grass near Berners, he was
too stiff, poor beggar, to stand up for many minutes, and soon yielded up his
brush. Every one voted it a capital day's sport, with the exception of the
too-late division, who never caught us, one hard riding sportsman, Mr. Ned
Ball, in his energetic endeavours to do so, getting two rattling falls."

Edward Ash Ball on " Harcourt," a bay gelding by " Derby."
A good horse from a good country, for he was bred in Meath,
but not so Q-ood as his owner, who when 1 first knew him was

8o LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

livino- at Rolls Park. He commenced to hunt with the Essex
Hounds, if I am not mistaken, in the season '78-79, and now
takes a leading- part in the affairs of the Essex Hunt, whether
in subscribing liberally, organising with his brother Frank the
Hunt balls, or acting as starter at the Rundells races, Mr.
Ball is a busy man ; he generally catches the 8 o'clock train,
and like all busy men, enjoys his hunting as much as anyone,
although he generally limits himself to three days a fortnight.
A good judge of a horse, he never has a bad one in his stable,
though " Burke," upon which he won the light-weight Point-to-
Point at Rundells in 1883, was always my favourite. He has
a wonderful eye to hounds, just as his brother Bob had, and
although rather fond of coffee-housing, he always goes to the
front and remains to the finish.

Perhaps one of the most curious adventures that ever befell
any sportsman in Essex happened to Mr. Ball when he was
riding " Harcourt " on December 5th, 1894. The horse,
always a bit headstrong, got out of the track in Man Wood,
and Mr. Ball was brushed off by some boughs ; half dazed,
he staggered to his feet, and seeing no sign of his quad, set
off in search of him. After walking, as he affirms, some miles,
exploring this big wood, he eventually returned to the spot
where he had fallen, but could see nothing. Luckily he
heard a slight rustling in a thicket close by, and making his
way to it, there sure enough, faster than ever Samson lay
bound in the green withes of Delilah, was "Harcourt" held
fast by the clinging brambles, which had to be cut away
before he could be released.

One of the best runs Mr. Vigne's Harriers had this season followed a
meet at Canes, by the kind invitation of Mr. George Hart, who, with
his usual hospitality, entertained all comers on Saturday, January 5th.
Of the run with the first hare, there is little to be said, except that in
a very fast burst up to Weald Church, and on to Weald Hall, Mr. H. Hine
was not quite so successful in negotiating the brook on the return journey,
over which Mr. E. Lawrence had shown him the way, as he was at the first
essay. Running at a rattling pace to Forest Hall, they had to whip off, for
it was forbidden ground. After killing a hare in a good ring roimd
Mr. Hart's, they found again near Thornwood Gate, crossed the turnpike,
and leaving Nathan's on the right, entered the lower Forest, below
Mr. Smyes' fortunately to leave it directly, as the hare doubled back on
the road away for the open country, when unfortunately a good many
relinquished pursuit. Scent improving, it was all horses could do to live
with hounds the best part of the run as she ran right across the common,
leaving Mark Bushes on the right, and so reached Harlow Common by the
Bush House, and on through Mr. Fred Brown's farm, leaving the Sun and
Whalebone on the left, crossed the main road, and through Harlow Park
from end to end without a check. Dwelling a moment on some fresh turned
plough, she passed on by Shonks, Sewalds Hall, and those in pursuit thought

DYNAMITE AND WATERFORD 8 1

this hare would run for ever, when suddenly up she got in view, and two
hours from the start they ran into her, at the farm building near Sewalds
Hall; Hurrell remarking that in the many years he had served Mr. Vigne
as huntsman he could recall no better run. He, with Mr. Cunliffe Smith,
Mr. George Brown, Mr. Winder and Mr. Gingell, were about the only riders
who reached the finish.

The two hunters represented in this picture were the pro-
perty of Colonel Alan Gardner, V.C, and were both ridden
by him when he had the Rectory Stables at Dalby in poor
"Chicken" Hartopp's time, and subsequently in Essex from
1880 to 1890. " Dynamite," purchased at Alelton from Mrs.

Dynamite and Waterford

Sloane Stanley, was a chestnut gelding, very nearly, if not
quite, thorough-bred. He was a very powerful, fast horse, and
although over 16.2, wonderfully active on his legs, changing
them like a pony on a bank, and rarely fell.

"Waterford," a bay gelding just over 16 hands, came out
of the Vale of White Horse country, in which he had won a
point-to-point. He was a wonderful timber-jumper. If he
could not clear the rails, he always got his hind legs on the
top one, and never came down.
6

82 LEAVES FROM A HUNTIN(; DIARY

We could liunt Monday, January 7th, and after running a fox from
Pinnacles over the railway and up to Briggins, hounds pulled him down
at Parndon, close to Hervey Foster's carriage. This was the day on which
Col. Lockvvood, writing to the County Gentleman under the noni de plume of
" Black Cap," wanted to know how the few who saw the finish of a good
fifty-five minutes from Latton Park to Moreton got over the brook at
twenty minutes to five without a candle ; but I ken the Colonel, his brother,
Messrs. W. and G. Sewell, C. E. Green, and a stranger from Lougliton,
were among the little band who wanted the light. The Colonel, who in the
continued absence of Sir Henry, was acting as Field Master, was very
undecided about putting hounds into covert in the fog, on Wednesday,
January i6th. To make matters worse, the huntsman was laid up, and
Brooker carried the horn. The result was foreseen. Getting on to a fox at
once in Apes Grove, they ran a cracker through the mist up to Hainault
Forest, where the pack divided ; the half that went on through the forest
were lost, and many hounds did not reach the kennels before the following
Friday ; the other half, coming back on the line of a fox to Bishops Hall,
were recovered, but a run in the fog was not attempted again.

Orange Wood was a pretty sure find in these days, and the line from
there to Nasing Coppice, Deer Park, Shatter Bushes, and up to the Forest,
was the one selected in a very fast gallop the afternoon of Monday, January
28th. Messrs. Colvin, R. Ball, C. E. Green, Hargreaves Tait, and a
stranger on a chestnut horse, alone being up with hounds as they crossed
the lane by Shatter Bushes, the rest of the field being dispersed all over the
country, and few succeeded in catching hounds e'er they reached the Forest.

On February 4th, in summer-like weather, we met at Down Hall at
10.30 a.m. Mr. F. Green, overtaking me near Rundells, gave me a lift to
Harlow, the cob leading well behind his trap ; falling in there with
MacEvans and Matthews, we appear to have jogged on together and done
ample justice to the good breakfast which had been provided by the Master.
There were foxes galore, but no scent, so the sport was indifferent. In the
remarkable run on February 8th, of which such a capital account is given
by Lord Rookwood elsewhere, I find that even Mr. R. Ball's famous
" Boycott " had more than enough, and was left at Dunmow ; his owner not
i-eaching home before 1.30 a.m., voted it almost too much of a good thing.
On Monday, February nth, we had two of the heaviest hailstorms it has
ever been my luck to be out in ; the first accompanied by vivid flashes of
lightning. I mention this, these storms being peculiar to the season of
1884. That it is not the biggest fence that causes the worst accidents in
the hunting field, Charlie Green's roll over on the way home after hunting
near Tawney Hall, two days previously, resulting in a broken collar bone,
proves.

A day with the Puckeridge, February 13th, when Wells, who used to
whip-in to the Belvoir, was huntsman, is the next entry in the journal;
Hargreaves giving me a mount on an animal he wanted to sell to Colonel
Gardner. Whether the Colonel ever bought him deponent knoweth not.
The meet was at Perrils, some 5 or 6 miles from Saffron Walden, and
young {sic) Chisenhale Marsh, who was staying at Stansted, came out.
Wells, in reply to the question, did he remember the parson brother who
used to ride a well-known chestnut horse, called the " Scout,'"'- with the
Belvoir Hounds, after I left that country ? " I should think I do, Sir ; Mr.
Oswald he gave me a photograph of himself and a copy of ' Jorrocks,' so
I am not likely to forget him and the way that horse of his used to jump
high timber, if he did drop a bit short in the fen dykes occasionally." Before

See Appendix.

WITH THK rUCKERIDC-E 53

the day was over we had two quick things, first, a fifteen minutes to
ground, when I distinctly recollect the smart manner Wells got his hounds
away, and his bold and rapid style of charging fences, winding up with
another fast gallop of about an hour over what I wrote down at the time, a
very indifferent country, very large fields with scrambling fences, and
further, Wells' remark that the hounds were too quick for the country,
which was such a bad scenting: one.

Rev. Frederick Fane

Meeting at Abridge on Saturday, February i6th, 1884, with the wind
south-east, it was no day for standing about. We found at once in the
covert adjoining Apes Grove, ran nearly the length of it, and came out in
the direction of Rolls Park^the same line that he led us such a dance over
in the fog on January i6th up to Hainault Forest, when a good many of the
hounds were lost, and did not turn up for several days. This time the fox
was headed, and doubled back to Apes Grove, Brooker turning the hounds
very smartly. It did one good to see the Rev. F. Fane, who has seen over
seventy winters, negotiate a hurdle with footbridge to him, while the rest
of us crowded through a gap to follow the hounds, who ran very nicely
after crossing the road below the Rectory up to Big Wood, where Jack
viewed him slipping back. This fox evidently did not like leaving home,
as, after running past the Rectory again parallel with the road for some
distance (where Mr. Hervey Foster in his carriage did good service by

^4 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

holding up his liand and keeping the road drivers from crossing the scent),
he took us back at a good pace to Apes Grove, as there was someone
holloaing like anything you please near Bishop's Hall. Bailey lifted his
hounds on, but they hit off the line of their hunted fox — mark, hunted fox,
for the man screaming at Bishop's Hall was holloaing a fresh fox. Conse-
quently a great many lost the run, as from this point hounds ran like
smoke through the same plantations we had threaded in the morning.
An up-jump into it, a blind ditch out, a couple more banks peculiar to
this country, in and out of the Abridge Road, and it was at once evident,
as hounds swung down a steep hill and bore away to the right, that he did
not mean Hainault Forest. This was a second unlucky turn for those
who had made for Bishop's Hall. There were some dozen with hounds,
piloted by Mr. Suart on " St. George." As they crossed the brook near
Gravel Lane they all closed up together in their eager endeavours to find a
way over. Its width, with rotten banks and rails on the far side, forbade
any idea of flying it. Mr. Hargreaves, on " Ugly Boy," and a man on a
grey cob, were the first to essay fording it, where there was a foothold on
the other side just wide enough for a standing jump at the rails.

"Go slowly at tiinber " is a maxim that may be obeyed too well, as it
was in this case. Mr. Hargreaves' horse failed to clear the rails, smashed
the top one, and came down ; luckily his owner fell clear of him. The
grey got safely over, and a stranger on a bay, who had been well to the
fore all the time, smashed another rail a little to the right, and made a way
for others to follow. The grey was evidently a timber-jumper, as he dis-
appeared like a bird over a post-and-rails in the corner of the next fence.
Hounds turned to the right here, and checked as they got into the Abridge
Road. Bailey came up and cast them down the road, and they soon hit it
off through a plantation into the meadows fringing the river. Down they
went to it, and kept down its banks for a short distance. Alas ! our fate
was only deferred, for over they went. No one knew of a ford, and the
river Roden, though narrow, is probably one of the boggiest in the
kingdom. Mr. F. Green, however, made no bones about it, but coolly
walked in, and by scrambling and swimming got over. Bailey, who
couldn't swim a yard, followed him; so did three others— Messrs. Prowler,
Colvin, and Barclay. The two first plunged under the railway near
Chigwell Lane, only to find that the fox had not crossed it, but had gone
into Loughton Shaws, which the railway bisects, and had the mortification
to find the railway gates locked when they tried to get back, and saw the
pack gradually fleeting away in the distance. Some ten minutes were lost
in getting the gates off their hinges, as they had been nailed down, and
by that time a panting crowd was up, who, more prudently, had gone
lower down and found a ford over the river. Messrs. Colvin, Barclay, and
Fowler, more lucky, kept to the right of the railway, and joined the' pack
as they issued from Loughton Shaws with what proved to be a fresh fox,
and ran him to ground at Theydon Hall, within a mile of the Shaws. A
most extraordinary thing occurred after going over three fields. Bailey got
a view of the hunted fox in the middle of a ploughed field, with a single
hound trying to tackle him. Although I believe a grand-daughter of the
celebrated dog Stanley, who could kill a fox single-handed, she was unequal
to the task, but kept a careful watch on him. The poor beggar was too
done to get away, and lay down. After expending a good deal of vocal
power Bailey got the hounds back; one feeble effort and his doom was
sealed.

Altogether this was a good hunting run of about an hour, most of it
very fast— no point to speak of, but over quite a new line. Unfortunately

A GOOD RECORD 85

we did not find again, but only encountered a strange figure, which, on
closer inspection, turned out to be our best feather-weight, arrayed in the
garments and only change of clothes at Abridge of a well-known heavy-
weight. Lucky that they both did not get into the river. The feather-
weight had successfully swum it, but unfortunately, in his effort to get out,
lost a lot of time and both his stirrup irons, so made for Abridge. One day,
no doubt, some peaceful angler will wonder what strange fish he has caught
till he lands one of Roly's* stirrup irons.

After killing an old fox in Miss Archer Houblon's garden on Monday,
February iSth, we found ourselves late in the day at Barber's Wood. For
a long time no sign of a find, and we were just thinking of turning our
steps homewards when Mr. Hervey Foster caught a glimpse of Jack waving
his hat, and called out, " They are away ! " So they were too, and by
the tmie we had galloped round the wood were two fields to the good. Two
banks and a brook had to be negotiated before reaching hounds, who had
come to a check ; a couple of hounds showing a line by the side of the
brook, the rest ran heel for about a hundred yards, but Brooker was there
to turn them, and they were away full swing again. There was just time
to note a black horse jump short at the brook, the rider hanging on to the
reins like grim death to keep him from slipping back ; but no use — back
he went, and seemed very content to remain there. A light-weightf on
a roan fared rather better, as his horse landed in the field with a fall,
but they got up together. This proceeding damped the ardour of a good
many, and they most resignedly viewed hounds turning further and further
away from them as they bore away towards Gaynes Park. It was an
up-hill piece getting there, but some nice hunting when we did. Mr. C.
Green (who, owing to his unfortunate accident on Saturday week, when
he broke his collar-bone, was on wheels) viewed him as he crossed the
ride. Hounds now ran very fast through Gaynes Park woods, nearly
into Ongar Park, and crossed the road near Messrs. Miller's farm, and
hunted very prettily through Beachetts, carried it out and lost near Hill
Hall palings.

This made the fifth day running on which hounds had killed, a
record that speaks volumes for pack and huntsman, as scent had not
been good owing to the dry east winds.

We reposed a good deal of confidence in each other's horsemanship in
those early days of 1884, I am thinking, for if Charlie McKee, on Monday,
25th, when we met at Nasing Common, was having a " liker " on a new pur-
chase of mine from Edward Lawrence, I was equally well, or better, off on
Mr. C. Green's " Chance," which subsequently, with Mr. R. Bevan up (I
foolishly refused the mount for the sake of riding my own nag), won the
1884 Point-to-Point in a canter. Sir Henry viewing a vixen away from
Nasing Coppice, had the hounds stopped, but the dog that remained behind
gave us a capital run. Going out the bottom end of the coppice, hounds
soon swept up the hill, some high timber in the corner of a field near
Harold's Park being the only way to them, as, with Mr. E. Ball on
"Burke," the winner of the 1883 Red Coat Race, carrying a strong lead,
they raced to Shatter Bushes by Obelisk Wood, when Charlie Mclvee,
jumping some rails, found himself like a rat in a trap. He could not get
out until hounds had gone clean away, nor catch them before they reached
the Waltham Road, out of which Mr. Fred Green took a toss off " Madrid."

* The Poet Laureate of the Hunt. t Mr. Kenneth Gibbs.

86

Li:.wi:s iKoxi A inNTiNc

Running^ past Symondson's (Upshire Hall) they entered the Forest near
Honey Lane, and hunting very prettily through, brought a capital spin to a
finish by running to ground near Theydon. (It was a lovely day to be out.)
Saturday, March ist, 1884 was, I may safely assert, a red-letter day for
the Essex Hounds. It began auspiciously. At the annual meeting, held at
the Green Man Inn, Harlow, previous to throwing off, Sir Henry Selwin
Ibbetson consented to retain the Mastership. Barnsley's, a snug little
covert l}ing close to the kennels, was reached about twelve o'clock, but a
fox away from Harlow Park, over the road to Latton, and to ground in
covert was the first incident ; the second took a little longer to enact.
Bailey must have had some hint of another fox being on the move, or he
would hardly have slipped away so quickly to the top end of Latton Park.
Quickly as we threaded our way through the crowd, we were not in time to
see him get away ; but he was, and, luckily for most of us, the hounds
did not settle at once ; when they did, they lost no time over the grass
enclosures up to the Harlow Road, which our friend did not cross ; his
point being in a very different direction. A momentary check in a large
wheat field, a lot of crowding and pushing at two gaps into a lane, and the
hounds were a couple of fields away, running well in the direction of Maries.

Our fox, a bold one, probably relying on the tactics he had practised
with such success when he last led us over this line, disdained to go into
the covert, and crossed a muddy lane which runs up to Little Maries Farm.
Some cramped thorny fences came in quick succession, and over these Mr.
Roffey led the way. There was a slight check before reaching Mr. Arthur
Brown's farm : Mr. Brown is the right sort, for, though not a hunting man,
he never grumbles when the chase passes over his land. Hitting off the
line again, they crossed the Epping Green road and bore away over Mr.
Palmer's land towards Nasing Common. The gates were all locked on this
farm, but Charlie Littleworth, who had chosen a good day for coming to
have a look at his old friends the Essex, was handy, and whipped a gate off
its hinges, which let us through on to the common, where there was ample
scope for a good display of hard riding. Hounds turned to the right over
Nasing Common — an entirely new line, as Nasing Coppice has been the
usual point. It was a case of " bellows to mend " for a good many, and a
welcome check of two minutes to all when they reached the top of the Park.
Crossing the road near Nasing Church, we still ran over quite a fresh line
of country. Fortunately the fences were easy, and the large field charged
merrily and lustily at them. It was a lovely day, near the end of the
season, and " make the best of it " seemed the motto that each had adopted
for himself. Past the road near Tyler's Cross the fences began to grow
larger, just the sort for such thrusters as Messrs. E. R. Ball, Bevan,
Green, Barclay, Fowler, Colvin, Walmsley, Suart, Sworder, Jones, 6c
Co. ; but when an extra blind one wanted boring, Mr. F. Green was the
man called upon to do it. After one of this description we came down to a
brook at the bottom of a grass field, a most inviting jump. Not a mistake
was made by the first dozen, among whom Miss Scott, mounted on Mr. C.
Green's well-known cob, charged it as well as any, and went brilliantly to
the finish. Certainly she and Miss Glyn showed us how well ladies can
ride to hounds even in such a difficult country for their sex as Essex.

Hounds had fairly settled down to their work, and ran well up to I\Ir.
Todhunter's. Crossed the road below his house, and leaving Brockle's
Farm on the right, they ran into a small spinney near the large Parndon
Woods, where our friend succeeded in disturbing another of his kind,
although it did not avail him, for he was viewed, dead-beat, doubling back ;
Bailey was on his track at once, and the hounds drove along as hard as

■rI';i)I':ki(k crken

8'

ever. Makinf^ a wide sweep, the fox was viewed going over the pastures by
Latton Street, and was a very short distance in front of hounds as they
raced across Harlow Bush Common into Latton, where he was pulled down
after one hour and forty minutes. There was probably never a larger field
in at the finish of so sharp an hour and forty minutes ; the run was a circle,
and the fox died in the covert from which he had gone so boldly away in
the morning. The Lord Mayor was with us, and enjoyed the run as much
as anyone.

O, give me that man to whom nought comes amiss,
One horse or another, that country or this ;
Through falls and bad starts who undauntedly still
Rides up to this motto : " Be with 'em I will."

— Egerton Warburton.

Frederick Green

I cannot say more about Mr. F. Green, I cannot say less.
Suffice it that he is the - Prince of Good Fellows;' the epitome
of a keen, hard-riding sportsman ; but a word or t\\'0, if you
will, about his horses, whose photos, appear herewith, taken
evidently at the end of the season.

o5 LEAVES I'ROM A HUNTINC; DIAKV

This blue roan horse was formerly the property of his cousin,
Mr. C. E. Green, who never much fancied him as a fencer,
the animal having- a rooted objection to going slow at his fences.

"Won't he be astonished the first time he carries you!"
said poor Jimmie Walmsley to Mr. Green ; and, sine dubio, he
was when he found that he was being sent at his fences in the
quick manner which Mr. F, Green had learnt over the high
timber in Australia, and which he carried into such successful
practice in Essex. A rare good horse for a long day, he was
the only animal that could keep near hounds on the Netteswell
day when Rolv Bevan killed his horse.

Bluebeard '

The first time Mr. F. Green rode the roan was in the
Copped Hall country, when he was carried like a bird. Jump-
ing the brook that runs up to the keeper's house with such
ease (he was being run away with at the time) he tempted
Major Green and another, who saw the broad of his back, to
have a fling at it, but with result disastrous to the Major and
his friend, for they both went in.

Une of the worst falls that Mr. (xreen ever e\[)erienced was
off "Grafton." In a run with the staghounds just after a
snowstorm, " Grafton " put his foot in a hole and turned clean
over. Mr. Green relates:—"! fell <)\cr his head in a little

CUB irUNTTNC. IN 1 884

89

hollow, and he came rioht on the top of me, and there we both
lay, the horse with his leo's up in the air, quite unable to move,
and I in the same predicament, doubled up underneath him,
and neither al)le to see nor hear ; and I r(x:all how devoutly I
hoped that someone had seen the spill, for unaided I could
never have got out. My suspense did not last long, and when
rescued, beyond being rather severely squeez(xl, I was none the
worse for my adventure."

Mr. Green said "you must come over to dinner if you want
any more stories about these horses." Unfortunately, oppor-
tunity has not waited upon inclination, and the tales have yet
to be told.

Grafton "

The cubbing season of 1884- 1885 opened in very dry weather at Down
Hall, on September 8th at 5 a.m., but most of us reserved our energies for
Netteswell Hill, on the card two days later at 5.30 a.m. At that time the
Mate was a rare hand at cooking an early breakfast, and, better still, at
demolishing it afterwards, and could sleep like a top on a sofa ; nevertheless
3.30 a.m. saw the coffee and eggs disappearing like magic, and 4.30 a.m. two
men hacking on to the meet and returning a few hours later with MacEvans
and others after seeing three cubs handsomely killed. Found plenty of cubs
in Colonel Lockwood's coverts a week later and killed a couple; the ground,
however, was getting so hard that it was given out that without rain hounds
would not go out again, notwithstanding which they did on Wednesday,
September 20th, at Harlow Common, but had no sport —the ground like a
brick— and again under the same atmospheric conditions, met at Passing-

90 LE.WKS FROM A HUN'riNC. I)IAK\

ford Bridge. Tuesday, September 30th, found a good show of cubs in the
Osiers, but had to whip the hounds off the hne of an old fox who had led
them from Hill Hall to Barber's ; a good many out, including the Master,
who was riding " Lottery," Messrs. C. and F. Green, R. Bevan, H. Philby,
H. E. Jones and A. Capel-Cure on wheels. Went down into Devonshire
about this time, which accounts for the absence of notes in October.

However, on Monday, November loth, I find that we had a very good day
at Passingford Bridge. We commenced with a fox from a pond hole near the
Osiers, that swam the river and running parallel with it for some time,
suddenly went off to Howe fields, leaving us all in the lurch. After a ring-
ing round we got up to him at Tawney Hall, and when making for the river
again beyond Shalesmore, a good many forded it, but were not so well off
as those who rode on in tlie direction of Brook House, and at the end of
twenty-five minutes from the find came up to the hounds, at fault. No
wonder ! for the fox was at the bottom of the deep blue sea. Mr. Leonard
Felly, however, gallantly fetched him out (I cannot say whether he took a
header or not), and handed him to a farmer on the bank ; the hounds were
however, a bit too quick for him, and in the fox went again to be finally
secured with a rake and thrown across the river (not quite so wide as the
Trent) to the huntsman on the opposite bank. Going back to the Osiers
they found again at once, and it was in the gallop to Curtis Mill Green that
one or two of the hounds were badly spiked on the " Albyns " park palings.
With foxes from the Green (how they swarmed in the Monday country
in Sir Henry's time !) we were enabled before the day was over to visit
Havering, Hainault, Dagenham and Fyrgo. With a capital scent on
Wednesday, November 12th, we had four or five good spins, the first and
last briefly stated. A burst from Parndon Hall gorse to Pinnacles, a wide
ring and a kill in fifteen minutes, Messrs. Arkwright and Jones hitting oft
Todd's Brook at the right place, though Messrs. Walmsley, Bevan and
Green were not far out. The lower forest echoing to the whoop in the
evening over a fox from Weald Coppice (the pace had not given us time to
wait for lost hats in a bullfinch) is worth noting, for it was then as of rare
occurrence as it is now to kill a fox in the forest. Sir Charles Smith was
one of the very few who hit off the right ford over the river in the afternoon
run from the Navestock coverts following an Abridge meet on the 17th,
when hounds ran at a great pace up wind nearly to C. Fitch's, and after
passing close to Kettlebury Springs recrossed the river, going through
Kelvedon Hall Wood and on to the Menagerie when (two or three fresh
foxes being on foot) the Master, who was riding '' Stockbridge," had them
stopped. The following facetious telegram was the result of a certain item
in a day's sport on Wednesday, November 26th, when hounds met at
Thrushes Bush.

From To

C. J. P'ox, rishobiny, Harlow.

And not a moment will he bide

Till squire or groom, before him ride ;

Foremost of all he stems the tide

And stems it gallantly.

The Doctor's invitation to swim it back on the polo cob when the
fox recrossed was not jumped at, if shortly afterwards his further offer of
a change of clothes and some hot whiskey at Harlow was gratefully
accepted. The individual in question found that the water was decidedly
chilly, for owing to frost the betting on the previous night at a dinner at
Theydon Grove had been 10 to i against hunting at all. It was in a run
from Shalesmore on Saturday, November 29th, that Mr. R. C. Parkes'

THE liARON

91

horse bolted with him ;icross Hill Hall Park, and broke his arm. It was
the irony of fate that the man who sold the horse (Honest Robin) to him
should come across Mr. Parkes lyinj? helpless, and have the only conso-
lation under the circumstances of fetching a cart to take him home.

FROM MR. R. LOCKWOOD's DIARY.

" Wednesday, December yd, 1884. — Mark and I drove to Ongar. Then
rode ' Friar ' to High Ongar, Drew Forest Hall blank, but found a brace
in Spains Wood, chopped one and lost the other at Forest Hall. Found
again Screens, but scent very bad : we could only walk after him across
the park and round the estate. Found the same usual field all glad to
see me, and I jolly glad to get back to them. Loftus Arkwright, Old
Fane, Caldecott, Deacon and Sir Henry. Poor George Dawson," Hervey
Foster and old Ouare missing." — R. L.

Henry John Miller (See faq-e g2. )

'Twas on this day that I introduced a horse, not my own, with a big
name, the " Baron," and still greater reputation for Devonshire banks, to
some of the Roothing ditches, with a view to selling him to Sir Henry, but
although he did the ditches all right he was too small to catch the Master's
eye, so went back to his old pastures, and his little journey up and down
must have made a hole in a fiver.

''Friday, December 5//;.— Went down to Ashdon Mill, slept at G.E.R.
Hotel with Mark, rode ' Bulls Eye.' Had a nice twenty minutes over
a beastly country into the East Essex preserves, losing near Toppersfield,

* N.B. — Mr. G. Dawson is now as jolly as a sandboy, and gets more fun out of
his grey pony than most of us do with our larger quads. — Ed.

92 LEAVES FROM A HUNTIN(; DIAKV

some seventeen miles from rail. Had a fall, and poor ' Bully ' had to be
dug out, but wasn't hurt. Sir Henry down on ' Phantom.' " — R.L.

Over the steeplechase course, on Monday, December 22nd, was the run
from Latton, Harlow Park by Potter's Lane and the Cross Keys, and a
pretty run it was and a pretty line of country up to Maries as one could
wish for, so says the diary. With Mr. Charles Green (how he will hate
the sight of his own name if he wades through all these scraps) cutting
the work out, ably seconded by his fidus Achates, Roly Bevan and
Messrs. Ball and Miller." The last named — on one of his own cab horses —
was making light of gates, taking every thing as it came, showing that after
all it's not so much the money that makes the mare to go as the heart in
the right place. Unluckily for us, another fox broke towards Parndon,
causing the loss of a valuable five minutes, which doubtless saved his
comrade, as he beat us near Orange Wood. The Mate riding a hireling of
Kett's failed to appreciate the hack seat for which he had paid.

Mr. Miller [sec p. 91) deserv^es a book to himself, but he is
mentioned so often in these pages that I will add little. A
thoroughly good-hearted fellow and keen sportsman from the
crown of his head to the sole of his foot, I only wish that
he farmed 2,000 instead of 200 acres, and that men of his
kidne)' were as easy to meet with as a fall in the Roothings
when the sun shines bright and the autumn is late. Mr.
Miller has hunted so long and ridden so straight with stag and
fox hounds that there are few fences that he has not been into
or over in the Essex countr}-, and no |)art of it that is not as
familiar to him as his own farm. Wa has two sons, chips of
the young block, and one of them, " Jack," has the hands of an
Archer, and the neatest seat I e\'er clapped eyes on.

A real good day too was Monday, December 15th, 18S4. For had those
who did not see the first run, not the chance of a second and third run
almost as good ? By no means so large a field as we usually get at this
popular fixture moved off from Abridge, where all had the opportunity of
partaking of the hospitality of Mr. Hargreaves. Hardly had Bailey left the
road leading from Abridge to the Bishop's Hall coverts before he received
intelligence that sent him galloping down towards the belt of trees that runs
almost up from Ape's Gro\e to Bishop's Hall ; he capped his hounds on
the line, which they took up at once. With hardly a whimper they settled
to it. The field, or rather the few who grasped the situation, divided, Mr.
Sworder going off to the left with one party, while others followed one who
ought to have known his way about those parts — Col. Lockwood — and were
fortunate ; but they had to go at something a good deal quicker than a hand
gallop to keep hounds in view, as they streaked through the plantation
on a burning scent. The dogs did not hesitate a moment as they reached
Bishop's Hall, but, leaving it on the right, drove their fox at a clipping pace
over a decidedly cramped country ; but the day was balmy, horses were
fresh, and there was little disaster, but a lengthening line by the time they
reached the Forest. Here a good many, including the whips, went the
Havering side, and needless to add, did not see any more of the run.

Mr. H. J. Miller, in addition to his farm, had a livery stable at that time.

BOB BALL HAS IT ALL TO HIMSELF 93

Hounds very rarely run through the Forest — own to a line is about as
much as they can do ; but that day tliey were close to their fox, and, bear-
ing away first of all to the left as if for Havering, turned suddenly back to
the right till they came out on the Chigwell Row road between the Beehive
and Whitehall, where Sir Kenneth Kemp, who used to hunt with us, had
winter quarters one or two seasons ; across this and straight down over the
meadows, then sharp to the left across Gravel Lane, nearly up to Pudding
Lane, then swung right, with never a check, and straight on between the
two lanes till they came opposite Marchings, through the grounds of which
they ran, over the brook, and up the hill to the lower coverts of Bishop's
Hall over the boundary fence, up to and across Hoe Lane, and to ground
in the next field but one ; as good a forty minutes as they have had or will
have this season. It is sad to relate, but nevertheless quite true, that, out
of a large field, only one, Mr. R. Ball, was with hounds from start to finish.
Bailey, who cut the work out in his old style in the first part of the run, in
spite of not having been in the saddle for some time, owing to severe
illness, was never very far from them, Mr. C. E. Green and Miss Wood being
well placed from the Forest, and about the first up. The remainder kept
dropping in by twos and threes, and most of them arrived on the scene,
including the first whip, to witness the final act. This fox had made no great
point, but was supposed to have been one of the most successful robbers of
hen-roosts in the neighbourhood, so had to be sacrificed to the popular
opinion. Spade and terrier were soon at work, and our first whip proved
that he could handle a fox as well as he can ride a rough horse, for he soon
had him by his brush, and coolly asked the Colonel — Sir Henry was not out
— whether he would like them both out together, for the terrier had him by
the head ; so out they came, the fox shook himself clear, but was bowled
over before he could get the length of a grass field. It ought perhaps to be
recorded that the Abridge policeman rendered valuable assistance in
keeping the excited foot-people from crowding round the drain while the
digging-out process was going on — no doubt the heart of a sportsman beat
under that blue coat.

The second run was a better point, but lacked the dash of the first.
Found again directly in one of the Bishop's Hall coverts, but our friend,
evidently a traveller, would have left unobserved, if some people driving had
not viewed him crossing the Abridge and Ongar road some three hundred
yards from the covert. The river here would have been an awkward
obstacle had there not been a convenient ford, but hounds ran down its
banks some distance before crossing— luckily for those on the right— close
to a ford, and held a line into Shalesmore. False intelligence reached Bailey
that the fox had gone back ; but the mistake was soon rectified, and when
hounds were in again, they took up the running at once, and Jack viewed
him away towards Hill Hall. They ran fast up to the road and nicely over
the park, the palings of which proved more disastrous than any fences we
had come across in the run, for two or three of the most stalwart men in the
hunt had upheaved part of them or taken a heavy gate off its hinges—I am
not certain which— when down it fell, flop ! on the top of them, and covered
them with mud if not with glory. Hounds hunted very prettily and slowly
through the Hill Hall spinneys, and gave us plenty of time to catch them
before they reached Barbers, from which wood Bailey viewed the fox
going away towards Gaynes Park. They ran very nicely down the brook
towards Coopersale, where a decided check took place. Bailey could not hit
it off again, and as they were now in the country which they intended
drawing at an early meet, it was decided to go back to the Osiers, so a good
many one-horse men, including your humble servant, left them. Of course,

94

LEAVES FROM A IIUNTINC DIARY

they always have a good run when you do, but I have only learnt very
scanty particulars of it. Found at once at Sir Charles Smith's Osiers— what
runs tliese osiers afford, may tliey never be cut down ! — went away as if
glued to their fox, over Albyns, right through the top of Curtis Mill Green
to ground just behind Knowles Hill Farm ; a very pretty hunt, I am told.
N.B. — Mr. R. Lockwood in his diary writes :

"A most capital day, the best I have seen for many days rom these coverts.'

Boycott" (held by his owner, R. C. Ball)

This photograph was taken by Mr. Alfred Money Wigrani
about the end of March, 1889, at which time this well-known
horse was about sixteen years old. The first season Mr. Ball
rode him in Essex he made his mark as a hunter, and won
his owner the coveted distinction of having the hunt button
presented to him by the Master, Sir Henry Selwin Ibbetson,
in the great run of March 12th, 1881, described in Messrs.
Ball & Gilbey's book, " The Essex Foxhounds." (For in those
days the Hunt Club had not been established, and the hunt
button was only obtainable at the hands of the Master.) It was
to the undoubted staying powers " Boycott " possessed that Mr.
Ball owed this triumph, for he was a rare horse for a long day.

BOYCOTT

95

and although by no means fast, was a splendid fencer, and
would o-() o-alloping- on when others had had enough. For many-
seasons, right up to the year '90, when, to the deep sorrow
of all who knew him, his bold owner passed away, the grey
was a conspicuous beacon in every run, and he and his rider
were never to my knowledge thrown out or left behind.

Driving over to Loughton with W. Sewell, after a bitterly cold day
at Pyrgo Park on January 5th, we w^ere caught in a dense fog near the
Wake Arms, which came down like a thick black veil ; you could not see
your hand before your face, and until the worst of it blew over the animal
we were driving would not budge an inch. Hunting was stopped by one
night's frost ; the next day the country was white with snow, which looked
like remaining. It did not, however, for we had only a week later the
run of the season.

Thornwood Gate

Among the 140 to 150 who turned up at the meet at Thornwood
Common on Monday, January 19th, 1885,— I am accurate in giving the
numbers, for one of our sportsmen, "''who, I am sorry to say, was leaving us that
evening to go into another country, took the trouble to count them, I suppose
for the sake of comparing notes — I noticed the following : Sir Charles
Cunliffe Smith, Mr. Drummond Smith, Mr. R. Smith, Rev. F. Fane and
Miss Fane, Col. Lockwood, Mr. R. Wood, Mr. C. E. Green, Mr. F.
Green and his two sons on very sporting-looking ponies. Major and Mrs.
Tait, Mr. Arkwright, Mr. T. J. Mills, Mr. Loftus Arkwright, jun., Mr.
Tyndale White, Mr. Courtenay Warner, Mr. Sewell, Mr. George Hart, Mr.

R. Lockwood.

96

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

J. Harris, Mr. C. Bury, Mr. Green (of Parndon), Mr. E. Ball, Mr. R. Y.
Bevan, Mr. Sworder, Mr. H. J. Miller, Messrs. Kemp (2), Mr. W. S.
Horner, Mr. R. Fletcher, Mr. L. Pelly, Mr. Pratt, Mr. Pemberton-Barnes,
Major Foster, Mr. Keppel, Mr. A. Capel-Cure, Mr. Stevenson, Mr. E.
Lawrence, Mr. G. Willis, Mr. Hine, Mr. H. Lawrence, V.S., Mr. W.
Tweed, Mr. Olney and Mr, Dickinson.

All but the foot-people were probably thankful when hounds, instead of
being thrown into the Lower Forest, were taken in the opposite direction
towards a more open country. Little Maries Wood being the first point of
attack — from here to Latton Park is no great distance — for the first time
this season was drawn blank ; but the neighbouring covert, just over the
Harlow Road, held a brace, and hounds opened at once. Most of the field
had made for the ride which runs through it at right angles to the Harlow
Road, and very soon got a view of him as he crossed over. " Tally ho ! over ! "

Coming away from Parndon Woods across Epping Long Green

and then directly afterwards, "Tally ho! back"; another fox away over
the grass at the bottom end, and Bailey blowing his hounds out followed
almost as quickly as it takes to write it. Mr. E. Lawrence, who, with about
two dozen others, was standing at the right-hand corner, quickly made up
his mind, and put about half a field between himself and them before they
knew what they were about. Hounds bore to the right, and crossed the
Hastingwood Common Road, leaving Mr. Bawtree's house on the left —
lucky that white gate in front of us was open, the only practicable place
in the fence, or you would have wanted a timber jumper like the one Col.
Lockwood was riding when he showed us the way over four or five seasons
ago.

Hounds streamed over the grass as if for Weald Coppice, but, bearing
sharp to the right, took us over a rapid succession of fences, in and out of

THE RUN OF THE SEASON 97

the lane, over a couple more obstacles — the last one being the steeplechase
fence at the bottom of the Rundells course ; and, just as hounds had nicely
settled to it, Bailey had the mortification of finding his fox had got into a
drain, from which it would have taken about a week to dislodge him. This
was just sufficient to whet our appetites, and make us doubly keen, for it was
quite evident that there was a scent. Back we went to Latton, where the
hounds touched on the line of a fox that had been viewed going back, and
Sir Henry lost no time in having his hounds taken on to Parndon Woods.

I have often noticed on a good scenting day — I do not care what size
the coverts — foxes do not care to dwell in them. Parndon Woods are not
small, and you must keep your eyes and ears open and trust to your luck
if you do not wish to be left behind. The little spinney on the opposite
side of the road, which frequently holds a fox, was first tried, and then the
long narrow piece bordering the road to Rye Hill without finding ; half of
the next piece was got through, and not a whimper at first ; but still there
was plenty more covert to draw, when the first whip rode up to Bailey with the
intelligence that there was a fox on the move at the top end towards Epping
Green, and almost at the same instant " Forrard Away ! " was heard.
Hounds required no urging as they raced over the first field, where very
few took heed of a sportsman's warning cry, " 'Ware tares," in the excite-
ment and eagerness to get a good start. Crossing the lane you were lucky
if you hit a weak place out of it, and luckier still not to get blocked in at
the same place waiting for your turn with an obstinate refuser in front of you,
for hounds were going their best pace over the grass, which rode like velvet,
a few easy flying fences — a bad case for you if you fell, for all took them in
their stride — led us down the slope towards Shingle Hall, up one more field,
the first ploughed one, and some as they landed in the road very nearly
jumped on the very tools, I would wager, that had ploughed it.

A couple of strides, and they were on the grass again, leaving Mr.
Kemsley's farm on the right ; a weedy-looking chesnut was taking his rider
well to the front, and you wondered how on earth he had kept on his legs so
long, as he looked more fit for racing on the flat than cross-country work ;
but good hunters go in all shapes. I am sorry to have to add that early in
the second part of the run he came down and broke his back. A couple of
fiel(]s from the road we had the Cobbins Brook in front of us. I have
likened this brook to a good many things, but never, I think, to a Derby-
shire dingle or dumble, which, I think, it resembles more than anything
else. We had barely time to find a fordable place and scramble out before
hounds were racing away again over the next grass field, Mr. Tyndale
White and Bailey cutting the work out on the left, and Messrs. Bevan and
Wood on the right. No picking and choosing of fences ; the pace was too
good, as Bailey evidently thought, as he swung over the rail by the side of
the gate leading into Mr. Symes's lane, whither the chase had now
brought us.

A very decent ditch and bank, out of the lane, a couple of wheat fields,
and we jumped into the Epping and Harlow Road, but as the hounds
crashed into the forest on the far side, you knew the run was not over
yet. The three miles to there, as the crow flies, was very pretty, but there
was better to come. The lower forest is a most abominable place to get
into when there is a good scent. Through a succession of beastly bogs
and briary bushes we at last emerged on an open glade, when we turned
sharp to the right, and were soon on the North Weald Road. Here a
good many, including the Master, who had been well up with them to this
point, had the bad luck to be thrown out, for, instead of turning sharp back
towards Epping, they kept straight on towards Gaynes Park, certainly the

7

98 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING UIARV

most likely point. Some, including Mr. Mills, bad the good luck not to go
in the forest at all, but kept round to the right, and met hounds as they
came out on the plain, over which the going was excellent, and gave us a
capital chance of catching them. I rather tliink that two or three couple
were a considerable way ahead of the body of the pack just here, but by
the time we got into the fields at the back of the Epping Brewery, they
were all together again. Here the fox was viewed with his tongue out, and
seemed rather inclined to cross the road, as he came down close to it (one
hound, I am told, being so close up that if he had not run his head into
a hurdle in the fence, which the fox jumped over, he would have had him).
Fence succeeded fence, one man coming a buster over a rail, with a drop
the far side, into Mr. Trim's field. Leaving his farm on the left they ran
parallel with the road, which gave those humanitarians who do not like
jumping their nags a capital chance of seeing the sport right over the
large grass field known as Knockers, almost up to the Sewage Farm ;
across the road, through the narrow spinneys, which contained between
them six ditches in the same number of yards ; and they were on the grass
again swinging down for the brook. The first dozen took it in their stride,
and also took a pull at their horses as they rose the hill, on Mr, Pegram's
land.

There was an awkward jump or two to be taken here before crossing
the Bury Road, and hounds more than held their own as they raced over
the next fields. Two fields from the road Bailey's horse " Witchcraft "
came to grief, but Mills, who was in a capital place, and had been from the
very start, insisted on Bailey getting on his mare, an act which proved him
a thoroughly unselfish sportsman, for he dearly loved a good thing such as
we were then enjoying. The field was very attenuated as they come down
to a very awkward-looking obstacle, a regular trap. ; I extract from Mr. R.
Lockwood's diary the following — Ed.] : —

" C. Green had an awful fall and nearly killed me. I was jumping in and out of a
narrow piece of wood in Copped Hall, and C. G., on pulling 'Chestnut,' jumped over
the whole place and me too . . . . ; but it was the best and fastest run I have
seen for years."

Mr. C. E. Green's horse swerved into the ditch, and afterwards gave
him a very nasty fall before he got over ; but Roly was irresistible in
Dawson's breeches, and he was first through what proved to be on closer
acquaintance a very blind double ; an open brook beyond caused him no
trouble or delay. In and out of Spratts hedgerow hounds still sailed merrily
along towards Copped Hall Green, crossed the road near Warlies Park, and
bore away once more to the right, over the Cobbins Brook, near a very
handy ford, without checking ; ran through Shatter Bushes, where Bailey
got up to them again. Never left the line, through Deer Park, and, leaving
Galley Hills on the right, ran to ground at the bottom of it, on the
Waltham and Nasing Road. Time, 60 minutes. Those who know the
country will appreciate the points made and distance covered. A great
many rode and saw the run, but none better than Mr. R, Bevan, Mr. R.
Wood (in his usual quiet and workmanlike manner), and Mr. H. J. Miller
on a most remarkable cob.

> , M ■

iji.i*r

Hatfield Broad Oak

CHAPTER IV.

Tyndale White — The Mahdi — Wesley Hunts the Hounds — Walking the Plank —
/. Pevvy Watlington — Loi'd Onsloiv — Cnh Hunting in 1885 — A Wet Season —
Early Hours — Mliss — Sparvo-w Hawks — Israel's — Latchmove Banks — Takeley
Forest — Dunmoiv High Woods — The Knights and Dames of Matching
Green — A. Caldecott — Blind Fences — Hounds Staked — The Blue Peter —
Unhorsing Sir Henry's Carriage — Blue Gates — Over the Saw Pit — Skating
and Hunting — The Close of Sir Henry's Mastership — Bill Richmond — Lady
Betty — A Broken Arm — Snoiv and Frost — White Roothing — The Friar
Shuts Up — Bosphorus — Afternoon Runs — Red Tunics — The Great Run from
Toot Hill— A Sly Trick.

MR. TYNDALE WHITE has now acted as Hon. Secre-
tary to the Essex Hunt, and also the Essex Hunt Club,
since 1S90, sharing the responsibilities of the former office with
Mr. R. Y. Bevan at the present time, and in both responsible
and onerous positions has given universal and unqualified satis-
faction. Writing to me in March, '96, Mr. White says : — " I
never had a good horse but, I think the nearest approach to one
I ever had was a roan and the " Mahdi," both of which I brought
into Essex. After this (you may smile, but it's a fact) I never had
a decent horse until I bought the dun cob the other day that
S. Caldwell rode in Leicestershire. He is lame in both hocks,
but is the most reliable jumper I ever had. One reason why I
have never had good horses is that, as I love comfort, I always
ride small ones, and you cannot get little horses to carry 1 1 stone
long in this country when there is a scent, and there is onl\ a
scent when the going is very deep ninety-nine times out ot a
hundred ; of course, I mean if you really want to see the tun ;
anyone can nurse a pony all day. I bought a halt-sister ot

lOO LEAVES FROM A HUi\TI\(J DIARY

Hampton's, before he became fashionable, out of a baker's cart
for /.^^o, and she was the only exception I have ever known to
what I say above. I sold her to poor Harry Brassey for a lot
of money."

Tis quite true that Mr. White favours little ones, but they
can all gallop, otherwise they would be no use to one who loves
the pace, and without any flattery, possessed of perfect hands
and seat, is one of the smartest men to hounds in a quick thing
I have ever seen in P^ssex.

Tyndale White

You iiuist take the rough with tlie smooth. Mr. Jones, I find
that I chant your praises a good deal ; so now for my notes of
Wednesday, January 28th, when we met at Toot Hill and found in Mr.
Christy's cabbages. Without any warning they were away, and Charley
McKee on " Squealer " (a good harness cob, but bad lumter) found
he could not go the pace. At starting the fences were very awkward and
necessitated following the huntsman's lead. In the plantation near
Greensted House he had to jump off and open a gate on a slippery
bridge over the brook, and while holding his horse you came rushing up

THE MAIIDI lOI

for a lead, Mr. Jones; gaining the open before they reached the Ongar
line, you had disappeared having taken a bad turn to the left. Mr. Bevan
and the huntsman dived under the railway arch and joined hounds as they
crossed the road below Blake Hall Station, and ran through the little
wood beyond while you were flying frantically along in the rear as Bailey,
cheering his hounds over the line again, made for the archway near Ongar
Park Farm, reaching the big woods in seventeen minutes. Horses were
blowing freely, for the going was very heavy and the huntsman thought
the hounds must have killed and eaten their fox before we arrived, as they
were covered with blood. We should have had a good thing in the evening
from the Lower Forest to Maries if we had only got away on better terms.

A hunt breakfast is not always synonymous with good sport, and we only
just saved the blank after meeting at Rochetts, Mr. Coope's place, for
that ceremony on Monday, February 2nd, A day on the " Mahdi " (Mr.
Tyndale White's favourite hunter) was a thing to be remembered, as was
the good hour's run we had on Saturday, February 14th, from Poles Wood
nearly up to Beachetts, when I had the good luck to be on him and never
rode a better or bolder horse ; he liked going fast at his fences, so put me
down once when I tried to steady him out of a wood. On no other horse
(this is one for the " Mahdi " and two for myself) should I care to have
tackled the hnUfinch''- out of Navestock Park some of the thorns of which
remain in my head to this day, although the Doctor did his best to get them
out. On a capital hunting day more like November, than February, a
drip on the hedgerows and a slight fog with a nip of frost in the air (it
snowed next morning), a small but very select company met the Master
at Tyler's Cross Tuesday, February 17th, and they included Miss M.
Glyn, Colonel Lockwood, Major Tait, Mr. A. Caldecott, Mr. C. J. Bury,
Mr. C. E. Green, Mr. Todhunter, Mr. L. Arkwright, Messrs. R. Bevan,
Melles, H. E. Jones, H. Sworder, J. Scruby, G. Hart, Mr. Green of Parndon.
Frcm Pinnacles we had a very good twenty minutes with a curiously
marked fox up to Parndon Woods. After some delay reaching Latton, we
had to thank Mr. Todhunter for the good run which followed ; for getting
a view of our hunted fox just as the huntsman was on the point of giving
him up, hounds forced him back through Parndon, and after a very fast
and straight twenty minutes pulled him down on the Netteswell road in
the presence of Mr. C. E. Green, on his grey mare, and Mr. Arkwright on
his grey, Messrs. Sworder, Scruby and Hart, and others.

Quite February Fill Dyke this month, and in the pouring rain on
W^ednesday, February 25th at Thornwood Common, Captain Allsopp was
about the only man who sported pink. Bailey was laid up, so Wesley
hunted the hounds over a very unusual line, from the Lower Forest up to
Moreton ; but I find no mention of his helping Mr. Green out of that
village brook into which he had slipped.

Commencing with Saturday, March 7 — after the very unanimous and
successful annual meeting of the members of the Hunt, held at the Green
Man, Harlow, at which it was a matter of general congratulation that Sir
Henry Selwin Ibbetson had consented to hunt the country next season — we
had a capital run from Barnsleys, the wood close to the Kennels. The day
was sunny, a day on which it was a pleasure to live, with hounds or
without. They had barely been in covert ten minutes before " Forrard,
away ! " was heard, and as we followed Sir Henry up the right-hand side
of the wood, and reached the top end, we viewed hounds racing to a scent,
pursued by Bailey, blowing the tail hounds out. In and out of a lane, and

It is cut down now. — Ed.

I02 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

most of us were on terms with the hounds as they bore away towards the
Roothings, but turning to the left they carried the hne over the road,
leaving Harlow on the left. A weight-carrying grey and a well-bred bay
were the first out of the road as they swung towards Moor Hall and crossed
another road, when there was a lot of pushing and squeezing, and let-me-
coming at the one available gap out of it, which Bailey was the first over.
Hounds were now going very quickly over the Moor Hall cricket ground,
and you had to make up your mind at once whether to follow Bailey into
the plantations with the hounds or Mr. H. Sworder to the right. You had
to duck your head if you followed Bailey under two narrow gateways, push
your way through some closely growing trees and bushes, over an awkward
ditch, and land in a deep-ploughed field, over which a good many were
sending their horses at a pace which they would have regretted if we had
not had a welcome check or two before the run was over. In the next field
hounds bore down towards the Down Hall Brook, where we had the first
halt — not long enough to pick a good place over the rabbit-burrowed bank
into the field beyond (about the roughest in Essex) before they were on
the line again, and turning to the right, carried it into Heathen Wood.

Here they probably changed foxes, as a couple of hounds went on with
one towards Down Hall, while the rest were driving another round the
wood, which Essex men know is fringed by a very unfordable, and still
more unjumpable, brook. We have known a sportsman attempt to swim
it on a well-known grey — an animal which was going well to the front
to-day — but have never seen it successfully jumped. Here was an oppor-
tunity for rash youth to distinguish or extinguish himself, and while we
stood shuddering on its banks, we envied the light-weight on the grey, who
was on the right side, as Bailey muttering, " They are over," immediately
went for the nearest ford. A good honest mile of road work before we
caught hounds as they crossed the Sheering road, near Durrington House,
with the immediate prospect of the intricacies of the Cambridge line and
River Stort before us. Only two or three more fields before we reached
the line, where, luckily, a gate opened on to it ; but it was still more
fortunate that no train came rushing round the curve as we all crowded on
the line. The gate on the far side would not open, nor lift off its hinges.
Bailey hammered away at the lock with a stirrup-iron, and Colonel
Gardner, with ready presence of mind, called out to check others from
coming on to the line. A gentleman in mufti, "■= on a black horse, who had
been cutting out a good deal of the work, got us out of our difficulty by
running his horse up the bank, and cramming him through a thick black-
thorn. A ]ady,i who was one of the last to cross, had quite a narrow
escape, as her pony refused, and kept backing towards the line, and only
just made up his mind to face the bank and hedge out as a train rushed past.

Next, the river had to be crossed; a narrow bridge befriended us,
which we crossed in Indian file. A small hand-gate at the further end
shuttmg in front of Mr. Dickinson's horse, while his rider was stooping
down to open it, he promptly got one of his legs over the side rail,
and then another, when it looked very like a bath in the river ; but for-
tunately he got back all right. We had another slight check here, as the
hounds could not get out of some osiers on account of the surrounding
fence, but being extricated, they went away again very merrily over
Pishobury Park, and crossed the Harlow and Bishops-Stortford road, close
to Mr. Rivers' nursery gardens at Sawbridgeworth. We were now in the

C. Meek. t Miss M. Glyn.

I'KRRY WATLINGTON

lO-

Puckeridge country, and hounds hunted well towards Rowney Wood, on
to High Wych. An open country in front of us, it certainly looked even
betting on Bailey killing his fox, but a check taking place, he took the
hounds to a holloa on the left, and we lost a lot of time before getting over
the canal and river, which here run parallel. A bridge over the first
obstacle and a ford over the second could not be reached without jumping
an open brook or beating a retreat. Never did such an insignificant piece
of water stop so many sportsmen. It could not have been more than
Sft. or gft. of water, with another 3ft. for taking off and landing. One
gentleman, on a well-bred horse, went gallantly at it, and his daughter

J. W. Perry Watlington

prepared to follow him, but the well-bred one refused. Three or four
others tried leading over a stout plank, some I2in. wide, more adapted
for a circus horse than a hunter. One only was partially successful at that
game, as his horse got half way across, and then slipped in over his saddle
in mud and water. Another horse was seen in like extremity, but Mr,
Arkwright, on his bay, going lower down, successfully charged it, and the
rest followed like sheep. After this entanglement it was very satisfactory
that Bailey was able to account for his fox to ground in Weir Hatches, after
a capital run, over a lot of country, of some hour and twenty minutes.
Lord Onslow was going well in this run.

John Perry Watlington, of Moor Hall, Harlow, enjoyed an
enviable reputation, for no more popular Master — no, not Sir

I04 LKA\ES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

Henry himself— was ever associated with the Mastership of the
Essex Hounds.

Mr. Hart remembers well how he came forward with Sir
Henry in 1879 to supply a blank in the Mastership, and how,
goino- nearer home, he made his rent audit, with the aid of his
amiable wife, one of the pleasantest and most enjoyable
o-atherings of the year.

Wednesday, March nth, 1885, Nasing Common, was productive of one
of the best all-round day's sport that we ha\e had during the season which
has just slipped away. None but the very latest comers had any excuse if
they did not get a good start when the hounds left Galley Hill on the Monk-
hams side, as they did not come very readily to Bailey's horn, or fairly settle
down to run until they had left Monkhams on the left and crossed the
Waltham and Nasing road near some brickworks, when for thirty minutes
they led us over a delightful country at a good pace. The country was new
to most of us, but one sportsman"-'' will have occasion to remember a brook
which came in the early part of the run (for he came out of it as black as a
tinker), over which Bailey was the first to fly like a bird, Mr. C. E. Green
taking it a little to his right on " The Joke," followed by a gentleman on a
chestnut.

Alas I poor Joke, you gallant bay,
No longer will you show the way ;
For, broken down, you ne'er can stay.
Or live with hounds that stream away.

Most of the others skirted off for a gate, but the brook appeared again. It
was a case of have it or go home, and most of us had it. A rare stiff old
hedge, with a jolly wide ditch the other side, into a lane soon faced us.
The same trio had it ; a gate was rapidly lifted off its hinges, and as they
squeezed through and jumped out of the lane, hounds had gained consider-
ably. Over a rail, which someone kindly broke, and still on the grass, they
caine down to another brook. A stranger who was out, and who had been
going uncommonly well, showed us the way over. At the next fence the
chestnut thought that he had had enough, and discreetly came down,
depositing his rider well in the next field. As hounds turned down the hill
before rising the big field leading to Galley Hills, Mr. George Hart was
seen fanning along in the van, taking each fence as it came — thirty minutes
to Galley Hills. Not much respite, as the chase led us towards the
Waltham road, but the fox was viewed into Galley Hills, and away again
over by Monkhams, on to Obelisk Wood, where he crossed the brook.

Evidently a beaten fox, he soon recrossed, and hounds could hunt but
slowly towards Shatter Bushes, which our fox kept on his left, also Deer
Park, into Nasing Coppice, through which hounds showed a line ; but if
the fox that was viewed away at the top corner towards Parndon Woods
was not a fresh one he was a rare customer. For he took a line over
Nasing Common up to Mr. Todhunter's spinneys, then bearing away up to
Pinnacles crossed the road by Merryweather's Farm into Tattle Bushes,
running right across the grass vale to Deer Park, where he was lost after
some two hours' hunting. If he had been killed, there can be no question
who ought to have had the brush. Mr. Robin, who does not often hunt
with us, went brilliantly from start to finish, but had to confess that the
Essex country cannot be crossed with a broken stirrup-leather.

• Mr. Roffey

CUHIUNC IX I.SS5

105

The cub-hunting
one — only a few ou
Hall on Thursday,
The following took
Hall, on Saturday,
Messrs. Green, Wa
of cubs at Abridge
Ball (3) Barclay,
Started at 4.15 a.m.
for a meet at Prior
others courting the

season of 1885, owing to the wet, was a very good
t to meet the Master for the opening day at Down

September loth, but that few included Mr. Jones,
advantage of the soft ground and a Meet at Moor
, September 12th, at 5.30, viz. : Miss M. Glyn,
Imesley, Capel-Cure and Mr. A. Caldecott. Plenty

at 5.30 September 14th (a rainy Monday). Messrs.

Waters, Suart, Jones and Bevan's names occur,
on Saturday, September 19th, with Green and Bevan,
s, Jones, Waters, Bobby Wood, Tyndale White and
rain. A very jolly morning's sport on Monday 21st,

Miss M. Glyn on " Mliss "

a very good show of cubs at Galley Hills and a litter of four in Obelisk
Wood, one of which gave us a merry little gallop up to the Squire of
Monkham's house, who with his brother was enjoying the gallop; Mr.
Charrington having the bad luck to get his horse cast in a ditch. Capital
sport too from the Copped Hall coverts on Monday, October 5th— old ones
in the Warren, cubs in Spratt's Hedgerow and a run through the Forest to
Theydon Road, seen at least by Mr. C. E. Green and his brother George,
Major Tait, Mr. R. Wood, Messrs. E. Ball, R. B. Colvin, A. Suart,
P. M. Evans and W. and G. Sewell.

A favourite hunter of Miss M. Glyn (bouoht from Miss
Langworthy, Sir William Wiseman's sister-in-law) was " Mliss " :

T06

l,i:.\\IS IKOM A IIUNIINC 1)1. \k\-

she carried her mistress salel\' lor se\'en seasons: xcry (luick
and actixc, il would liaxc taken a lunn\' place to put her down
or stop her lair owner when hounds were runninL;. Miss
( d\ n has heen \ crs lorlunale in her hunters, " Lady IU;ttie."
another laxoinile, h,i\ iiiL; cari-it-d lu:r railhlulU' lor seven years,
L;i\'inL; her onl\ one lall.

1 Ixlicxc that tlic lCss(^\ hounds have the reputation for incctinf^ earher
in the luoin'mf; tlian any other pack in ICnfj^Iand. This is, of course, chie to
tlie cm-It;)' ol tlicir Master, Sir 11. Selwin Ibhetson, who seems to be made
of steel liDin the amount of work lie gets through. Wet weather never
dctcis him ; so, of course, he was at his post on Saturday, October loth,
when Ihcy mcl at l\o\\\cll at (^3oaau., in one of the most uncompromising

0"' .•V...'')'

i^^^«:,^^««^^_^,^^^^^

^H,;^^^$#^v-%>^<^C^

Israel's Wood

merciless downiioms of rain il has ever been my lot to be out in. Roxwell,
at 6.30 a.m., is \iiy liandy for the Chelmsford division ; but nearer town you
rcM]uir(> the vivid recollection of an extraordinary good run from this very
lixlure two seasons ago, during tlu' cub-hunting season, to nerve you for
stalling to llic meet at about .\ aan., when it is too dark to see more than
your horse's ears. Steadily jogging along in the dark, you feel rather like a
liigliwa\nian ; but tlicrc is very little chance of a good haul between 4 and
S ii.m. r>v and bve the lights in the cottage windows look cheerful, and
ilu' sound oi tlu- liorsckccpers' \oices getting their charges in from the fields
dispel at oiu e any romantic illusions. The rain, which held ofi" at first,
I ame Aowu in right earnest about five, and sensibly increased one's weight
by the time l\o.\\vell was reached ; and another mile or two covered to
where the hounds were alrc\uly busy at work. Here I must apologise for
mv imperfect knowledge of this part of the county, but 1 can vouch that

ROXWKiJ. (6.30 A.M.) or.:

10,

188

within three miles of Roxvvell a fine cub was chased, killed and eaten before
7 a.m., in the presence of a gallery of some thirty sportsmen. Two small
spinneys en yonte to a larger stronghold is the next order; Fitz Johns, I
think, is the name of the second one. It is not a minute before hounds
proclaim a find, and the cub — they are all cubs at this time of year when
they go away — came tumbling out of coverts within two yards of a horse-
man's feet, a lovely bundle of brown, and, with ears pricked, went straight
away. Hounds are close to him, and the first few fences look uncommonly
blind. Bailey shows us the way, and bearing sharp to the right, some very
convenient headlands lead us on for about a mile, by which time horses
have warmed to their work, and a good scent is an ascertained fact.

Through a small covert, not dwelling an instant, hounds are pressing
forward, reaching Israel Wood fifteen minutes from the start. Not a
moment for breathing time; they are through and out on the far side, and
running close up to Pleshey, which is passed on their left. At the end of

Sparrow Hawks

thirty minutes Bailey stops them, as it is too evident that they have no cub
in front of them, and there are other coverts to be drawn. Sparrow Hawks,
a pretty certain find, is equal to the occasion, and a fat well-to-do cub only
saves his bacon by the hounds going away with what must certainly have
been an old one, as for forty-five minutes they ran hard without checking,
in a half circle nearly to Chelmsford : a line of country seldom run over,
making about a four-mile point, and covering at least ten or eleven miles, as
hounds ran back to the covert from which he went away. He still lives to
run again ; a rare good fox, but hounds deserved blood, as for forty-five
minutes they hunted beautifully without any assistance, when, just as it
seemed a moral certainty that they would kill, their fox suddenly dis-
appeared beaten — foxes often do, most unaccountably. Unfortunately,

io8

LEA\KS FROM A HUNTING DIARY

there were not more than a dozen, including the Master and hunt-servants,
who stayed to enjoy this run, which would have been voted a good thing in
the middle of a good season. Messrs. Marriage (3), E. Tufnell, and J.
Christy were among the fortunate few.

To revel in a sunny morning at Coopersale, the hour 7.30, the date
Saturday, Oct. 17th, quite St. Luke's summer, came ]\Iiss Glyn, Miss
Colvin, Miss Tait, Messrs. Jones, Green, Ball (2), McKee, Stallibrass,
Waters, Mills and Sworder (2). Cubs in Barber's, Beachett's and Gaynes
Park.

Tuesday, Oct. 20th. — Went out with the Harriers. Charley McKee
was mounted by Major Tait and was kicked off going to the meet, and
afterwards had a fall. Found a fox at Miller's Farm and ran very fast
to Hill Hall. Can this be true? Did Mr. Vigne's Harriers occasionally
run foxes in those days ?

Charles Frederick McKee

Charles McKee now hunts in Northamptonshire, where he
has made his mark and finds no difficulty in g-ettino- any amount
of riding, for his friends are only too glad to entrust any young-
one or new j)urchase that requires a Icctlc more schooling to his
fine horsemanship. lie does a little between the Hags, and

LATCH.MORE BANKS

109

is as modest al^out his pt-rformancc in the [)iL;skiii as he is
about his shooting. He can hit his l)ir(ls in the right place, so
is a very welcome gun ; and he could give most gamekeepers a
wrinkle or two at their own game.

Saturday, October 24th, 1885. Another wet Saturday, and another good
run. A fortnight had made the meets more get-at-able as regards the time,
as it was now 8 a.m. instead of 6.30, and a nine-mile jog to covert was no hard-
ship if you had accustomed yourself to it by regular attendance during the cub-
hunting season, which was fast waning. A nine-mile jog, however, was not
particularly pleasant in a pouring rain, but the unpleasantness was somewhat
mitigated if you were well secured in Cording's waterproofs. Retiring to roost
on Friday, one could hardly have anticipated requiring anything of the sort,
for was not the rain then coming down in bucketfuls, and had it not been

/ y-" y//y/'-

'^^} :

^

l?Sf,,^^_

PL£ii^^^ S-^i-C^

Latchmore Banks

raining ever since 10 a.m. ? "No ; nothing short of twenty-four hours'
downfall would satisfy the clerk of the weather, and we certainly had it on
this occasion, for by the time we reached Hatfield Heath it was still raining.
This probably accounted for the exceedingly select field which had
assembled, composed only of Mr. and Mrs. Keppel, Mr. Howard Fowler,
and the hunt servants. Sir Henry was not out, and Bailey moved off sharp
at eight ; but en route to Wallbury Dells we were joined by that keenest of
keen sportsmen, Mr. C. E. Green, and three or four farmers; Mr. Kirkby
and Mr. Sworder were also soon on the scene. After kilhng a Wallbury
Dell cub, it looked like spending a morning in Takeley Forest. But there
was a snug little covert cii yoiite on the Bishop Stortford road, Latchmore
Banks by name. Bailey cheered his hounds and followed them in ; a single
hound gave tongue, and Bailey's " Yak ! yak ! yak ! " confirmed the trusty

1 lO LEAVES I'KOM A HUNTING DIAKV

note, for Wesley's screech of " Forrard away ! '' was heard as our fox
crossed the road. By the time hounds were all out he had a minute start,
and, bearing away over the Sewage Farm, we soon found that the rain had
not improved the plough, as it was very heavy going. Hallingbury Park
was soon reached, and across it hounds ran well up to the house and
through the gardens, back over the park, and we were once more in the
open as soon as hounds ; but it might have been different if we had not had
a trusty pilot who knew the intricacies of the two lines of iron fencing that
we encountered before crossing the road. Up the hill they went, then,
suddenly dipping down, crossed a brook, to which a very slippery bridge
was the keynote ; bearing to the right, down a long grassy mead, they
appeared for the moment to show two lines, but Bailey relied on the
forward one, which the body of the pack were holding up to a small
plantation. Rounding it, they slipped through a most beastly fence,
through which not a glimpse, but only a sound of the pack could be had.

Takeley Forest

Wesley solved the difficulty for us, and the next, under the railway, was
solved by the united efforts of Mr. Green and Bailey, who unhinged a gate.
Better not to have gone down that archway, for hounds very soon turned
back across the line, and two more railway gates defied our exertions.
The chestnut showed us the way over a most uncultivated bank and ditch,
across two fields (nearly up to horses' hocks), and a friendly archway let
us up to hounds again. Crawley here got a view of our fox as he crossed a
narrow road ; fences came rapidly as the pace quickened, and, before you
knew where you were, Takeley Forest was reached. On through the rides,
rather rough going, but not boggy. Was that a holloa at the far end ?
Yes, there was no mistaking it, as it came ringing up the glade. Hounds
required no lifting as they struck the open, where Jack was already cap in
air, with news of a nearly beaten fox. Over the park some deer crossed the

THE OPENING MEET, IcS85 HI

line, but a herd would not have turned the little beauties, who were now
playing a sure game of the best wins. Not checking an instant, yon had to
keep galloping to keep them in view as they entered Canfield-Hart.
Through its long ride Bailey disappeared like a will-o'-the-wisp, and by the
time five of us reached the far side there was not a sign of anything. Mr.
Fowler immediately plunged back, and found the route hounds had gone.
Three remained to inquire the way, and the other, riding the outside, got
put on tlie right patli b}' one of the new voters. Forward, and getting into
a wilder country, hounds ran better than ever. Here Mrs. Keppel, who
had gone like a bird in the van all the time, had to stop or run the risk of
killing her horse, which was done to a turn, and her husband, of course, had
to stay to look after her. The field had now grown gradually and beauti-
fully less. Hounds ran up to Canfield-Bury, within one field of the Thrift,
the fox's point Dunmow High Woods, which he was fated never to see.
The pace quickened, as hounds were now running for blood. The line
again, confound it ! But there was no occasion to cross it this time, for
they had him. " Whoop ! " — one hour and fifty minutes, and where were
all the two hundred knights and dames of Matching Green ?

Matching Green, 1885, was as balmy as May, and from the Journal the
following extracts :^Out : Sir Henry on "Mermaid," Colonel Lockwood,
Mr. R. Lockwood, Follett, Mr. C. E. Green, Mr. 1^. Bevan, Mr. and Mrs.
Waters, Major and Mrs. Tait, Mr. and Mrs. Keppel, Rev. F. Fane,
Mrs. Arkwright, Mr. L. W. Arkwright, the Misses Glyn, Mr. and Mrs.
Chisenhale Marsh, Colvins (3), Mr. Tyndale White, Ridleys (2), Messrs.
Jones, Ball, McKee, Meek, Parrott, Horner, Parkes, the Admiral, Roffey,
Walmesley, Tufnell, Bawtree, Todhunter, Wyllie, Vaughan, Melles. On
our way to draw Norwood, from which we had a capital 20 minutes to
ground near High Laver Rectory, Mrs. Tait had a very bad fall and Major
Tait was kicked in the face going to her rescue, but nearly everyone got
down, including Green, Bevan, Sworder, Miller, Ball, McKee, not
forgetting Jones.

A real busy day Monday, Nov. 9th, you'll admit if you follow it out.
Abridge the meet, in dull, foggy hunting weather, a fair number present : —
Mrs. Waters, Major Tait, Messrs. C. and F. Green, W. and G. Sewell,
Stallibrass, MacEvans, McKee, Chisenhale Marsh, R. Wood (Mr. R. Wood
riding a horse of Mr. Hargreaves), &c. Found in Long Planting at once, and
after a 30 minutes' ring killed behind the Hall. Found again in Cranes
W^ood, and had a very fast thing to ground at Albyn's. At the fence after

the brook, do you remember the man you nearly jumped on, Mr. W ?

Getting on to another fox at Albyn's they ran him to Crane's Wood and
back, the same line to earth which was now closed, and killed about 2 p.m.
Then orders for home, but put into Shalesmore on the way back at 2.30,
and had a clinking 15 minutes over Hill Hall Park and back to ground —
few remaining for it.

Wednesday, Nov. nth. — Kelvedon Common, a very gentle misty rain
falling, wind E., just a day for scent. Did not find until we reached
Poles Wood, when hounds went over the hill to the Stondon Road, by Mr.
Silvester's, straight to Fryerning Wood, in 20 minutes, over a very blind
country ; most of us down at least once. Ball, on his grey, twice ; Keppel
three times. No doubt the fox went on, but Bobby Wood would not halloo,
thinking it was a fresh one, so we were done out of killing him. Evidently
we must have thirsted for blood after the stirring gallop. On our way back
a fresh fox jumped up, close to Mr. Tyndale White's house, and in
15 minutes they ran him to ground at Poles Wood, when Bailey lost his
hounds.

THK BLUE PETER I I 3

On Saturday, Nov, 14th, an old Lincolnshire friend (Mr. Bertie Peake)
came to have a look at the Roothings of Essex ; the distance we rode to
covert seeming to impress him more tlian anything else. A little jog of
14 miles to the Hare and Hounds, Roxwell, having to be done that
particular morning — we arrived in time for a good 15 minutes from
the Osiers — and afterwards from Sparrow Hawks, had a capital run of
I hour and 40 minutes in the direction of Chelmsford, killing at Writtle,
where Mr. T. Usborne, M.P., did the hospitable. In this run, Mr. R.
Wood, who was riding "Bull's Eye," came to grief over a post and
rails. Home with Waters and McKee. It did not seem at all pro-
pitious for hunting when hounds met at White Roothing, for white
it looked, after three sharp rime frosts on Wednesday, Nov. i8th, so
unpropitious, indeed, that I merely started out for a ride about 10.30,
but as one jogged along it became apparent that the sun was rapidly getting
the better of it. Falling in with Mr. H. Sworder and J. Gingell, at High
Laver Hall, we went on together, arriving at White Roothing only to find
that hounds had gone on. We luckily hit them off coming straight towards
us in full cry, near Row Wood. Running through that covert and Man
Wood, they ran up to Beauchamp Roothing Church, coming back through
Man Wood and into Row Wood again. For some time they could not
force him out. At last, when he broke, he led us a dance up to Hatfield
town, and then ran fast to Down Hall. When changing, after some
2^ hours continuous hunting, they had to whip off. The country about
Row Wood was particularly blind, and few escaped downers — Messrs.
R. Wood, on "Bull's Eye,"i H. Philby, Tyndale White, H. Sworder,
F. Colvin and Longbourne coming under my special notice. The Con-
servative colours were flying at Netteswell on Saturday, Nov. 21st, signals
of the approaching election and the contemplated retirement of our much-
loved Master — Miss M. Caldecott and her father both wearing blue rosettes.
The country was swarming with foxes ; the second that went away from
Weir Hatches was pulled down just short of Moor Hall.

" Barnsleys and Latton, it mattered not where,
For wherever we went the foxes were there I"'

The Osiers at Passingford Bridge responded at the first call on Monday,
Nov. 23rd ; the fox, however, swimming the river (those Osier foxes were
quite amphibious) and leaving Curtis Mill Green on the right, led us over
a big country to Pyrgo. Unfortunately, coming back to Albyn's, two of
the best hounds, Felix and Gambler, were staked on the palings. The fox
going to ground near the Green, where a companion had taken refuge, they
were both bolted and killed. The day wound up with a very good 45
minutes from the Navestock coverts to Poles Church Wood, and to ground
at Blackn:iore Windmill ; the last fence into a road, a ditch full of water,
being plumbed by at least one sportsman. Colonel Lockwood, on his new
chestnut, was going very well, also Mr. R. Lockwood on " Bull's Eye,"
Mr. Philby and Mr. C. Green.

A very uninviting-looking morning, raining hard and blowing half a gale
when Meek drove over with me to the meet at Hatfield Heath, on Saturday,
November 2Sth. Few out, and most of them in mufti and flying the Blue
Peter, a sign of the approching election. Finding at once m Wall Wood
the fox went straight through it, but coming back led us in a perfectly
straight line for about 5 miles over Barrington Park up to Broomshaw
Bury in 40 minutes, when, changing, we ran back to the Forest by Canfield

• N.B. — Note from Mr. R. Lockwood's Diary : " ' Bull's Eye ' don't like this
country — falls every day."

8

OVER THE SAW PIT

115

Hart, got on to another, and chopped him after running i hour and 20
minutes.

From Takeley Street Coppice to the Hart, Bullock's Wood, and over
the line into Dunmow High Woods, we followed a traveller and pulled
him down in the open within a mile of Blue Gates, at 4 p.m. Home with
Meek by Four Ashes, a good 20 minutes' hack. Quite a blue-letter day,
Pleshey, Dec. 5th, when the enthusiastic labourers unhorsed Sir Henry's
carriage and dragged the most popular Member in Essex to the meet. Two
runs of an hour each — the first from Israel's, the second from Boyton
Springs — leaving off near Bush Wood, fitly marking the approaching close
of Sir Henry's triumphant reign as M.F.H. Home with Ball^ by Willingale.

Monday, December 7th, Myless Lodge. A perfect hunting day for
Essex, a dull grey sky and easterly wind. Found at once in Courtfield
W^ood, crossed the road and tore down the hill to the brook at the bottom,
R. Wood, Bailey and Wesley in single file over the next two or three
fences. Rising the hill they jumped into the road out of a kitchen garden
straight on, hounds going very fast ; a satv pit was taken without warning,
another steep drop into a lane, and hounds bore sharp to the left, running on
at a great pace over Jericho Park, where Mr. R. Lockwood on " Friar "
came to grief. Crossing a narrow lane without checking over a very
cramped country, reached Horsfrith Park in 55 minutes. From the
Menagerie to Curtis Mill Green, the fox swimming the river, brought
a very good day to a close. A sharp frost setting in in the evening, skating
was in full swing on Chingford Lake on Saturday, Dec. 12th, and in less than
forty-eight hours the Essex Hounds were running a fox from Galley Hills
to Barbers, having brought him by Spratts Hedgerow very fast through
the Forest by Theydon Villas, where unluckily the huntsman got separated
ixova the hounds. Slow hunting marked the rest of the run by Gardiner's
Farm and Coopersale Hall up to Barber's, and a burst of 15 minutes, a
ring from Orange Wood finishing off near Wintry Wood, the finish of the
day.

Another breakfast at Down Hall on Saturday, December igth, Sir
Henry and Lady Selwin Ibbetson giving a hearty welcome to all comers,
numerous as they were. The following names occur : — -Colonel Lock-
wood, Sir T, Fowell Buxton, the Revs. F. A. S. Fane, S. Slocock, and L.
Capel-Cure with Miss Cure, and Rev. P. H. Powell, Mr. and Mrs. Follett,
Mr. R. Bevan, Mr. Glyn, junr., Mrs. and the Misses Glyn, Mr. A. and
the Misses Caldecott, Mr. and Mrs. A. and the Misses Deacon, Mrs. J. D.
and the Misses Hill, Mr. J. Todhunter, Mr. S. Chisenhale-Marsh, Miss
Chisenhale-Marsh, Major and Mrs. Tait, Major and the Misses Tower, Mr.
and Mrs. L. W. Arkwright, Mr. L. J. W. Arkwright, Mr. C. E. Green,
Messrs. Charrington (2), Messrs. C. and J. Pelly, Mr. C. J. Bury, Mr.
A. Capel-Cure, Mr. A. Suart, Mr. and Mrs. Bowlby, Mr. and Mrs. Waters,
Mr. and Mrs. Walmsley, Mr. Roffey, Mr. A. K. Wyllie, Mr. Ball, Mr. H.
Stevenson, Mr. Marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Keppel, Mr. and Mrs. Harris,
Mr. W. and the Misses Harris, and Messrs. G. Poole, T. Howard,
H. Rumney, Sidney Clements, T. W. Rowland, G. Hart, J. Ross, J. J.
Green, G. Willis and Son, H. Hine, H. J. Lines, L Kirkby, W. Kirkby,
W. Smith (Bishop Stortford), F. G. Unwin, W. Bambridge, P. Tibbies,
W. Milbank, F. Milbank (Garnish Hall), T. J. Mills, S. Neave, Meek,
H. Sworder (Tawney Hall), J. Wilson (Enfield), Arnold W. Poole, junr.,

'Mr. Ned Ball flatters himself that leaving off anywhere in the Roothings
within 20 miles of home, he can give the short cut of any road map, a stone and a
beating. — Ed,

LADY BETTY T I 7

H. S. King, J. Eldred, F. Cooper, Elvin, W. H. Littler, J. H. Harris,
and others.

Mr. R. Lockwood writes:— "Sir Henry tried to give us the slip and
partially succeeded, for they found at once, and went away a rattling pace
at the bottom across the river up to Gladwyns, turned to the right by
Broke's House past Quick Wood to Hyde Hall Springs on to Wallbury
Dell. Here we had our first check of ten minutes — horses wanted it and
many of those left behind would never have caught us without it. A boy
gave us the tip, and we ran to the Sewage Farm and Latchmore Banks
back into Takeley, through the forest nearly up to Hatfield Heath into
view, but," &c., &c.'''

After a capital run of an hour from Apes Grove on Monday, Dec. 21st,
we finished up with a clinker from the Osiers at Passingford Bridge, running
up to Havering through Mr. Pemberton Barnes' garden. They came back
and pulled the fox down in the open, and very black he looked before they
nailed him near Crane's Wood. Mr. C. F. McKee riding his well known
horse " Bill Richmond," Mr. R. Lockwood on " Friar," had decidedly the
best of it as they led nearly all the way, the former hopping over the
parapet out of Pyrgo Park Garden with a big drop beyond as if it were a
sheep hurdle.

Monday, January 4th, Hatfield Heath. For the third time this season
this fixture was marked by a wet day ; we killed a brace and ran two to
ground. It was in the second run near Takeley Forest that Miss M. Glyn,
riding " Lady Betty," had the misfortune to break her arm.

Having to go up to town on the morning of Monday, Jan. iSth, I missed
a very fast run from Blake Hall to Fyfield. The fox funked crossing the
river, which was very deep, and was killed. Mr. R. Lockwood said no
one got away with the hounds except Bailey, but luckily I was in time to
come across hounds in full cry in Ongar Park, and to come out with the
huntsman and a dozen others, as running bang through Beachett's hounds
struck the open below Mount Kiln brick fields. As we rode down the steep
Mount hill they were on our right, but crossed the road between Jordan's
Farm and Barber's Wood, and then swinging away towards the village
took us over our favourite brook near Pegrams, into which the Major f went
and where his horse remained for some time. Not a check until we had
passed Mr. Blott's Farm (now Mr. Flux's), Coopersale Hall. Turning back
over Stew Green, hounds crossed the railway below Mr. Fitch's by them-
selves and spoke to their fox in a drain at Theydon Grove. Another going
away, a good deal of care had to be exercised by the huntsman to avoid
the spiked palings. I Taking it over the road into Watson's, now Ginger's
Wood, at the end of an hour he was lost in Ongar Park, by which time it
was freezing hard. With snow on the ground and frost and fog in the
air, they met at Willingale at 12 o'clock on Wednesday, January 27th, the
following being out :— Mr. and Mrs. Bowlby, Mr. Sheftield Neave, Col.
Lockwood and his brother, Mr. Edward Ind, Mr. Tyndale White, Mr. K.
E. Jones, and Messrs. Kemp (2), R. Ball, A. Suart, J. Walmesly and
Roffey. The sport was not so good as the company, and calls for no special
mention. Saturday, Jan. 30th, Bay's Grove to Eastwick after 4 p.m. was
a gallop above the average, though the river threw us out.

Wednesday, February 23rd. I remember well Mr. R. Lockwood
telling me that one of the best days he ever had in his life (his diary says
" quite the best day I have ever seen in my life ") was the snowy Saturday,

* The rest of this sentence must be looked for in the next edition.— £'<-;'.
t Major Tait. t Subsequently Mr. Green had these all defended by boards.

Il8 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

February 3rd, at White Roothing. I cannot do better than give the par-
ticulars of it in Mr. Lockwood's own words:—

" Snowing hard, but no frost : I started on ' Friar ' for White Roothing,
and arrived rather late, but in time to see them find in Poplars and run with
their heads up for ten minutes without a check in a ring to High Roothing,
where we killed a fox, but the body went on with our hunted fox, and right
up to Hatfield Grange, where he was headed and turned back through Row
Wood, on across the Hatfield road over a lovely country up to Canfield
Hart without a check. Here we must have changed (our hunted fox going
on towards Bullock Springs). We, however, ran into the Forest and broke
up our first fox. Miss North went uncommonly well on Keppel's ' Rat-tail.'
' Friar ' carried me splendidly, and Bambridge went A i on a little chest-
nut ; twenty men went very straight and hard in this run of one hour and
ten minutes. Drew Row Wood again, and found at once. Going away for
Broomshaw Bury a tremendous pace they, unluckily for me, turned bang
away, and I never caught them till we crossed the Hatfield and Grange road.
We then flew to Hatfield Heath to ground at Down Hall, thirty-five minutes
without a check. Found again in Man Wood, ran nearly up to White
Roothing, headed by Usborne, who was going home, back into Man Wood,
through without a check to Brick Kilns on to Moreton by Little Laver, High
Laver, nearly up to Tyler's Green. Here''- the honest old ' Friar ' shut up,
and I had to leave them with only four men still going — Loftus, Bailey,
Charley, and Forester Colvin. They ran past Belgium Springs to Moor
Hall, and whipped off, all dead beat, one hour ten minutes. I got home
safely, and ' Grey ' was all right next day."

Saturday, February 6th. Following a meet at Roxwell, when the frost
was not out of the ground, we had a very fast run from the Spinney below
Screen's Park over the Writtle road nearly to Blackmore, coming back
much the same line, thirty-five minutes without a check. Col. Lockwood
was going very well on " Birdcatcher " and had three couple of hounds all
to himself for some way. It was the last ride on my favourite hunter,
" Bosphoras," for he broke down, and it was only by borrowing a horse
from Mr. Alger at Moreton that I was able to reach home that night ; it
was freezing hard at 8.3c. Poor old chap, four and a half seasons had he
carried me faithfully, and he went back to his former master's kennels. t
Two weeks previously I had refused almost as much as I had given for him
— it was perhaps as well, for he had about stood his time. The runs seem
to be coming in the afternoon then, for we had a real A i thirty-five minutes
with a kill in the open after mid-day on Monday, February 22nd. Taking
our fox from Crane's Wood we ran through Hainault Forest and killed close
to Claybury, a six-mile point, Mr. A. Darby going right to the front in the
run, and when it was over several found their way to his house for refresh-
ment for themselves and their steeds.

Monday, February 15th. Edney Common the meet. Lady Grove the
find. The line. Parsons Springs, Fryerning, Thoby, Doddinghurst,
Stondon, returning by Blackmore High Woods — two and a-half hours,
always going. Have you forgotten this run, Mr. Neave? If so, I remem-
ber the wonderful grey polo pony you owned at that time and the way it
carried you. Mr. Jones, too, will remember this run.

Saturday, February 20th. High Roothing. A large meet, and all in
a desperate hurry {viiie R. Lockwood's diary). Lady Brooke in a red tunic,
Charlie Beresford and Onslow were our " d — d strangers," as Bailey called

-■■ I wonder he got as far. The other men must have had two horses apiece out. — Ed.
t Mr. R. R. Colvin, who kept Beagles at Monkhams at that time.

AIJ-RKl) I)ARl;\'

119

'em. From (iarnett's to Canfield Thrift, and back to ground in 35 min.
Hounds shamefully pressed, &c.

Mr. Darby now hunts with the Union. One of the most
sudden colds I ever caught came on from partaking of Mr.
Darbv's hos})itahty when he lived at Chigvvell, after we had
killed a fox in that country at the end of a rattling forty
minutes' hunt. The sparkling ale from the cool cellar was
delicious, but too chilling after the hot gallop. I understand
now why Hunt servants like " Dog's nose."' I wish that Mr.
Darby was back in the old country, and that I could try it
again under the same auspices.

Alfred Darby on "The Cat"

My diary notes that hounds had a very good run from Ongar Park on
Wednesday, Feb. 24th. Owing to very sharp frost they did not turn up
before twelve. Found at once in the big woods ; owing to the hard state of
the ground, I took things a bit too easy, and so was left behind. Mr. Lock-
wood, however, has another song to sing, another tale to tell, and you
shall have it verbatim.

" Met at Toot Hill, found in Ongar Park, and ran to Gaynes across
through the Beachetts to Shalesmore, across the Stanford brook to Free-

Ale with a dash of gin in it.

J

1 20 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

man's Farm ; this was all slow hunting across the river to Navestock,
Kelvedon Hall, Bois Hall, and Summer House, back to Shonks Mill, still j
slow, with some quick flashes along the river to Palmer's farm across nearly ^^j^yd
to Curtis Mill Green, but not into it, and over the Navestock road to Gilston /^-^
up to the Dagenham Warren. Here we had a long check, owing to some
gas lime, and nearly lost. Going to a holloa forward we heard that this
wonderful fox was ten minutes ahead, so on through Dargenham Park down
to the Romford road, and parallel with it almost up to Upminster and
Havering road, but turned to the right over all that beautiful grass up to
Bedfords and through Pyrgo Park, where we were gaining on him fast ;
crossing the road to Havering down to the Osier Beds, and here we saw our
noble sportsman going like a drunken man straight for Hainault Forest.
I here did rather a sly trick, but think I was right ; seeing Bailey's horse
was dead beat, and that he couldn't lift hounds, I rode wide towards the
Forest and waited for our fox ; he came gamely up to me, then turned and
met his foes like a man, and died, I believe, before a hound touched him.
I have never seen a fox more completely done. Time, three hours and hve
minutes ; only one real check. Rode " Bull's Eye," who was as fresh at the
end as the beginning.

The Essex Hounds have been able to resume operations to the satis-
faction of all, for have not all farming operations been at a standstill for
nearly a month owing to the frost ? But alas, the season of 1885-86, the
best on record, is within measurable distance of its end.

At Stebbing, Bran End, on Friday, March 19th, owing to lack of
anything approaching scent, they had but an indifferent day's sport. On
Saturday, at Passingford Bridge, they fared scarcely better. Before
throwing off, a meeting of the members of the Essex Hunt Club was held
at Passingford Bridge to elect members and to settle the conditions of the
Point-to-point races which are to come off on the 27th, in the Roothings,
when two events will be decided. Of these, one is the Red Coat Race to
be ridden by the members of the Essex Hunt Club, two prizes being
offered, one to the first not carrying less than 14 stone, and the other to
the first not carrying less than 12 stone, over about four-and-a-half miles
of fair hunting country, with rumours of a piece de rcsistauce in the shape
of the High Easter Brook, but as Mr. Gladstone said : " we must not
believe rumours." There are the same conditions for the Farmers' Race
with the exception of weights 12 stone 7 lbs. being the dividing line. A
luncheon to which all the farmers and occupiers of land in the hunt are
invited is to be provided. These races are extremely popular with the
farmers, whether hunting men or not ; it will be a great pity if they are
allowed to die out. But this is a wide digression from Saturday's work,
almost as wide as the country we drew through before finding. But March
is a funny time of the year to find a fox, and a still funnier one in which
to kill him when found.

Hill Hall Coverts were reached with scarcely an incident to charm
away the monotomy of covert after covert being drawn blank, unless a
thick set cob rolling over with its rider in the middle of a ploughed field and
a good loohing-chestnut showing its ignorance of an Essex bank might be
deemed such ; and the field had grown very lethargic when a view holloa
near the Park paling sent the hounds racing forward, and all was bustle
and excitement. "Hold your noise!" was a timely warning from the
first whip, as half a score of foot people were ready to take up the cry,
and the hounds were excited enough already. Bailey, followed by Messrs.
Miller and Sworder, made for the hand-gate leading into the drive, a
narrow outlet for the pent-up throng.

HARRY SWORDER

121

As we got through as best we could we found to our dismay that the
lodge gate was locked, and the park railings scarcely jumpable. Hurrah !
as luck would have it, up came a man with a key ; what a time he seemed
to take opening the gate, yet it was scarce a minute since our fox was
viewed. Hounds had thrown up near the road opposite Mr, Macrae's
Farm, but hitting it off again they swept along like a prairie fire and
raced up the hill, leaving Beachetts on the left, through a small plantation
at the corner of which Mr. Sworder on his young 'un carried away a
hand-gate and a gentleman in mufti rattled the rails on the left into the
plough beyond, on through another small spinney, over the large fields,
and hounds threw up near Berwick lane. I3ailey cast them forward, and
once more getting on the line they run well up to Toot Hill and lost their
fox at the top end of Ongar Park Woods. A few more coverts were drawn
without result, but hunting's sweet memories were refreshed and horses
conditioned.

Harry Sworder

Worthy son of a worthy father, the late William Sworder,
of Tawney Hall. No name figures more frequently in these
pages than Harry .Sworder's. No better rider, no better
sportsman, or more popular man shall you meet with in the
Essex country. Thanks to his good judgment, fine horseman-
ship, and even temper, he is very successful with the young
'uns, upon whose backs he gets most of his sport. Any horse
that has been in Harry Sworder's hands for one season with
the E.H. is eagerly sought after. Shalesmore, a covert on
his land, is almost as sure a find as Tawney Hall —

122 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

to the thirsty and huno-ry sportsman homeward bound — and
that is saying a great deal, Mr. Sworder no more taking a " no "
to his welcome hospitality than a refusal from a young horse.
Long may he and his live and Nourish at Tawney Hall.

On Wednesday, March 24th, we met at High House, Harlow. The
meet was well attended, but one and all seemed to think it was much too
hot for sport. This idea did not lose any of its force, when at the very
start the hounds could not touch the line of a fox which was put up on
the land of that staunch preserver of foxes and good sportsman, Mr.
Matthews, of Harlow Bury.

I think also we were all depressed at the sad death of poor Miss
Deacon. I say sad, for it is sad when one so bright, so young, so kind,
should be snatched from the midst of us. Her parents have the sincerest
sympathy, in their great trial, of all the members of the Essex Hunt.

After trying the Osiers near the canal we came back to Moor Hall, then
on to the Mark Hall coverts, via Barnsleys, where there were a leash
on foot, one of which they took past Barnsleys and ran to ground near
Foster Street.

They then worked on to Harlow Park. While drawing it, a light
sandy-coloured fox made his way over from Latton Park. The hounds
were soon on his line and he made tracks back for Latton, where after
a short interval he broke in the direction of Latton Street, taking us over
Harlow Bush Common and away at a good pace to Vicarage Wood and
over Mark Hall Park, Mr. Colvin leading the field over the haha into
it ; on very fast over the park, over the Harlow Road (and, curiously
enough, over a field dressed with gas lime) hounds drove along over several
pastures, a sunken post and rail at the end of the last one proving
an effectual barrier to a wciglit-carryinf^ black and a light-weight grey, to
ground close to Harlow town, about half way between the George and
Great Eastern Railway, time 40 minutes from finding, Mr. Rider, the
hospitable host of the George, brought out refreshments, of which a good
many availed themselves. W^eir Hatches was tried without finding;
eii route to Parndon W^oods a fox jumped up, and led us a dance by
Parndon Hall through its shrubberies, from which time he was seldom out
of view until the hounds ran him into Weir Hatches ; but if Mr. R,
Wood had not jumped off his horse and run to the earths he would have
saved his brush.

Some men are born huntsmen, and it was a fine piece of finesse. Our
friend had nothing left but to face the open, or the railway and canal.
He chose the former, to his destruction, and was pulled down after a nice
little gallop. A very satisfactory day's work for March. Two to ground
and a third killed.

Managed to land " Badger, '"'= a horse Mr. Walmesley had given me, in
the first six in the Red Coat race at High Easter on March 27th, and
afterwards rode him in a very good 20 minutes (which speaks well for
his stamina) with a fox we put up in the open near Margaret Roothing,
which after taking us through Berners and Screens was pulled down in a
hop garden.

March 31st. Met in the High Street, Epping. A day so windy and
rough that the whole of the Hunt, hounds, huntsman and all, were driven
to seek shelter from a violent storm in Mr. Wederell's Farm. But the

* " Badger." This horse, before Mr. Walmesley bough him, won a point-to-point
in the Blackmore \'ale. — Ed.

SIR IIKNRY ON " MULTU.M IN PARVO 1 23

gallop from below Spratts Hedgerow, by Ball Hill over the Bury land to
the Warren, was worth staying out for.

Saturday, April 3rd. — -Met at Harlow Common, the going very heavy
and the leaf in the hedgerows.

Among those out on Saturday, April 3, at Harlow Common I noticed
the Master riding " Phantom," Mrs. Arkwright, Major, Mrs., and Miss Tait,
Mr. and Mrs. Waters, Mr. and the Misses Caldecott (2), Mr. and INIrs. C.
E. Green, Mr. and Mrs. Keppel, the Rev. L. Capel-Cure and his daughter,

Sir Henry on " Multum in Parvo'

Mr. R. B. and Miss Colvin, Lady Brooke, the Misses Glyn (2), Miss Oliver,
the Rev. F. Fane, Mr. Todhunter, Mr. G. Hart, Mr. Bury, Mr. H.
Sworder, Mr. J. Gingell, Mr. Green, Mr. Harris, Mr. Elder, Mr. Suart,
Mr. Horner, Mr. Jones, Mr. Follett, Capt. White, Mr. E. Barclay, Messrs.
Pelly (2), Messrs. E. and R. Ball, Mr. Chisenhale Marsh, Mr. Byng, Mr.
Sheffield Neave, Lord Charles Beresford, Messrs. Roffey, Charrington (2),
Kemp (2), Dickinson (2), Crosse, Parrot, Blackborne, C. F., M'Kee, Dent,
Bambridge, Harris, Hill, and Rowland.

After an indifferent morning's sport we arri\ed at Deer Park, where

124

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

they found a brace, one fox going away towards Copped Hall, the other
towards Nasing Coppice, fiounds were laid on to the line of the latter,
and they ran fairly fast towards Nasing Coppice, entering at the bottom
end of it. By the time several of us found ourselves well in the middle of
it and our horses up to their hocks in the boggy track we were traversing,
we could hear a holloa away at the top end. Mr. C. E. Green extricated
us out of the difficuly by turning sharp to the left down a narrow pathway
and jumping over a boggy and trappy place on to Nasing Common ; but
there was no great hurry, for scent was never good, but hounds made the
best of it, and the field revelled in the luxury while it lasted of some nice
grass fields properly and judiciously fenced, with hounds just going fast
enough to make craning a sin and gap-shoving immoral.

Andrew Caldecott

Ball Hill was reached, and "Bambridge" brushed over the rails in the
corner without touching a bar ; the showy-looking chesnut's education was
rapidly improving in the hands of a workman. He was one of the first
to cross the road with hounds as they ran full cry through the remainder
of the wood. A couple of colts belonging to me which were turned out in a
wood skirting Ball Hill for the si'LOiid time -u'itliin a u'cek showed their par-
tiality for hounds by joining in the chase, the consequence being that they
were returned on my hands next day with a polite note from the farmer
declining to keep them any longer ; by the bye, they do not seem any the
worse for their adventures.

AN' DREW CAT.DIX-OTT

125

Mr. Caldecott nuist ha\c IninU-d wiih the I'^ssex Hounds
al^oLit 45 vears, ha\iiH4' been a regular follower of them in the
time of Mr. Con\-ers. Until he came to Fishobin"y in 1865, he
used to send his horses to Oni^'ar or elsewhere over-nig-ht, and
drive on from W'ootlford. Mr. Caldecott was a very good judge
of a horse, and always rode a compact, well-bred animal about
15.3. He was noted for his geniality, whether in the hunting-

Miss Maud M. Caldecott on "Mickey"

field or at home, and in his faultless get-up was the envy and
admiration of all the dandies of the hunt. Better still,' he
always had foxes at Pishobury, and many a time have we run
over the border in the good old days when he lived there.
And if frostdDound, who ever gave a heartier welcome to the
skaters, or who ever defeated more bandy teams that ventured
to challeno-e them than Mr. Caldecott's family?

126

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

" Mickey " was Miss Maude Caldecott's favourite hunter,
and no wonder, for when this portrait was taken he had carried
her twelve seasons, and durino- that time had given her only five
falls. Equally at home in Leicestershire or Essex, Miss
Caldecott's lather made a g-ood purchase when he bought
"Mickey," at six, off from Mr. John Darby in '85, fresh imported
from Galway. It is only during the last few^ years, however, that
Miss Caldecott has hunted in Leicestershire, and, alas ! that I
should have to record it, on one of the days that I met her at
the covert side with the Pytchley Hounds, she confessed that
the g-rass countries pleased her most ; but I did not assent when
she hazarded the opinion that she dare not face the Roothing
ditches again, for I vividly recalled that there was no lady who,
in a quick burst or hunting run, could cross them better than
she did on her faxourite hunter " Mickey."

rV'l

A Meet at Copped Hall Lodge Gates

The last day op the season, 1886, one of, if not tlie best on record, will
remain ei'een in the memories of those who partoolc of its pleasures when
other things have faded and withered away. Indeed, hunting is something
more than the sweet intoxication of the moment, and cold- blooded indeed
must be the man who cannot recall with vivid joy the runs in which he has
taken part when, with a good start and well mounted, hounds ran with a
scent breast high. But few of our joys are unalloyed, and in this case the
last day of the season that has just passed away will have its lustre dimmed
when we remember that it witnessed the termination of the mastership of
one who had endeared himself to all ; yes, Sir Henry will carry away the
heartfelt thanks and best wishes of all those — and their name is legion —
who have enjoyed sport under his iirm but gentle sway, and their sorrowing
regret at losing him.

Among those who assembled at Copped Hall Lodge on Wednesday,
the 14th April, to see the curtain fall on the final scene of the season 1886

OBELISK WOOD

127

were Sir T. I-'owell Ikixton, Major and Mrs. Tait, Mr. C. E. and Mrs.
Green, Mr. R. B. Colvin and Mrs. Farnell Watson, Rev. F. Fane,
Mrs. Waters, Mr. Sands, Mr. Sheffield Neave, Mr. Bury, Sir Lumley
Graham, Mr. J. Harris, Mr. J. V. Walmsley, Mr. Suart, Mr. G. Hart,
Mr. Caldecott, Mr. Green (of Parndon), Mr. Pemberton Barnes, Messrs.
J. and C. Pelly, Messrs. Frank StaUibrass and Charley M'Kee, on two
good-looking polo ponies, Captain Campbell, Mr. H. Savill, Mr. Maxwell,
Mr. T. Carr, Capt. White, Mr. S. Chisenhale Marsh, Mr. Parkes, Messrs.
Ball (2), Ridley, Hargreaves, Kemp, Shorter, Sewell, Crosse, Banibridge,
Shelly, Meek, Barnes and Rowland.

Those who had speculated on a morning in the Forest were not
disappointed when Bailey trotted oft' with the hounds in the direction of
W^arlies. Reaching the Park, a hollow tree, which had afforded a sanctum

#^

;,;',V,- i.h\'-':%wT'^m

^p;. 'iil-.,^t,^^-/^.

^^'^.^.

msi "■' ''

'j^^^.

Obelisk Wood

to a hunted fox at the end of last season, was first made good, and in
leisurely order we approached" Obelisk Wood, a snug little covert, taking
its name, no doubt, from the obelisk which stands within its shade. The
keeper who looks after this (I believe it is one of Sir Fowell Buxton's
coverts) deserves a gold medal, for did we not find one of the finest litters
of cubs hounds ever dispersed on Monday, September 21st, one of which
gave us a delightful gallop to Galley-hill ? And here, on the last day of
the season, a fine dog fox went away, much the same line.

A narrow handgate at the side of the wood let us through, quite fast
enough, to feed the gap in the second fence, a widish ditch with hedge on
far side. Mr. Colvin, on the Enfield chaser, disdained the gap and scored
a lead. No second glance at hounds wanted to tell you they were running.
Bearing sharp to the right, some half-dozen fields brought us down to
the road, where there was a slight check. A cast from Bailey set them

125 LEA\'ES FROM A IlI'NTINC; DIARY

all right, and for the next t\vent3--five minutes hounds required no further
assistance as they ran, through Shatter Bushes, and turning sharp to
the left favoured those who turned with them, for at the pace they were
going, as a good many of us found out who went round the top end of
Shatter Bushes, there was no catching them until they had reached Nasing
Coppice in twenty minutes.

The day was close and moist, and horses had not time to get their
wind before our fox was away again with hounds close to him, doing his
best to reach Galley Hill, but being dead beat, he turned sharp to the left,
out of the green ride, and in two fields found refuge in an earth in a narrow
plantation, scarce his own length in front of hounds. Thirty-five minutes
from the start. Two yapping little terriers were then brought on the

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Spratts Hedgerow

scene, which their owner, in language more forcible than polite, declared
would soon fetch him out, but their bark was worse than their bite, for
they failed to accomplish it.

What a covert Galley Hill is ! Scarce were hounds in before another
dog fox was flying for his life. Headed in his first attempt to break
toward Monkhams, he bore up the hill and broke as if for Deer Park, but,
turning sharp back, went at such a pace through the wood that all but a
lucky few were left behind with such a deplorable start that they could
never catch hounds again imtil they had pulled their fox down in Warlies
Park. Taking the road under the brow of Galley Hill for about three
hundred yards, they left it to turn up towards Monkhams at a rattling pace.
The ground was heavy and holding, so no wonder Bailey's horse whipped
round at a high bank with hairy fence on top. A chesnut" came at it,

Mr. Crosse's.

TIIK END OF THE SEASON 12^9

but — hang it ! — was over, scarcely displacing a twig. Luckily the next
comer, a bay, made a hole big enough to sink a decent sized ship and let
us through safely. Crossing a lane near the Osiers, hounds checked on a
plough, and a lot of people driving on the Waltham Road with commen-
dable judgment stood still while Bailey made his cast over it. They were
on again, and coming down to the Cobbin's brook ran its margin for a
couple of fields, crossed and raced into their fox in the boundary fence of
Warlies Park, seventeen minutes on the grass, " with only that one little
check upon the plough boys."

Deer Park was another moral, but a fox away from it in the direction
you wanted him was quite another thing. We were in luck, however, for he
broke over the lane near Mr. Carr's and crossed into Shatter Bushes, and
taking very much the same line as our first fox, brought us to Nasing
Coppice at a clipping pace. But he had no friend there to help him, and,
scarcely believing it could be true, hounds were out, that grand young
hound " Banker " leading, and racing over the grass, the very same line, no
doubt the very same fox, we ran on April 3.

The pace was a cracker, Bailey, Messrs. Hargreaves, R. Ball, and
Capt. White were going in front, not a fall or refusal, and in the same order
crossed the road which divides Ball Hill and runs up to Parvell's Farm.

" Bellman," that good hound, staunch and true, had the lead out of
Ball Hill. Leaving Sprait's Hedgerow on the left, and Copped Hall on
the right, they lead us very fast over this good scenting country, through
the wood near New Farm and up the hill to the Forest, entering it at its
nearest point to Epping ; they skimmed along the Theydon side, leaving
us all in the lurch.

The field galloped blindly, frantically down the hill through Theydon
Bois. Turning to the right, up the Forest road, and reaching the outskirts
of Theydon village, we heard that hounds had streamed past like a rocket
five minutes to the good. Some of us, including Chisenhale Marsh rode
on, staking all on hounds having gone to Loughton Shaws, but the further
we rode the further we were left behind. Others more fortunate, with
Bailey, hit off a ride to the right, which led straight up to the gorse near
Luffman's, Golding's Hill, where they caught a glimpse of hounds running
towards the Robin Hood. Getting up to them, the hunted fox was viewed
over the road just in front of hounds, a fresh fox crossing at the same time,
and going the same line, hounds got on the fresh one's track, but he had
not stood up for an hour or more in front of hounds ; a cool jacket and
the bad scenting ground of the Forest baffled hounds, and scent died away.
Near the Wake Arms Bailey reluctantly had to relinquish the joy of
adding another scalp to his saddle bow and the long list of trophies which
have made this season so famous. ■ Ninety-four times have hounds been out,
27^ brace have they killed, and 17 brace run to ground.

Parndon Hall

CHAPTER V.

Loftus Arliwvight — A Fatal Tliundcvstorm — Wet Odobev — Matching Green, 1886 —
James Duke Hill — Canficld Hart — The Melton Doctor — Kniglit of Kars —
T. Ushorne — The Diinmoiv Clothier— A Cat and Mustard-pot Day — Harlon'
Bush Common — Dobhs Wood — The Skewbald Horse — St. Leonard's, Nasing —
William Sivorder — Shalesmore — Xmas Eve, 1886 — A Long Frost — Matching
Green, 1887 — The Knight of the Black Cap — The Great Stag Run on Xmas
Eve, 1887 — Unrivalled Sport— George Brown — Snarl's Caress— Bye Days —
Bentley Mill— The Surrey Deer—F. Avila—Matching Green, iSSS—The
Kind Samaritan — Canfi eld Mount — The Kildare Flyer — Tlie Stranger Scores —
Canjield Thrift — The Wake Arms— Penned in the Warren — A Fence we don't
get in Essex.

T OFTUS W. ARKWRIGHT was a good deal better
JL/ known to the older members of the Hunt than to me,
tor I only knew him even if I look back 20 years, when he
was no lon<4"er able to ride, but he dearly liked to discuss
huntino- with anyone who was out, and had a wonderful knack
of seeing a run from his carriage.

Well versed in all the difficulties that beset farming opera-
tions (for did he not, when living at Rundells, farm Maries Farm
himself?), he was a man after the farmer's own heart ; very little
grumbling was heard when he held the reins of office, but
very wide and sincere regret was expressed when he re-
lincjuished them.

Owing to a domestic bereavement, ni3'liunting notes of the season '86-87,
which saw Mr. C. K. Green in charge as Field Master, were not com-
menced before October, when I find that on the i6th of that month, after
driving over with him to a y o'clock October meet at Good Easter, we had a
capital morning's sport, killing a fine cub in the open, and getting caught in
a tremendous storm afterwards. It was not so bad as the one by which we
were overtaken four days later, when the Master drove Mrs. Waters and
self over to a 10 o'clock meet at Hatfield Heath, when a poor fellow was

T.OFTUS W. ARKWRKIIIT I3I

killed close to us by a flash of lightning, and we were exposed to the full
fury of the storm for about an hour, and an effectual stop was put to all
further proceedings. Wet October as the fourth time running, we were
all soaked through at the Coopersale meet on tlie 23rd. Plenty of cubs, but
no sport.

Among those present at Matching Green in 1886 were Sir Henry and
Lady Selwin Ibbetson, Mr. and Mrs. L. W. Arkwright and Mr. L. J. W.

Loftus W. Arkwright

Arkwright, Lord and Lady Brooke, Mr. and Mrs. C. E. Green, Colonel
Lockwood and Mr. Robert Wood, Major and Mrs. Tait, Colonel Wode-
house, Mr. Hervey Foster, Mr W. S. Chisenhale Marsh, Miss Gosling,
the Rev. F Fane, the Rev. J. J. Baker, the Rev. P. H. Powell, the Rev.
R. L. and Mrs. Scott, Mr. Baillie Hamilton, Mr. and Mrs. A. and the
Misses Caldecott, Mr. E. Ethelston, Mrs. and the Misses Glyn, Mr. J. D.
and Mr. Reginald Hill, Messrs. E. and R. Ball, R. Y. Bevan, Mr. and Mrs.

132

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

Tyndale White, Mr. Drummond Cunliffe Smith, Mr. and Mrs. Todhunter,
Messrs. Ridley, Mr., Mrs. and Miss Dawson, INIr. and Mrs. Waters, Mr. F.
Green, Mr. and Mrs. Bowlby, Mrs. S. C. Charrin<:(ton, Mr. H. Charrington,
Mr. Cecil Colvin, Mr. Arthur Capel Cure, Mr. Edwards, Mr. Walmsley,
Mr. and Mrs. Keppell, Miss Fort, Mr. Melles, Mr. St. Maur, Mr. H. G.
Heneage and Mr. Wilson (Hyde Park), Mr. and Mrs. J. and the Misses
Harris, Mr. Crosse, Mr. Sedgewick, Mr. Longbourne, Mr. H. E. Jones,
Mr. Tower, Mr. G. Hart, Messrs. Gingell, Mr. Wm. Sworder, Mr. Henry
Sworder and Mr. F. Sworder (Great Hallingbury), Mr. B. Dickinson, Mr.
Wyllie, Mr. S. S. Poole, Mr. W. and Miss Smith (Bishop Stortford), Mr.
John Miller (Bishop Stortford), Mr. J. S. Brunskill, Messrs. G. and G. H.
Harris, Messrs. Littler, Mr. P. Tippler and Mr. J. Webb.

James Duke Hill

Reggie Hill's father, James Duke Hill, hunted regularly
with the Essex Foxhounds, of which he was a staunch supporter,
from 1866 to 1886. He always rode a good horse, and always
rode straight — on one occasion too straight, for he jumped
slap into a pond, and got a very nasty ducking.

A brace to hand, one of which afforded a good run of forty-five minutes,
is no mean performance on the opening day. Mr. Arkwright, our Master,

CANFIELD HART

T33

his huntsman, Bailey, and his aides-de-camp Cockayne and Champion, and
last but not least, our field-master, Mr. C. E. Green, are to be congratulated
on such a successful commencement. Someone else must relate particulars
of this eventful day, where they went, how they went, how they fell, and
how they felt after falling. I am alluding now, of course, to the mighty
Nimrods and graceful Dianas who never miss the opening meet. I can
only venture to take liberties with a few names of the fifty odd who
mustered on the following Wednesday at the " Axe and Compasses," near
High Roothing Street, on a day by no means inviting from a sporting point
of view — a rising wdnd and a falling glass, with every appearance of a wet
jacket before night.

Canfield Hart

High Roothing, Springs, and Canfield Thrift for once belied their
reputation, but their near neighbour, Canfield Hart, held at least a
leash, some said two brace, to make amends for the previous draw. Two
stole away while hounds were busy with a third, who made but an ignoble
struggle for his life ; about two turns up and down the Hart, a short circle
in the open, back to the Cottage near the Wood, finished him and lunched
the hounds. By the bye, w^hich do hounds prefer, to race into their
fox in twenty-five minutes or cook him in one hour and fifty? Do you
know Wilson's Springs ? If not, let me tell you that it is not three
miles from Takeley Forest, nor is it three miles from Canfield Hart,
neither was it drawn blank this Wednesday. Breaking on the opposite
side to the Forest, our fox crossed the road and led us a merry dance up
wind, and circling round reached the Springs again, and disappeared.
That fifteen minutes was very nice, very fast, and allowed very little time
for looking at fences, though plenty for plumbing their depths.

Let me warn strangers that Mr. Balls's chesnut horse is as dangerous
to follow as the celebrated Doctor of Melton renown — how after going three
or four fields he swept over a blind yawner and how Mr. Arkwright,

134 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

following in his wake, got over after a struggle, which sent the rest of us
right and left to pick an easier place ; how two fields further, the owner" of
the gallant " Knight of Kars" went "deeper than did e'er plummet sound"
into a Roding ditch and lost his place ; how by the time a certain stile
was reached, leapt, rapped and refused, and how some one else took a
wrong turn, and how scattered the field had become by the time a brook
was crossed, and Mr. Arkwright had viewed the fox over the road into
Harrington Park — are now matters of history.

Thomas Usborne on "Basalt"

lliomas Usborne, here depicted on "Basalt"' has never been
quite so keen about hunting, since he undertook to represent the
chief county town in Essex in the Conservative interest in
1892. But apart from politics, forty years in the hunting field
will take the edge off any but the keenest appetite, just as the

Mr. H. E. Tones.

A CAT AND MUSTARD POT DAY 1 35

pleasure of seeing- a son takino- that place in the van which one
used to occup\- must compensate for any loss of enthusiasm :
more especially when the pleasure of enjoyini^- the society of
those who come out to ride about and not jump desperate
places, is enhanced by the companionship of two charming-
daughters.

A fox from Row Wood at 2.30 in the teeth of a gale of wind was not to
be sneezed at, but a yawning ditch with Mr. Usborne's horse in it required
careful consideration, and a tail hound getting in your light just as you
were hesitating about having a fling at a fence gave you a bona fide excuse
for craning. The " Knight " made light work of a five-barred gate into
a lane ; the chesnut for once chanced a blind ditch, and brought the
first man down, and the chase swept merrily on, until headed by some
unseen cause our fox doubled back, which involved a lengthy cast and
brought hounds to their noses, and spun out an hour's slow hunting with
the loss of a beaten fox near Takeley Forest.

Oh ! isn't the country VjHnd ?
Of course it's awfully blind,

should be the burden of the next hunting song. It would be sung with
gusto by followers of the Essex Hounds at the present time. A few more
days such as last Friday and Saturday, followed by the necessary frost,
will improve matters and make the country more rideable. Rain, rain,
and plenty of it, formed the chief item of Friday's sport, when they met
at Stebbing Bran-End, but led to the discovery of a shop in Dunmow where
a change of raiment may be procured that will do for even a ti'dtev weight'''
for the modest sum of i6s.

Saturday was a day on which nobody the wrong side of five-and-twenty
ought to have been out. I devoutly wished myself in bed after starting for
the dim and distant meet at Pleshey, on November 10, but nothing stops the
Major,''' and there was no backing out of a seat in his carriage if I wished
to be asked again. Cat and mustard pot ! Half a dozen cats and mustard
pots will give you a faint idea of the day — violent squalls with drenching
showers of rain ; no wonder that there were only about fifty men out —
among them our late M.F.H., Sir H. Selwin Ibbetson — (he is another
that nothing stops ; we had some fairly wet and rough days last year,
but he was always there)— Mr. C. E. Green, Mr. G. Sylvester, Mr. Back,
Mr. L. J. Arkwright, and Mr. H. E. Jones. By the time we reached Israels,
I should say that the wind had shifted a point or two nearer the N.E., for
it was certainly colder and scent was certainly better, and for forty minutes
hounds ran well, losing their fox near Hartford-end. Perhaps it was as
well that they did so, for the East Essex Hounds turned up at the same
place about the same time inquiring for a hunted fox, and there might have
been some dispute as to whose fox it was had either pack killed. They
found again at the Osiers near Roxwell, and 6 p.m. saw them still trying
to dig out the varmint with aid of match and light of moon, but to no
purpose.

They had a good run on Monday with a fox from the Osiers near Bourn
Bridge, the last thirty minutes toeing the most interesting part over a good
country, ending with a kill in Mr. Crane's plantation. Disasters were
many, and excuses numerous from those who were thrown out and who

* C. E. Green. f Major Tait.

HARLOW BUSH 137

were not where they ought to have been when the fox was run into. Being
out for a little exercise in the afternoon, I came across one contingent of
bewildered sportsmen near Bishops Hall, with blank despair on their faces,
and wild entreaty in their tones as to where the hounds were — a thing I
very much wished to know myself. However, a keeper helped to solve the
knotty point by telling us that he had seen them pointing for Curtis-mill
Green and that they were running hard.

Eventually we fell in with hounds on their way to draw again, but even
on the faces of those with them there was not that happy and beaming
expression one would like to have marked, after such a rattling gallop and
splendid finish, and a little bird did whisper to me that only about a dozen
besides Bailey had seen the fun. Another fox was viewed away from one
of Col. Lockwood's coverts near Apes Grove, but hounds could not run a
yard.

Pastime for princes ; prime sport of our nation

Strength in their sinew and bloom on their cheek :

Health to the old, to the young recreation ;
All for enjoyment the hunting field seek.

The " all " were decidedly in full force last Saturday. Harlow Bush has
its attractions. In the summer the fairest of the fair meet there to pursue
their favourite pastime, tennis, and as the days shorten they gather
together again at Harlow Bush Rooms, which stand out in the middle of
the common, to enjoy the stately waltz or the maddening galop, for are not
the Hunt and other balls held there ? But after all the greatest attraction
is a meet of the Essex Hounds. May it long continue to be so. The
secret of the popularity of the meet is the abundance of foxes in the neigh-
bouring coverts. Contrary to precedent, but no doubt in order to shake off
the numerous foot people, the hounds were taken off at a good pace to the
further end of Parndon Wood, and within five minutes of being thrown in
they had found.

It is all very well to make certain good resolves that in big woodlands
you will keep within sight of the huntsman and never leave the beaten
track ; but how hard it is to carry them out. So it is no surprise when we
lose the hounds in Parndon, Ongar Park, Blackmore, and such-like woods,
and find oneself inquiring of every man on a stack, " Have you seen the
hounds ? " but thank your good luck, rather then commend your judgment,
if you do get away from these woods on anything like terms with hounds.

Who got away when the fox tried to make his first point, but doubled
back and ran the further wood, I cannot say, but when he crossed the
road the Parndon side of the woods the second time, and another fox was
holloaed back at the same instant, there were very few near enough to see
Bailey enter the field, and cheer his hounds on to the fox they were run-
ning. Mr. George Hart was one. It is a hard matter for hounds to leave
him the wrong side or inside the biggest woodland, and I would wager that
that bugbear of the shires, Owston Wood, would not hold him.

But they were away, and pointing as straight as an arrow for Parndon,
but taking a sharp turn, luckily a favourable one for most, whether they
had secured a good or a bad start, they left Mr. Coleman's Farm on the
left and crossed the road near Mr. Todhunter's, and bore up the hill on the
grass, ran the plantations in the park, in the furthest of which the body of
the pack come to a check. But two or three couples of hounds quicker
than the rest had gone on : a glimpse of their sterns as they disappeared
through a fence two fields ahead and their merry music gave Bailey a clue,
which he seized at once, and over the plough they went as fast as they had
gone on the grass, and inclining a little to the right and through a narrow

138

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

belt of trees, entered on a more open country, and quite half a mile in
front, breasting the hill tOAvards Pinnacles, the pioneers of the pack could
be seen ; but there was no occasion to try to get to them quicker than
hounds were taking us, in and out of Watery-lane as fast as one could make
room for another, over a convenient gap of which someone seemed rather
inclined to take a lease ; a stiff piece of plough up to Pinnacles put the
finishing touch on horses out of condition. The hounds were through the
first of the two coverts known as Pinnacles, and as we galloped towards
the second a locked gate barred further progress. I^ailey turned his horse
round and was over directly ; Mr. Miller had a cut at it and incurred a
carpenter's bill which would no doubt be willingly paid by those who got
through so comfortably afterwards and reached hounds as, now a united
pack, they ran the second half of Pinnacles.

?r!^^«^'^fc \^^ *^

.1 .yl. ,^

"- ^^^'^^^^'^^^

'^^ -<:■£" -ra^--** - --^-^

Running for Pinnacles

Out they came, right among us, bearing away to the right towards
Parndon Hall. Eighteen mmutes to here from the time of finally leaving
Parndon Woods. Away down hill, very little of Bailey except his cap
could be seen as his horse safely and cleverly carried him over a regular
Parndon Bank. Our fox, with a due regard to a dry skin and with a rare
knowledge of the country, crossed the brook by a bridge ; and close to the
master's house (Parndon Hall) in Ram Gorse, this gallop came to an end,
twenty-five minutes from the start.

You should have been at High Easter last Saturday, November 20,
my dear friend — no headache should have kept you at home — ten minutes
in the early morning as a hovs d'ccuvre, with twenty-five minutes as an entree,
to the grand piece de resistance of fifty minutes and a kill in the open. Yes,
a kill in the open ! The " King William " is now in very good hands, and
you can send your horse on overnight, with the satisfaction of knowing that

DOUr.S WOOD

139

he will be well looked after, and that you will not be charged an exorbitant
price for the accommodation. About 10.30 last Saturday traps from
various points of the compass, but chiefly the south, discharged their loads ;
horses were brought out, and quite a cavalcade was soon en route for High
Easter, last associated in the memories of most of us with the two point-
to-point races which came off at the end of last season. Diverse, as usual,
were the prognostications about the probabilities of a good or bad scent
among those who ventured an opinion, but generally with the qualification
that scent is a mysterious thing. And so it is, my dear friend. The first
ten minutes' brush from Garnetts hardly settled the question, but demon-
strated tliat gaps into a road are not to be trilled with, that the sun in your
eyes lends additional complication to a Roothing ditch, that to work out the
labyrmthine twists of a skirting fox hounds want occasionally turning to
the huntsman, and that if a whip's horse won't jump it can't be done.

.1 -

^^^^^M^ ^^ . S. :-nt^^^y''" \

Dobbs Wood

A brace of foxes, at least, took advantage of this interval to make good
their exit from Garnetts, and horses recovered their wind while Bailey ran
his hounds through. No go ! Ditto, Crows Wood. For Dobbs Wood in
the future I shall always have a hearty affection. None of your large,
overgrown woods, but as snug as a parlour, with a good start a certainty
if a fox means going. One crash of music round the covert and the red
rover had gone. Each for himself at the half-opened gate at the end of
the wood. A pulling horse is sometimes useful on such occasions. "Very
sorry ! Beg your pardon ! Could not hold him ! " Away, and going like
smoke upwind, into and down a muddy lane, which is willingly left.
Grief to the left of you ; grief to the right of you ; hounds right in front of
you : onward we thundered. Lord's was nearly touched, and at the end of
an exhilarating twenty-five minutes Crows Wood was reached, and our fox
lost. Pace favoured the light-weights, foremost of whom was Mr. Tyndale
White.

140 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

Dobbs Wood again. Perhaps pick up our hunted fox. Hounds were
soon through it, and on their way to Lord's, when (thanks to the keen
sight of Mr, Usborne), a crafty old varmint, which had better have lain
still another minute, was viewed stealing away. The twang of Mr. Green's
horn brought ]>ailey and hounds back to the scene post-haste. What a
pace they went to Garnetts !^ — too good, our premier feather-weight'^
thought, to shirk a Roothing ditch guarded by iron sheep hurdles on the
landing side. The rattle of hoof on iron, and both were safely over.
Through Garnett's, not dwelling, they kept driving on, crossing the High
Easter and Pleshey road, and taking us nearly fence for fence, over the
Red Coat Point-to-Point course of last year. Good Easter was nearly
reached when our fox took a sharp turn back almost the very same line he
had come.

Hounds were now running, eager lor blood, and close on his tracks,
the many twists and turns he made, which huntsman and pack patiently
imravelled, clearly indicating how the game was going. The conclusion
on the High Easter and Pleshey road was witnessed by at least three
ladies — Mrs. L. Pelley, Miss Horner, and a stranger — who, all credit to
them, rode every yard of the run. Of the fifty odd of the sterner sex who
witnessed the final scene, it would be invidious to select any as having
borne more than his share of the burden and heat of the day ; but certainly
when hounds went fastest, and fences came thickest, a certain skewbald horse\
shot like a meteor to the front.

It is not often that it falls to one's lot to chronicle two such good days'
sport as last Saturday and IMonday. My feeble pen fails entirely to do
justice to them. Saturday's game took place on the plough. Monday's
work was on the grass — about twenty miles as the crow ilies, a fair stretch
of country intervening between the two scenes. A fox from Nasing Park
at 1 1. 15, if hounds could have owned him (which they utterly failed to do),
would have thrown late comers. Galley Hill skirters, and Nasing Coppice
expectants entirely out of it. In the preliminary excitement of a fox away,
which left not a trace behind, Jim Cockayne's horse gave him a nasty
cropper over an insignificant piece of timber.

Back to Nasing Coppice, and a fox was viewed away at once in the
direction of Galley Hill. He obtained a good start, as hounds were some
time before they came out of covert ; but when once clear of it, hounds
drove along at a good pace for Deer Park, straight through it, and on
through Shatter Bushes, away down the hill for Obelisk Wood, which was
not touched. From here to Waltham Abbey nothing but grass and easy
fences to keep you from touch of hounds, who were travelling fast enough
to leave you two fields to the bad if you stayed to open an obstinate gate or
to catch a riderless horse, and to lose you your chance altogether if you
courted a cropper or toyed with a fence. W^ithin a field of the New Inn at
W^altham Abbey the fox was running in view, and you would have given
him another three fields at the outside for leading the dance ; but he was as
deceptive as a stout stag refreshed from a bathe in a stream.

A taste of the River Lea, or the smell of the gunpowder works, must
have put new life into him. Running the banks of the river for about a
mile and a half, he took a line to the right, through Monkhams. And no
better compliment could he have paid to its owner, now Master of the East
Essex, who, with his two brothers, had chosen this day for a peep at their
old country. Would they were always with us is a wish that will find
ready echo in the heart of every follower of the the E.H. Down to and

* Roly Bevan. + Mr. }. Longbourne's.

ST. LEONARD

141

crossing the Waltham and Nasing Road, hounds went straight over the
opposite hill, entering a narrow plantation on its crest, where some think
we changed. Hounds raced on as keen as ever. Over or into a rotten-
hanked brook, as your horse took you, and exactly fifty minutes from
leaving Nasing Coppice, our fox was marked to ground in a drain in Mr.
C. Bury's garden. Flasks and sandwich cases were brought out, and
hearty congratulations exchanged, while a terrier was sent for, which
quickly evicted the fox, who as quickly reached the sanctum of Galley Hill
and baffled his pursuers.

No fox could have taken a better line — no, not if you had asked him —
than the one we got away with from Deer Park about 2 p.m. Grass every
yard of the way from there to the forest ; the line through Shatter Bushes
and Spratt's Hedgerow ; well-gated fields, and what more did you want
than a fair start ? About three miles as the crow flies in seventeen minutes
is average travelling. Some little time was spent in the forest, to which

St. Leonard's, Nasing

our fox was evidently a stranger, as he kept in one corner, but finding
hounds rather too pressing in their attentions, he took to the open again,
crossing the road below Copped Hall Green into Warlies Park. Hounds
got on fresh terms with him at Obelisk Wood, running well up to Galley
Hill, and after twenty minutes' patient hunting pulled down as crafty an
old dog fox as ever dodged huntsman and hounds for one hour and forty
minutes. Only twenty remained to hear the shrill —

"Who-whoop ! they have him ! — they're round him ; how
They worry and tear when he's down,
'Twas a stout hill fox when they found him, now
'Tis a hundred tatters of brown I "

A very pretty thing the 35 minutes from Belgium Springs, following a

142

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

meet at High Laver, Wednesday, November 24th, which I am afraid
Miss Maud Gellatly, driving "The Plum,'":= did not see, though she pro-
bably fared as well as some of the following, who got down, for hounds ran
at a rare bat to Harlow Park, and the sun was right in their eyes : — The
Huntsman, Messrs. C. and F. Green, Major Tait and his nephew, Mr. Sheffield
Neave, Mrs. Waters, Captain George Capel - Cure, and many others.
Nearly nabbed in Mr. Wilson's nursery garden, he came away over the
Common, and running through Barnsley's, got to ground near the Kennels ;
afterwards a line we don't often run now, from Moor Hall to Pishobury.

William Sworder

William Sworder, of Stapleford-Tawney Hall, was not a
young man when I first made his acquaintance, but he was
what he always continued to be while he could throw his leg-
across a horse — a customer across country. With fine seat,
iron nerve and great experience, whatever horse he rode he
was always .seen in the van. No truer friend to hunting ever
lived. No more courteous gendeman have I ever met in the
hunting field or elsewhere. He was a fine type of the yeoman
farmer, a type, alas, which too surely is j:)assinq- away, but
which, while a Sworder ]i\-es at Tawncy Hall, will nc\-er die

"The I'ium," formerly a favourite hunter of Mrs. Waters.

WILLIAM SWORDKR

43

as being a straight, God-fearing

out. Such men have formed the pride of the country side,
and he has left behind hini several sons worthy successors,
of a good father, as long-
citizen counts for anything.

Christmas Eve, 1886. — A day snatched from the frost by a few keen
sportsmen. The frost was certainly not out of the ground at 1 1 a.m., but
" fortune favours the brave," and my informant relates that there were no
mishaps, and that the ground rode very well. Lucky dogs ! how I envy
them. My mouth waters now as I think of the sport they had ; and others
will have the same feeling who know the country and follow the line.
Mind you, hounds had not been out for over a week, and when they will
get out again remains a problem to which to-night (Tuesday, Dec. 28) has
given no clue. To-morrow, ye gods ! we may be sleighing, skating —
hunting, alas, I am afraid not.

Running for Shalesmore

But I must cease this drivelling, and drop you at once into Beachetts ;
the hour about i p.m., I believe, as my friend rode into the middle ride
in time to see Bailey laying hounds on to a fox that had gone away across
Mr. Daniel Miller's farm towards Tawney Hall. A lovely line this ; but,
as good or bad luck would have it, for every minute the going was im-
proving, this fox made good his escape. Bailey held the hounds all round
the meadows to Well-eves, but could not hit it off, so took them on to
Shalesmore, and not finding there, went on to Bush-grove, a small covert
at the top of Hill Hall Park.

They had not been in a minute before he was on foot ; they rattled him
round once, and out he went down the hill towards Brook House, bore to
the right, across Mr. D. Rumball's fields, and straight across the park out
by Mount Church, across the road down the hilly fields to Shalesmore,

144 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

across the meadow in front of Mr. Sworder's house — (how the sight must
have thrilled that veteran's heart, and brought back glad memories of other
days when he hiinself was always in the van ; but he lives again in his son,
and to-day is in the van once more ; that neat black coat follows no guide,
needs no lead, and covers a heart that never beat with a jealous throb) —
hounds drove on, crossing the road, and over Mr. Sworder's ploughed land
towards Sir Charles Smith's house.

The pace up to here had been very fast, and a slight check came as a
welcome respite to horses, on whose condition a week's frost had already
begun to tell tales. A man at plough had turned the fox, and hounds were
soon on terms again, straight to Stanford Rivers Rectory, where they got
a bit too much to the right (30 minutes to this point). A holloa back a
little on the left — (it was here that about six more who had been riding to
find hounds all day nicked in) — Bailey took hounds to holloa, and got them
on the trail, but the fox must have been headed, as hounds ran straight
back to right.

One hound had strayed behind puzzling out the forward line herself,
to her Bailey soon came back with the pack, and they ran on through
Kettlebury Springs, down to the bottom, along the brook, until they came
to the lane that runs to Toot Hill, up which they ran for some distance, as
if they were going straight to Ongar Park, but he had turned sharp to the
left across some meadows, and Northlands now seemed his point. How-
ever, he took a right-handed turn, and set his head straight for Ongar
Park, and led them right up to the Toot-hill road, but was probably
headed by a boy clamping mangels.

Once more he took to the open in the direction of the Mole Trap, across
the big ploughed fields on Tawney Common, nearly up to Beachetts, and
turning sharp to the right across the road, at the end of an hour and a
quarter reached what proved to be the sanctuary of Mr. Chisenhale Marsh's
Woods. He was seen by a woodman in covert dead beat, and he was
hunted on and off" for another three-quarters of an hour, during which he
was actually rolled over by a single hound, but out of the very jaws of
death, in spite of the determined efforts and patient perseverance of Bailey,
he managed to get away.

My informant further adds : " I never saw hounds and huntsman work
better all through ; it was a rich treat ; nobody to ride over them ; no
cramming and jambing for places ; you can just imagine what an oppor-
tunity it was for seeing them work. The going was first-rate, a bit heavy
on the plough, but the rain in the morning had made the banks all right."
]\Iajor Tait, Mr. R. Bevan, Mr. Neave, Mr. Miller, ]\Ir. Crosse, Mr. Horner
and ]\Ir. Harry Sworder were among the fortunate few who saw this
sporting run.

After meeting at Hatfield Heath, December 15th, none but a few hardy
spirits (who snatched a day on Christmas Eve), thanks to frost, had any
more hunting before January 19th. 'When we met on that day, the snow
had by no means disappeared, and little good was done with a fox they ran
from Screens. On the bye-day, Thursday, January 20th, at Harlow Com-
mon, there were not more than thirty out, including Sir Henry, Mr. and
Mrs. Bowlby, Mr. C. Green, Major Tait, W. Sheffield Neave, Mr. E. Ball,
Mr. Loftus Arkwright, Mr. and Mrs. Waters, Mr. H. E. Jones, Mr. G. Hart,
Mr. Green of Parndon, Mr. Follett, Mr. Bambridge. The first run of
40 minutes, with a fox from Mark liushes, leaving Barnsleys and Harlow
on the left, and up to Moor Hall by the Osier Beds, killing near Harlow
Station, was distinctly good, as was also the hunting run of an hour and
a half from the Osiers, leaving off near Parndon Hall. Messrs. R. Ball,

MATCHING GREEN, 1 887 1 45

Lee, Follett, and Longbourne voted the 30 minutes from Curtis Mill Green
to ground in the Navestock Coverts, on Monday, February 7th, about the
best thirty minutes they had had that season. Evidently they were of the
very lucky few who got away well with hounds. After killing a Gaynes
Park fox near Coopersale House (Miss Archer Houblon's), on Saturday,
February igth, and running a Lower Forest fox towards Parndon and
back to Weald Coppice, Mr. George Hart found us a fox in the open in one
of his fields, which gave us a capital forty-five minutes before being run
into near Beachetts, one hound securing him, Mr. Harry Sworder eventually
taking the fox from the hounds.

If Matching Green of '87 did not afford us much excitement in the way
of sport, neither will it stamp itself on our memories by any regrettable
incidents. The county was well represented by its youth, beauty, and
fashion ; Prince Francis of Teck, who was staying with the Ibbetsons,
being amongst the number. Would there had been more of our best fv lends,
the fanneys, to swell the numbers. Most of those present had their photo-
graphs taken, some of them several times. None looked smarter than
Mr. Arkwright on his grey, and may his pink coat be our beacon in many
a good run this and seasons to come.

A good steady trot brought us to Norwood, and a good steady rain
found us ringing its changes with a faint-hearted cub — forgive the word —
that gave the field little fun, but the field master a good deal of work, and
Mr. Porter Matthews' wheat something more than a rolling, before the cub
got to ground. If it had not been out of consideration for the wheat that
cub would be witnessing in the shape of his head and tail to the prowess
and hard riding of some fair equestrian and bold centaur, but Mr. Green
wisely decided that the field should move on to Brick Kilns.

From it a fox considerately took us to Man Wood in lengthening line
and by handy road ; and so to Matching Green. Leaving it on the right,
hounds ran well over the grass towards High Laver, Mr. Sworder, on his
young un', well to the front, and Mr. Bevan and Mr. Crosse making light
of timber strong and bull-finch blind. Passing close by the Leather Bottle,
hounds were brought to their noses, soon reaching Brick Kilns, where
ended quite a nice little run. Man Wood held a brace of Home Rulers,
who occupied hounds and huntsman for the rest of the day — a very wet
one.

A Bye Day. — Lucky were the few, considerably under 50, who got
wind of the news that Monday's fixture would hold good for Tuesday,
Nov. 22, weather permitting. Weather did permit. What we did in the
early morning matters not. Scent was bad, but had slightly improved
when at ten minutes to two a great slashing dog fox left Latton Park in
the direction of Parndon, swinging along in that leisurely catch-me-if-you-
can sort of fashion, as much as to say, " No scent to-day."

But hounds were at his brush, and feathered out his first twist through
a narrow belt of young trees two fields from the covert ; across a wheat
field they carried the cold line to another plantation, and reaching the grass
they raced over Rye Hill Common. A wide ditch off the common had to
be negotiated by one and all, through Mr. Clark's farm, another cold bit
of plough, and Parndon woods were reached ; straight through the first
to the accompaniment of lovely music we entered the second. No band of
Indians on the war trail were ever more eager to reach their foes than that
thin narrow line of scarlet and black were to thread Parndon woods.

As we regained the open hounds were already skimming across the
clover field which separated us from the last of the three woods. Taking
the line right to the far side, they were soon over the road on to Mr. Ralph
10

JKNNINC'.S AND HIS nALI.ANT GREY I47

Palmer's farm. The gates were locked, the ditch was blind, and the dun
cob nearly rolled on his rider, but flattened the fence, and Bailey was over
like a shot, hounds tailing up the furrowed field ; a deep drop on to Nasing
Common, hounds simply flew across it (Nasing Common always carries
a scent), Mrs. Uowlby, Bailey, the dun cob, and " Boycott" in the van, the
rest of us doing our best over the ant-hilly common.

We all like tliat gallop across the common when we can get it. Usually
there are better things beyond. Mr. Green had the key to the coppice, and
reached the far side as soon as Jim, who crashed in and out in time to view
hounds away towards Galley Hill ; but on the cold plough scent failed
again, and no one but a heaven-born huntsman would have hit that line off
in the direction of Deer Park.

There was hardly time to give horses a breather before we were away
through Deer Park and swinging down towards Galley Hill. Here hounds
and huntsman scored a great triumph. They stuck to the hunted fox, who
threaded the whole extent of this huge covert, and then retraced his steps
in the direction of Nasing Coppice. Patient and slow hunting brought them
to this snug little piece again, and a view of the almost beaten fox put new
life into every one. Ijoldly he faced the open. Lovely grass, flying fences,
burning scent could have but one ending. " Whoop ! " within a field of
Hunters Hall, and Mr. Jennings on his gallant grey was one of the few
who saw the finish of this good two hours' run.

Monday, Epping Long Green, November 28th, wind S.W., but little
of it, and very mild.

" Yon sound's neither sheep-bell nor bark.
They're running, they're running — go hark ! "

And Jim's bell-like voice rings out clear and distinct, the " Gone away,"
from the extreme end of Deer Park.

'' Dash down through the cover by dingle and dell.
There's a gate at the bottom — I know it full well ;

And they're running, they're running — go hark ! "

— Charles Kin(;sley.

Yes, my boys, and gallop as hard as you like, hounds have the best of
you to Shatter Bushes ; but the crowd emerge on good terms, and charge the
first fence in line, and are bang on top of hounds at the next, as our fox
has taken a very sudden turn. Warlies Park is reached, and merrily the
chase speeds down the brook. A sharp bend necessitates a follow-my-
leader at the ford which the huntsman discovers, back to Shatter Bushes,
horses lathering freely. " Outside," says the " Oracle "* on the chestnut ;
" Hounds are coming back to us," says the " Knight of the Black Cap," I
and " Bellows to Mend " say we who follow them, before the lost ground is
made up, for hounds are speeding on swiftly, silently like a dream : but,
unlike a dream, your nag responds to the prick of your spur and slackened
rein, and, as you regain the chase, you notice that there is no more twisting
and turning, but a bee line in the direction of Waltham is being worked
out. As we reach the hill that overlooks the vale that intervenes between
us and Waltham, a welcome check and timely caution of the Field Master
makes us pull up. That cast of Bailey's at the bottom of the ploughed field
is worth a king's ransom. As we charge down the hill and regain the
grass, hounds have settled down again, and Waltham Abbey is nearly

* Mr. R. Lockwood. t Mr. H. Sworder.

148 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

touched before it is apparent that our fox has gone hurrying back from
whence he came. Mrs. Stout's farm is passed on the right, the Cobbin
brook crossed, re-crossed and crossed again, and the field is fairly spread-
eagled by the time Warlies is reached, and our fox marked to ground.

A few minutes suffice for all to come up, and separate groups of three,
four, and five discuss this good run of 55 minutes : the spade completes
what hounds have nearly done, the fox comes out a wreck, and is eaten to
appease the poultry owners of these parts. A brief, pleasant scurry to
Pinnacles brings the day to a close. In a very slow hunting run from
Blackmore, on Monday, December 5th, in which a fox found in the High
Woods was pushed through Ingatestone and killed near Writtle Park at
the end of i hr. 20 min., we note that among many others who had
croppers, owing to the sun being in their eyes, was the Mate on his chestnut
horse, and that Mrs. R. Lockwood, riding her pony " Lady Sandy," was
not one of the unfortunate many who were left behind in Parson Springs,
but saw the run and the finish,

Wednesday, December 14th. — The Kennels, wind S.W. Another record
of a bad day's sport ; no luck again. Men's thoughts began to turn
towards stag hunting.

The season so far has been a very good one for stagging in Essex.
Last Saturday's run is only typical of the sort of thing these hounds have
had nearly every time they have been out. It was a good day, a clinker —
as I think you will allow when you hear that without any roadwork or
view of their deer hounds ran hard for one lionv and forty minutes over the
very cveam of Essex, scoring a fourteen-mile point as the crow flies before
they were baffled by the network of wires in the neighbourhood of the
Royal Gunpowder Works at Waltham.

At 12-30 that priceless hind. Miss Thoby, was uncarted at Matching
Green, and ten minutes later fifty horsemen were riding desperately keen
after the nine couple of hounds that were flinging eagerly forward,
leaping the Roothing ditches in their stride. Two roads were crossed in
rapid succession, and with the wind on her right flank our quarry headed
for the Lavers.

The pace was too good to notice any landmark before Magdalen Laver
Rectory was viewed on our right ; away past Sewalds Hall, and the
remaining ten miles were nearly all on the grass. Nearing Mr. Hart's
farm the Master's horse whipped round at some rails, but followed the
lead of a man on a chesnut, who was riding right up to the hounds. As
we clustered in the road while hounds were working the line out over
it we noticed that the ranks of the followers had become visibly
thinned.

On over Mr. Hart's wheat, and we reached the Rundells steeple-
chase course. Miss Jones, who had been piloted by her father right in
the van up to this point, unfortunately came to grief over a big drop, but
with no worse luck than loss of place. Not so Mr. Neave's popular and
hard-thrusting secretary, Mr. Suart, who, I hear, at the same time had the
misfortune to kill his horse.

But, still and silent as a dream, hounds sped over the grass, crossing
the Harlow-road near the Cross Keys. Little Maries was passed on the
right without the slightest check. Over Mr. Kemsley's farm in a pelting
hailstorm hounds hunted steadily on, and the Epping road was crossed just
below the Vicarage, Mr. Walmsley leading the way in and out of it, for
the deer had gone on. On, still on, was the cry. Orange Wood was left on
our right, and the narrow plantation running up from the keeper's house
threaded to the musical cry of hounds. Mr. Neave, showing the way in

THK CREAT STAC RUN, XMAS. EVE. 1 887

149

and out of it, and over the next razor bank, and passing Spratts Hedgerow,
hounds surged down to Shatter Bushes, which was soon left behind ; nor
was there the shghtest check when Galley Hill was reached.

Here a great many had had enough, or, for some other reason best
known to themselves, never came on, missing one of the nicest parts of
the run, for there was a burning scent through the cover and hounds
never dwelt a second. Mr. Neave's shrill holloa of " Forward away ! "
came echoing back to us as we struggled through, and as we reached the
boundary fence hounds were already two fields to the good, and soon were
breasting the hill towards Monkhams. As we left the plantation on
Monkhams Hill Mr. Colley came down, but not before he viewed nine
couple of hounds— the full complement we had started with — leave the
covert in a cluster, nor could there have been a more beautiful sight than
these staunch hounds sweeping down the hill towards that silvery

Past Epping- Church and Vicarage

streak which could be discerned in the distance. Alas ! though a narrow
stream, it proved on this occasion a veritable Styx. Quicker than one can
write it, hounds were on the brink, dashed in and out, and were lost to sight
in a belt of trees which bordered another stream — a moat of defence around
the Powder Works. One hour and forty minutes and the fun was over.

Making our way to the nearest bridge, we had to ride right into
Cheshunt before we could get to the point where hounds had last been seen.
Valuable time was lost over this, also in getting the hounds out of the cut,
the Master having to ferry across to them in a powder barge, and lift many
of them out of the water. The deer, however, had been viewed by a good
many foot passengers, and conflicting accounts as to her route were, as
usual, given ; but, by the time Mr. Neave struck the line again beyond

150 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

Enfield Lock, the shades of night were faUing fast, and sadly he had to
relinquish the chase near Sewardstone, the latest intelligence being that she
had gone on to Epping Forest. Once in that sanctuary it was more than
doubtful whether she would ever be recovered, and Mr. Neave would not
have lost her for £^0. Mr. Edward Neave, Mr. Colley, Mr. Stevenson,
Mr. Walmsley, Mr. W. H. P. Barnes on " Gamecock," Mr. Henry
Lawrence, Mr. Blackborne, a stranger, and a lady,^ who rode straight and
fearlessly from start to finish, were the only ones who witnessed the Master
recover the line on the Cheshunt side of the river Lea. This deer was
never recovered. By the time we reached my house, the Master having
accepted an offer of a lift home for his hounds, it was fairly late, and we
found a Christmas tree in full swing. Mr. Colley subsequently sent one of
the youngsters a watch as a memento of his surprise visit.

They say, and they say it with reason, that a day with staghounds
sharpens a fellow up across country. Was this why so many followers of
the Essex Hounds forsook their pack on Saturday, January 14th, to hunt
the lordly stag ? Or is it the increasing popularity of the hounds, which,
under the Mastership of Mr. Neave, are having such unrivalled sport ?
Among those who came to meet him and his aides-de-camp (Messrs. Colley
and Suart), I noticed Mr. Stevenson, Mr. Harrison, Mr. H. Lawrence,
V.S., Mr. Walmsley, Mr. Roffey, Mr. Tyndale White, Major Tait, Mr. and
Mrs. Keppel, Mr. Bowlby, Mr. A. J. Edwards, Mr. Bagot, Mr. Dickinson,
Mr. R. Ball, Mr. G. Willis, Mr. Howard, Mr. Kemp, Mr. Foster, Mr. W.
Sewell, Mr. G. Sewell, Mr. Hargreaves, Mr. D. Gingell, Mr. J. Gingell,
Mr. W. Symes, Mr. Hill, Mr. Borwick, Mr. Sands, Mr. Price, Mr.
Mathews, Mr. W. H. Pemberton Barnes, Mr. Crosse, Mr. Blackborne, Mr.
Waters, Mr. Elder.

At 12.30 hounds struck the line near Moreton Mill, and for the next ten
minutes it was a case of hammer and tongs, for there was a capital scent.
Away in the direction of Little Laver, a bank out of a road brought to early
grief a youth on a cob ; and a widish ditch near Capt. Meyer's house held
more than one. There was a moment's respite, but only a moment ; when
hounds reached Herring Grove, and exactly ten minutes from starting, they
were away from it over the Park, with the deer pointing for Envilles, but
leaving it to the left near Mr. Mathews', they ran the road for a couple of
hundred yards to Little Laver Mill, and then struck into a lovely country.
The Master, as usual, cutting the work out, led in and out of a narrow
lane over a couple of stiles ; Mr. Harrison simultaneously coming to grief
over a rasper.

As we reached the Moreton Road the stag was viewed going out of the
river ; and Mr. Neave, with some difficulty, stopped hounds for a minute,
for they were very keen. The moment they were laid on again they were
away at score, a convenient ford coming in the line. A roughish country,
nearly all plough, took us to Bobbingworth, and velvety grass brought us
to Dewley Wood. Passing it on the left, the Ongar line was passed near
Blake Hall Station ; and a sharp turn to the left towards Ongar, with
hounds carrying a beautiful head over these rough stubbles and rough
fences, with Mr. A. Kemp well to the front on " Kingston," could be noted.
Next, rounding the narrow spinney near the line, they made for Greensted,
through Mr. Dodson's farmyard, ran the road for a couple of hundred
yards, and then followed much the same line that a fox had taken us this

'Mrs. Bowlby ; her first day's stag-hunting. It may be readily imagined that she
carried away very favourable impressions of the sport. — Ed.

ALFRED SUART S CARESS

151

season, up to Stanford Rivers, where our stag jumped up out of the brook
in view, but without any difficulty shook off his pursuers, and was soon
lost to sight.

On over Mr. Lawrence's Farm at Toot Hill to Gaynes Park Wood.
There was music there, a galloping tune, through this long wood, which
hounds left in a compact body, and streamed across to Rough Talleys, and
ran parallel with the rail up to Weald Station, where they turned underthe
arch ; and getting a view of their quarry over the road near Mr. Willis's,
ran right up to him at Little Weald Hall, at the end of an hour and forty

George Brown on Norah

minutes — a good run, a good stag, and a good take, for Mr. Suart did the
trick well, and a strugghng stag in his gentle caress has no more chance
than a new-born babe in the hands of its nurse. Many availed themselves
of Mr. George Brown's kind hospitality, his house being a regular harbour
of refuge for stag. Master, and hounds.

Who could wish for a heartier tribute than this ? 'Tis from
the pen of Mr. George Hart, in 1897, and those who have
known Mr. Georoe Brown will endorse every word of it.

152 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

Long may he flourish at Bobbingworth Hall Farm : — "A very
dear old friend of mine. Many a time have we ridden to-
gether, and may I be spared to see him going still in the
distance. I look upon him as one of the best men to get
across country on an untried or rough horse. You never saw
him skirting. When he has passed away, he will leave a mark
behind him that will not be forgotten. He rides straight and
he goes straight, and I should say, has never lost a friend."

A Bye Day — And a real good one, Tuesday, Mar. 6th, when frost
not being quite out of the ground after a three weeks' stoppage, hounds did
not leave the kennels before twelve. After running and losing a fox from
Gravel Pit Wood, a move was made towards Hobb's Cross to try for an
outlier who was quickly found, and pushed through Hubbard's Hall at
rare pace. After one ring round Barnsleys he was away by Potter Street
and Netteswell, running past Mr. Todhunter's up to Pinnacles, and after
one hour and forty minutes was lost near Parndon Hall, the day being
wound up with a gallop from Latton through Harlow Park to the Lower
Forest. There were very few out, but among the few who were going very
well might have been noted Mr. H.J. Miller and Mr. R. Lockwood ; the
latter, although he knew it not, was having his last ride on his favourite
chesnut hunter, " Bull's Eye." On March 9th, in the Point to Point races
at Thaxted, the author had the misfortune to kill him.

Saturday, March 24th, Navestock Heath. — A lovely day for scent, wind
east ; a little snow had fallen in the morning, but the sun shone out well
when we left our rendezvous for Weald Park, which every one seemed
to think would be productive of no good. However, we were all mistaken,
for scarcely had hounds been thrown into the Park before they found. To
extricate ourselves caused considerable delay, and an awkward and boggy
ditch brought early grief ; it was maddening to be riding the outside circle
with only occasional glimpses of hounds. When at last we caught them in
Weald Park they were not long before they led us into difficulties again at
the Dagenham Brook. Mr. Green's horse went bang in, but emerged on the
right side. Bailey's horse persistently efusing, yielded at last to the per-
suasion of his spurs and my lash. Eventually a very promising run came
to an end near Pyrgo Wood. Mr. Avila had a nasty fall over some
timber, and Miss Morgan fell at the brook. The next run was one of the
nicest I have had this season. The fox, a very red-looking varmint, went
swinging away from a snug lying wood on the slope of a hill near Weald
Park, and hounds came away at blast of horn close at his brush. The first
grass field was quickly crossed, and we swung left-handed to turn a covert
through which hound's were rapidly working. Away up a ploughed field
and with a burning scent you began to wish yourself over the Dagenham
brook wliich appeared in view. As hounds reached it they ran its banks for
a hundred yards, but to take this turn with them required a bold horse, for
a ditch of brook-like dimensions barred the way. Mr. Kemp hit it off at
the same place as in the previous run, followed by Mr. Bevan and another.
My mare refused, and in we went ; managing to scramble off her on the right
side, I gave her a jerk and by struggling hard she landed on terra fivma.

The hounds meantime had turned left-handed, and their music echoed
back from the woods round Rochetts. After negotiating the brook what
ecstacy to be with hounds again, how exciting to view them away from
Hatter's \\'ood. The liuntsman gladly accepted Mr. Sworder's lead over

FREDERICK AVILA

153

a wide brook which had to be crossed ; a momentary check in a lane, and
they were swinging on again in full cry ; another brook brought Mr. Avila
down, and in as awkward a iix as one could well wish to be, right bang
under his horse. Jumping down, I holloaed to Bobby Lockwood to sit on
its head, and getting hold of Mr. Avila by the shoulders and with the help
of another man we pulled him out. By Pyrgo House they flew over the
Park and past Boylands Oak, but the fox was out of his country, and within
three fields of Hainault Forest turned back over Havering and Pyrgo Park,
through Pyrgo big woods, when he was run into near Dagenham to the
satisfaction of all, a good hour. Of those who saw the finish we find the
names of Messrs. Sworder, Arkwright, Bevan, Green, Pratt, Kemp and
Sewell.

Frederick Avila

A customer, you say at once, as you look at this portrait, and
a good-hearted one to boot you would add, if you would be
correct, for he is both. No horse and no country comes amiss
to him. He is one of those farmers who, thanks to his know-
ledge of the points of a horse, and his aptitude for making a
promising young 'un into a good hunter, has managed to enjoy

154 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

the Sport of Kings on fairly easy terms to himself and with satis-
faction to his hunting friends, for no one extends a heartier
welcome to fox or stag hounds when they cross his land or to
the Harriers, who regularly meet at Theydon Hall Farm.

Mr. Neave has had a remarkable season, one brilHant run being duly
succeeded by another. Only a month ago his hounds cut the record of a
quarter of a century, running between twenty-five and thirty miles at such
a fearful pace that only six, including the Master, saw the finish.

On Saturday, March 31st, the famous Surrey deer was enlarged at Mr.
Jackson's, Sorrells Hall, Willingale, and owing to the Essex Hounds, for
some reason or other, not being out, a ratlier larger field than usual
assembled to meet the Master. With the wind north-east, and dull misty
clouds obscuring the sun, it was a typical hunting morning, and the
moment hounds were laid on the question of scent was settled at once, for
they simply flew.

Crossing the Screen's-road, they turned towards Spain's Wood, where
they were momentarily at fault. A hat up in the direction of Witney
Wood, and you were more than lucky if you could obtain even a glimpse of
hounds at the tearing pace they were going. Skirting Witney Wood,
they swung towards Fyfield Hall up to the river near Fyfield Mill. To
have hit it off at the wrong place would have been destructive at the pace
hounds were going. Mr. Neave, and by far the larger contingent, rode
left-handed with hounds over Mr. Raby's land up to Heron's Farm, and
here, ye gods, a handy ford came in the line before we embarked on a lake
of grass — I say a lake advisedly, for the fields that fringe the river to Forest
Hall are as flat as a billiard-table, and the upstanding fences that divide
the different meads such that you might ride a four-year-old at them with
impunity.

Mutual congratulations were exchanged at this rattling twenty-five
minutes' burst, and while the Surrey deer refreshed himself in the brook
near Forest Hall, a very scattered field had time to recruit. What a
welcome respite that ten minutes was, or many must have cried "a go" !
Getting to work again, the Fyfield and Ongar-road is reached, and from its
eminence a lovely panorama of an undulating and open country spread out
before us, with the vision of a staunch pack of hounds fleeting over it,
swiftly, silently as a dream.

" Silence, you know, is the criterion of pace."

Mr. Christy piloting one contingent on the left, Mr. Neave leading
another on the right, down to the river near Moreton Wood. Again a ford
came in handy, but as hounds turned right-handed for Moreton, a new
flight of rails, with a yawner on the far side, had to be reckoned with. Mr.
Kemp, followed by Miss Morgan, solved the difficulty on the right by
jumping in and out of the wood, while Mr. Neave and others struck the
road on the left, a lucky turn, for right in front of those on the right
stretched a wire fence, and none too soon came the warning cry of " 'Ware
wire !" But there was a iveak spot in it — a good honest 4 ft. 6 ins. of
timber, the length of a horse. Mr. Kemp grasped it at once with ready eye
and bold heart, and landed safely over, followed by Miss Morgan, and, I
believe, also Miss Jones and another lady, and so rode parallel with the left
contingent, who were using the Moreton -road to some tune.

The more forward ones avoided a bend in the same by turning into a
ploughed field with the hounds, but gained little, as hounds turned
immediately, still running parallel with the road. That gate into it

T. R. HULL

155

slamming in your faces, Messrs. Jones and Hull, I admit was hard luck, for
each second put a brace more pursuers between you and the pack. Like a
cascade, hounds came over the bank into the Moreton-road, near the stone
bridge, and immediately hit off the line on the grass beyond, on Roden's
Bank. Here a lot of us wilfully — I might almost say wickedly — shut
ourselves out from view and touch of hounds by deliberately bearing
left-handed up the road to Padler's End, but a muddy lane at the top of the
hill brought us more luck than we deserved, and let us up to the van again,
who were following the Master's lead over a high wattled fence and ditch
into the muddy lane, where an awkward fence and brook barred the way —
the very spot, if I remember right, where Mr. G. E. Green got in with his
good grey mare in a memorable run from the Lower Forest — Mr. Marriage,
of ready resource, lifted a gate off its hinges, and found a ford.

'•••^ ^_ '^B^^Hb^^^Ba^^_^ /^

Thomas Read Hull on "Marigold'

Hull is as well known with the stag as the foxhounds,
o-ood supporter of both, making them very welcome

T. R.

and is a ^ ^ ^

over his land at Blackmore. He is the right weight for a long
run, or a quick thing with staghounds when the ground is deep:
he is not an easy man to follow, and is a very difficult one
to catch when the pace is good, for he smokes litde and drinks
less, and has undeniable nerve ; his son takes after him.

^5^

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

In the meantime hounds had disappeared over the brow of the hill, all
by themselves — no, not quite unattended, for a thrusting light-weight' in
untanned buckskins (how did he manage the brook ?) was in close pursuit,
and disappeared over the hill with them. A lucky turn brought us all on
terms with hounds again as they crossed the road below Mr. James's farm,
and took us over a lovely line of grass up to Magdalen Hall, which was left
on the right. On by Belgium Springs and skirting Rolls Farm, and
bearing away over Mr. Metson's land, Thrushes Bush was reached, and
close to Harlow a deep drop landed us into a road which commanded the
driving pack, which within an hour and twenty minutes from time of
starting harboured their quarry in Harlow Town.

The Moors, " Bentley Mill

Saturday, April 7th, Bentley Mill. — Last day of the season. Bailey,
owing to his accident at the races on the previous Thursday, was not with
us, the consequence being that hounds were all over the place, but they
managed to kill a fox ; the ground was getting dry and scent was by
no means good.

This season, which at one time promised to be as disastrous as '79 for
farmers, owing to the continued wet weather right into August, brightened
up considerably by the end of that month, and a truly Indian summer set
in with September. Necessarily harvest was very backward and corn
cutting and carting were still taking place when hounds met at Latton
Park to open the season, at 6 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 20th, A brace
of cubs fell ready victims and satisfied the thirst for blood of hounds and
followers. Among those out I had time to note Mr. Todhunter, Mr. and
the Misses Caldecott, Mrs. Waters, Miss Tait, Miss Maud Dawson, Miss

Tyndale White.

MATCHING GREEN, 1 888

157

Harris, and Mrs. Bennett on wheels, Messrs. Arkwright, Sworder, Miller,
Doxat, Roffey, and Charrington (2).

Saturday, Sept. 22nd. — A lovely morning for hunting, fair harbinger of
another summer day. Hare Street, at 6, saw the punctual ones en evidence.
The later ones, among them yours humbly, missed the chivvy of the first
cub, but what more enjoyable than to drop in for a good spin such as
the second one gave us, and take your first plunge over one or two trappy
ditches ? Two brace killed might be voted a brace too many, but never-
theless must be recorded. Much the same throng witnessed the game
played out as noted on Thursday, though Mr. R. Ball's and Mr. and Mrs.
Keppel's names may be added.

Where were the cubs in 1888 ?

Thursday, Sept. 27th, at Galley Hills, there was a very poor show.

Monday, Oct. ist, at Abridge, a very good one and a brace were killed.

Saturday, October 6. — At Coopersale a very fair show, but no scent, so
bad sport.

To the uninitiated I cannot give a better description of Matching Green
than by quoting the words of that riding author and sportsman, Mr. W.
Westall, who, in his thrilling narrative of Nigel Fortescue, in " The
Hunted Man," says : " A quaint old Essex village of single-storied
cottages, with dormer windows, thatched roofs, and miniature gardens,
set in a fair landscape and clustering in picturesque irregularity round as
fine a green as you will find in the county." Well so it is, but what
took place on this particular occasion on Monday, November 5th, yet
remains to be chronicled. It is always sad to rem-ark the absence of well-
known and well-loved faces. Sir Henry's cheery smile and greeting were
missed by all ; but we congratulated ourselves that he would soon be in
the saddle again. Major Tait had not yet recovered from his polo accident,
and Mrs. Arkwright, who quite recently had a providential escape from being
killed, was unable to ride ; nor was Mr. Roland Bevan there. It must always
be so ; familiar faces disappear, new ones greet us, and it is only careless,
happy youth that marks it not. But let us glance at the more cheerful
view of the scene. The rain had just come in time, and foxes, if not too
plentiful, were known to be good, young hounds had Ijeen well entered, and
Bailey's nerve, " ye cravens," harder than ever.

Mr. C. Green, though in black, was as usual a conspicuous member
of the Essex as he would be of any hunt, neat, keen, and a very neces-
sary part of a very fine weight-carrying horse ; the young master spick and
span, the van of the light weights, and among others the Father of the
hunt, the Rev. F. Fane, the Ridleys (3), young Tuffnell, the Misses Calde-
cott, Mr. Caldecott, Mr. and Mrs. Chisenhale Marsh, Messrs. Crosse, Kemp,
Jones, Sworder, Miller, Miles, Tippler, Miss Glyn, Messrs. R. Hill,
Tyndale White, Walmsley, Harrison, Christy, Mr. and Mrs. Lyon Bennett,
Messrs. C. Bury, Avila, Howard, Lawrence, Hull, Vaughan, Oliver, R.
Lochwood, Pemberton Barnes, Mr. and Mrs. Waters, Miss Maud Dawson,
Miss Tait, &c., &c. Alas, that it should be chronicled that Man Wood and
Brick Kilns were drawn blank on this memorable morning of Matching
Green ; but such is the fact, and apparently the sole tenant of Enviles or
Norwood was killed at the end of a twisting fifty minutes, in which there
was lots of jumping, lots of craning, and hounds very freely over-ridden,
Mr. Nicholson certainly scoring the biggest lep. No chance of a gallop,
and it's going to rain, said Robert''' ; but, nevertheless, he stuck to hounds
and joined the numerous throng that clustered round Down Hall.

* Mr. R. Lockwood.

THE KIND SAMARITAN I 59

Sir Henry would like to have heard that opening note and the crash of
merry music that followed it as hounds raced their fox round the covert.
Never had a field a fairer chance of getting away, for hounds ran three more
coverts before they struck the open near Matching Hall. This was passed
on the left, and the field became rapidly scattered before Matching Park
was reached ; and many a horse was ditched. A welcome check enabled a
hot and glowing throng to reunite and seek the middle ride of the Park.
Running in the direction of Belgium Springs, as we crossed the road,
one man unfortunately came to serious grief, and Mr. R. Hill, acting the
kind Samaritan, lost the run. The chase now sped on over a capital line
of country and fences of every description, want of condition as much as
anything else accounting for the numerous empty saddles. On through
Belgium Springs and the going became much heavier, luckily the pace a
bit slower ; and this capital run was brought to a conclusion at Harlow
Park, good point, good country, and nice pace. Time, i hour and 35
minutes. From Parndon Woods, where we found, on Saturday, November
17th, when we met at North Weald, we went at a rattling pace from
the Woods to the Coppice and Deer Park, disturbing a shooting party
in Galley Hills. Going out at the bottom end and over towards Mr. Bury's,
a great many being left in the lurch — not Mr. C. E. Green, however,
for he shortly afterwards got down. Running by Tattle Bushes this good
run came to an end by Pinnacles.

Leaving home at i p.m. on Wednesday, November 28th, after a stern
chase from Down Hall, I caught hounds at Brick Kilns and dropped in for
a pretty burst by Enviles up to Beauchamp Roothing, the following being
among the lucky few who saw anything of it : Mrs. Waters, Messrs. C. and
F. Green, Mr. Arkwright, Messrs. Chisenhale Marsh, Walmsley, Jones
and Lawrence. They will remember how the rain came down when the
run was over.

Christmas Eve with the Essex Hounds in 1888 was not quite so good
as 1887, but still worthy of being jotted down in a diary and recalled with
pleasure when, from age, accident, or impecuniosity, one may be prevented
from participating in the stirring pleasures of the chase. I have but a faint
notion of the country we traversed ; but I know that about 2.30 p.m., when
a good many had gone home to roost, an eager throng were clustered in
the middle of Canfield Hart, for it had been whispered that a fox had been
seen to enter scarce an hour previous. He was no trifler, and waited not
to be found, but left the covert at one end while hounds were drawing the
other — luckily not unobserved.

A score of lusty lungs proclaimed his departure and thirty horses cleared
the boundary out of the wood, as hounds owned to it on the grass, ran
hard for three fields, and came, to a check. A rapid cast of Bailey's, and
we were all sailing away in the wake of hounds again as they crossed a
road and embarked on the grass beyond. There was scarce time to choose
which way you would go— left with hounds, huntsman, Mr. Walmsley and
one or two others, or right with the surging throng down an inviting lane
on the right of some iron palings. The latter seemed most tempting, but
soon led to a locked gate. One sportsman (Mr. Ritchie, I believe, of Kildare
renown) solved the difficulty at once by flying a stiff hedge, and jumping
another gate immediately afterwards ; and got to the hounds as soon as
anyone. The remainder got a glimpse now and then of Bailey's cap as he
cleared the fences, but could not catch hounds before they reached W^ilson
Springs and came to a slight check.

Turning a bit to the left, through a narrow plantation, and crossing a
moat by a bridge, an awkward fence came in the line. Again the stranger

Till-: STRANGER SCORES

l6l

scored, for he went straight at it and got over all right, while most of the
others accepted Bailey's lead at the place he had chosen. Turning, still
left-handed, they went at a rattling pace over some big fields for Canfield
Mount. A momentary check shortly after favoured horses. Crossing a big
brook, the gentleman on the chesnut='= and a few others had it to themselves
for the next four fields, while the remainder made play down a hard road
to the left, which the hounds shortly crossed and went slipping along to
Canfield Thrift.

There was no time for lagging about, for by the time we reached the far
end hounds were already out, with Bailey and the Master and Mrs. Bennett
in close attendance. We admired Mrs. Bennett's clever cob and envied
her nerve as she jumped one blind place after another, just as they came ;

Canfield Thrift

while Mr. Chapman, of Roydon Lee, was giving a four-year-old, a red roan,
a lesson which he would never forget, for his head was never turned, and
he sailed along as straight as a bird. The pace quickened again as they
swept down the hill, and the view halloa rang out at an open earth near
Olives.

Mr. Crosse was not the only one who had twenty miles to ride home
in a pouring rain after this good run of sixty-five minutes.

A December afternoon with Mr. Vigne's harriers, I cull from the diary,
near the end of the month too, Saturday the 29th. All the morning had
they been ringing the changes in the Forest with two or three hares without
killing. When at about 2-30 the Mate and his brother joined us, and after
old and young Hurrell, Mr. Vigne, Baby Philby, and Young Philby (about

Mr. Ritchie.

l62 LEAVES FROM A IIUNTINC. DIARY

twenty-five in all, I should think), had partaken of some light refreshment
at the Wake Arms, they proceeded to draw for a fox, ye gods ! in Luff-
man's Gorse ; a ringing view-holloa soon proclaimed a find, and didn't they
fly to it, didn't the Mate whack his young 'un along and didn't young
William kick his heels in, and didn't the grey pony respond to his rider's
enthusiasm ? Oh no ! of course they didn't, for hounds were not hunting,
but simply racing to a burning scent, and you knew that it would take you
all your time to keep within touch of them. Two deep, quick circles through
some of the prettiest stretches of the Forest, the chase spread merrily along,
and brought us to the boundary fence of Copped Hall, a hedge cutter when
interviewed, but not before — oh ! what a lethargic soul — said our hunted fox
had gone across there, pointing to the open country and stretching pastures.
Miss Philby was on the spot, and she had the horn !

■•#

Wake Arms

\\'ho can describe the rapture with which we viewed the swift little
hounds pick up the scent and fling to it in one long, drawn-out chorus ?
Sweeping over the brow of the first grass field, then dipping into the hollow,
we held them well in hand as they raced on, leading us up to the fence
which borders the drive to the big house. Thank goodness for those two
easy opening iron gates. Impatiently Hurrell swung them back, and the
vision of the game little pack sweeping over the park, the warren in the back-
ground, with the chance of returning to it our only fear, a thing to be
remembered ; but no, they leave it, and we knew there was nothing to stop
them for miles, except approaching night. Mortifying in the extreme was
it to that staunch sportsman, Mr. Philby, as fairly penned in in the Warren,
the chase swept further and further away from him. At last in desperation
he put his mare at a very unjumpable place, came down, and lost still more
time catching her. In the meantime, to be with hounds as they rose the
hill towards the Bury I'arm, a wide ditch with bad landing had to be faced.

THE FOREST FOX ESCAPES

163

Our first check took place on the plough above, and tlien merrily we
swept along, down the hill over the Bury Farm ; crossing the Bury Lane
we struck Mr. Pegram's grass with its wire-guarded fences, luckily here
and there a loophole, which we unravelled, and came up with hounds who
had checked in Lindsey Street ; here my man Parish viewed him dead beat
crawling down the road. He managed to reach a sanctuary, which the
shades of night prevented our discovering ; never did I enjoy a gallop more ;
getting away from the forest is always a matter of great uncertainty,
and being left behind a constant experience. A sharp frost set in after
this, and we did not get out again before Wednesday, January 9th.

"A fence we don't get in Essex"
Mr. T. B. Drybrough flying a wall

Mark Hall

CHAPTER VI,

Marh HaU—Loftus J. W . Avhwright—A Red Letter Day— Diana— The Polo
Pony succumbs — Harry Bagot — Vulpecide — A Premature Request — The Last
Day in the Roothings — Newman Sparroiv — The Hart, The Mount and The
Thrift — How Henry John got Home— Bye Days — The Prince of Wales at
Easton Ledge — A Blank Day — The Royals — Henry Vigne — Wm. Hurrell —
The Reptonian — Crawley s Advice — Roiv Wood — A Clinker from Forest
Hall — A Hard Day— Mr. Sevan's Horse Dies — The Celery Hare— Mr.
Vigne has the best run of Jialf -a -century — Quite Quiet — Engulfed — Merry-
legs — The Run of the Season — Harlow Park — Lieut. -Col. the Hon. W. H.
Allsopp.

T OFTUS JOSEPH WIGRAM ARKWRIGHT assisted
i_y his father by acting' as Field-master in 1888-89; ^.nd in
1 893, to the satisfaction of all who wished to see the historical
family of Arkwright at the head of the Essex Hunt, became joint
Master, with Mr. E. S. Bowlby, of the Essex Hounds, which
position he held to the end of the season 1898-99, not for his
own gratification, but to please his Essex friends, for he often
remarked that he did not care about the office. With all the
worries and anxieties attached to a Mastership of Hounds in
the present day, this statement can hardly cause any surprise,
especially as Mr. Arkwright made no secret of the fact that in
the year 1897 he preferred shooting to hunting. A crack shot,
his coverts teem with game, but rarely indeed are they drawn
blank — in spite of the frequent calls upon them. He possesses a
rare eye to hounds and they can't go too fast for him ; probably
he has won more Point to Point races than an\- man in Essex.
It is needless to add that Mr. Arkwright was very popular in
the field and very easy on the forward division ; the hunt
staff always declared that they could not have had a better
master.

BEVAN TAKKS A ROLL OVKR TLAIBER

165

Wednesday, January i6th. The Kennels. A real red-letter day. At
10.30 a meeting of the principal farmers, landowners and subscribers,
was held at the Green Man, Harlow, at which Sir Henry presided. Mr.
Green made an offer to take the hounds next season if ;^3,ooo were
guaranteed to him for the hrst year.

Loftus J. W. Arkwright

After some discussion it was decided to guarantee him ^2,400, and as
several subscribers present expressed their wish to further augment their
subscription for the coming year, ^"500 was very soon promised. On these
conditions Mr. Green consented to take the hounds. It must have been
nearly 12 before we moved off to try for an outlying fox on Mr. Harris's
farm near Hubbard's Hall. It was a pleasure to see hounds catch a view of
that fox, and with heads up and sterns down race after him. Unluckily
headed from the open Roothing country, he took a rapid turn back to the
Kennels, close to which Roly Bevan came to grief over a stile, and in

i66

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

addition to having all his wind knocked out of him was entangled in the
reins. To jump off and sit on his cob's head was the work ot a second.
Messrs. C. Green and Christy also assisting, Mr. Bevan was not long
coming round.

It was indeed quite a busy morning ; afier running for about two hours,
and partaking of some refreshment at the Master's house, a move was made
to Weir Hatches, from whence Jack soon viewed a fox over the Ime ;
luckily hounds just escaped a passmg train. It was a case of the devd take
the hindmost, as we galloped the road from ihe crossing at Burnt Mill
and raced up it past Terlings, before we struck the fields. As we rose the hill
up a heavy piece of seeds, we could see hounds flying along over a pasture

Loftus J. Arkwright on "Diana"

in front of us ; Messrs. Arkwright, Bevan, Blackborne and Calverley being
about the first to get to them as we again crossed the road. We ran field
after field over a very sporting country, a slice of the Hertfordshire; we must
have passed close to Eastwick Wood ; eventually this good run of 45
minutes was abruptly finished, for by an artful double this good fox saved
his bacon. Messrs. Bhickborne, Crosse, Bevan, Arkwright, Sworder and
Calverley were leading all through this run.

This famous
carried Mr. Arkw

Ixiy marc, stantlin^' 15.3, pedio-ree unknown,
riiiht most Ijrilliaiith' with the Esse.x Hounds

DIANA 167

for 12 seasons. " Diana" was by no means the easiest mare in
the world to ride, and would go quick at her fences, but in spite
of giving him several falls she was ever the Master's favourite.
The mare had a wonderful capacity for going through dirt, and
the way she performed in the following Point to Point races
with her owner up furnishes sufficient evidence as to her
jumping and staying powers. It is doubtful whether any better
hunter has ever been seen with the Essex Hounds.

1888. — 2nd, Point to Point, Thaxsted.

1889. — 2nd to Harlequin, Light-weight, Rundells.

1890. — ist, Point to Point, High Roothing.

1892. — ist, Point to Point, Epping.

I St, Welter Race, Rundells (14 st.)

1S94. — -2nd, Point to Point, Easton.

Monday, Januar}' 28th. Thornwood Gate. A balmy sort of day, rather
dry, and the plough not carrying we had a couple of good runs. A fox from
Parndon Woods to ground at Maries Farm need not be reckoned with.
But a fox away from Latton Park towards Rundells, then back to Harlow
Park with a false alarm in the direction of Hastingwood Common, and then
on his tracks again in Harlow Park, was quite another thing. One was more
than fortunate to secure a good place with them as they came away over
the Common and embarked on the closely fenced country leading up to
Barnsleys; bearing right-handed over Hubbard's Hail Farm they ran smartly
up to Foster Street Road — nearly to Moor Hall Farm ; turning back by
Roll's Farm, they ran on fast and well to Belgium Springs, and killed him
in the open, close to Mr. Lucking's house, a very pretty hunt.

Our next find was Mark Hall ; this fox gave a hard run through Gravel
Pit woods, on to Todd's Brook and Mark Hall. Found another fox outlying
close to Harlow Station, late in the afternoon. He soon crossed the railway
and canals ; to dive under the one through the tunnel and turn the other
by a ford at a mill close by was the only thing to do to give you a chance
of seeing hounds again. To reach the mill, hov/ever, a very wide open
ditch had to be reckoned with. Mr. Green and the huntsman flew it all
right, my cob tried to cut it, and in we went a blobber right over the saddle.
I freed myself from him as soon as possible, and he careered up stream.
Luckily, I managed to hook him and pull him out the right side. Young
Corvell, who went in at the same time, was not so fortunate, and after
getting a thorough drenching his horse came out the wrong one. Catching
the hounds as they crossed the road, we had a capital hunting run through
Eastwick Wood, losing some distance beyond it. Probably this was the
same fox that gave us such a good run on January i6th. Young Neville
Dawson rode a pony of Ball's, fresh up from grass or a winter's run in a
loose box, and the poor brute died from exhaustion about 11 o'clock the
same night.

Mr. Jameson will remember the snowy day at Coopersale on Feb. 4th,
and how we all, including huntsman and hounds, had to seek refuge in
Mr. Jordan's farmyard from the heavy snow-storm that came on as we
moved ofif towards the side coverts. First finding in Bush Wood a fox,
which had come away from Barber's, we ran him by Theydon Rectory
and Loughton Shaws to the Forest, winding up the day with a very sharp
15 minutes from Knightsland, killing near Shalesmore.

i68

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

Mr. Sheffield Neave's Stag Hounds have had a capital season, and last
Saturday's was no exception to the run of good sport which these hounds
have continued to show. The meet was at Magdalen Laver, at Mr.
Lucking's farm, Feb. qth. After 15 minutes' law the hounds were laid on.
The iirst field, a ploughed one, brought them to their noses, and at a nice
hand gallop we could keep them in touch, as they swung over the first
fence, a Roothing ditch, and ran nearly to Belgium Springs, but bearing
right-handed crossed the Rectory road, a deep drop into it having to be
tackled by those who were riding the line, among them Miss Jones. A gate
let us into the next field, and another out was handily opened by Mr.
Joseph Tucker, who had a view of the deer going on over the hill, and now
had a glimpse of the fun in that corner, for three or four very useful
fences came in the line, the first, a fair-sized, deep-banked brook, a temptmg

Henry Bagot

jump out of grass into grass. As hounds checked we observed how many
horses refused, and hoiv one in particular showed no inclination to come out,
in spite of his owner's hauling at the reins, as if he had hooked a big
salmon.

Hounds feathered for a moment here, and then a hat up on the sky line
indicated the direction to take, but a locked gate was too high for the
Master, so he re-jumped the brook and others followed, while a good many
had a go at a bullfinch with ditch beyond ; those who jumped the brook
back had a rasping big fence before they could get to hounds, and one loose
horse at least (Mr. George Hart got a cropper here) could be seen. Those
who had taken the other line in their turn had to encounter a formidable
cut-down blackthorn defended by a ditch. Mr. Torrance, whose land we
were on, pointing out the direction our quarry had taken, we all made use
of a sound headland, parallel with the chase, then down a narrow lane, the

VULPKCIDE 169

Master leading with Messrs. Bagot, Walmsley and Hull close up. Here,
again, the deer took a right-hand turn over a big wheat- Held, which most
of us avoided by slipping down the lane until the road was reached, where
we nicked in with the hounds as they crossed over on to Mr. Chaplin's farm.
Here some wide-spreading pastures, with willows beyond, indicated what was
coming, in the shape of the Weald Brook. Down we came to it, devoutly
hoping that the stag had gone on, and that there was a way over, for the
Weald Brook in a state of flood was not to be trifled with.

Mr. Jones, I believe, discovered a ford for one contingent, but it was a
ford that let the water over your boots, and through which some horses
plunged over their heads ; I fancy a hole in the middle caused all the
splashing. Miss Jones very pluckily followed her father. Luckily hounds
checked here and we could reunite our scattered forces. Passing close
by Mr. Alger's ofT-hand farm, over a newly drained field, the country became
rather more open, and Fyfield in the distance seemed to be the point for
which we were making.

At a good hunting pace hounds drove along, crossing the Fyfield road,
by the Truant School and down to Heron's farm, running parallel with the
river up to Forest Hall, where we had first glimpse of the deer who had
soiled in the flooded river. Directly we came up she was away again, and
ran at a great pace to Castle Farm down to the river again, where she
managed to double the hounds, and extricating herself from some very
cramped enclosures, she dashed over the river once more in the direction
of Marden Ash, where a certain thoroughbred ''■'• showed a decided dis-
inclination to jump away from home. She now treated us to our first piece
of road work to the old Kennels, where she was taken. Mr. George Hart,
as usual, led all the way on a mare, lately operated on for roaring by
Mr. Jones, V.S., of Leicester. The Rev. G. Ward, S., was up at the finish,
riding a good-looking chestnut cob.

Monday, Feb. 25th, Greensted. Two brace of foxes having been found
dead in the neighbourhood of Tawney Common at the end of the previous
week, it was not deemed advisable to take .hounds near Ongar Park Wood,
consequently we had a long and weary draw before we found — through all
the Blake Hall coverts, Canes, Harlow Park, Latton Park, Barnsleys,
Mark Hall, Gravel Pit Wood, Parndon Hall and Pinnacles. Luckily a good
fox went away from the covert adjoining Pinnacles at 6 minutes to 4, and
gave us a rare good gallop over a very delightful country. Leaving
Merryweather's Farm on the right they checked for a moment on the
road, near the public house. Luckily hitting it off, a lovely panorama
spread out to view stretching away towards Galley Hills, but this was not
to be his point, though he went very near it, running to Hollyfield Hall,
where there was a momentary check, with news of a beaten fox in front of
us.

Beaten or not he managed to do us though, for, turning back, hounds
ran at a great pace over the identical fine we had come, right up to Merry-
weather's on to the covert where we found him, and away from there to
Parndon Woods. Probably we changed at Parndon Woods. A very
heavy hail-storm coming on, hounds could make little of a line which they
took over Epping Green, whipping off at Maries Farm. For 50 minutes
there was no check worth speaking about, and by the time we had climbed
the hill to Tattle Bushes all the horses had had enough of it. However,
the slower hunting from there enabled them to get their winds again and to
keep going. Among those out who went well and saw the fun were Messrs.

* Mr. Jones's horse.

170

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

Arkwright, Bob Ball, Green and Tyndale White. It is worthy of note
that it snowed, more or less, every day this week.

The Annual Meeting was held at the Green Man, Harlow, on Monday,
March nth, and as usual we had a very good day, although it commenced
badly by chopping a vixen in Barnsleys. Reaching Parndon Woods at
2.20 p.m., we had barely gained the middle of these when hounds opened
and raced out at the top end, Messrs. Crosse and Bobby Wood going with
them. Mr. Green turning back did not catch hounds before they reached
Maries Wood. No one had viewed the fox away; he was off directly hounds
were put in, and with a burning scent over the grass they lanced along to
Maries, Bailey, Jim, Mr. Bob Ball and Mr. R. Wood being well up. In
Crane's stack yard our fox made a sharp turn over Kemsley's wheat, crossed
the road just below the Vicarage and came down to the Cobbin brook,
which proved a stumbling-block to many. Bob Ball managed it first, and

A Meet at "The Green Man"
After a Painting by Edmund Ethelston

got to hounds quicker than any one, followed by Mr. Kemp; after a slight
hover on Hitchman's wheat they ran like smoke to New Farm Wood, a
stiff post and rails near the plantation on the hill shutting us out for a
moment ; but Mr. H. B. Dickinsons's lead was soon accepted, also Bailey's,
through a thick bullfinch as we neared the forest which brought Mr. Kemp
down, Mr. Edwards escaping with a hat knocked off, but the guard held.
Approaching the Warren I thought it good enough to ask Bailey for the
brush, but it was not to be.''' Hunting most beautifully along the boundary
fence hounds turned over it just below the Lodge gates and ran the road to
the bottom of Copped Hall Green by Woodridden \\'ood and away over Mr.
Webster's Farm, where Mr. Price stuck in a ditch as he essayed to land on

Bailey lliinks a premature request for the brush fatal to killing.

THE LAST DAY IN THE ROOTHINCS 171

the Green, and I heard afterwards that it was a case of ropes and horses
before he got out. They ran very weU again across Warhes Park, leaving
Obehsk Wood on the right along the Cobbins Brook close up to Monkhanis,
where the plough favoured this fox. After running at least two hours he
found sanctuary in Deer Park, although he was viewed dead beat in Galley
Hills close to hounds, the first thirty minutes to the Warren being ex-
ceptionally good. Young Willie came down from town by the 12.28, and
unluckily just missing us at Parndon Woods had a stern chase to Galley
Hills before he came up. He was in time, but only just, for the good
forty minutes we had on Monday, March 25th, when we put up a fox
in the open near Pinnacles and ran through Parndon Woods by Epping
Brewery to the Forest.

THE LAST DAY IN THE ROOTHINGS.

HOW " HENRY JOHN " GOT HOME IN 1889.

One of the best seasons ever witnessed with the Essex Hounds is fast
drawing to a conclusion. As usual, the Roothings have played a prominent
part in the good sport that has taken place, Roothing Saturdays being syno-
nymous with good days ; but few, if any, were better than the last one on
March i6th. High Roothing Street will always attract a big muster at any
time, and but few of the regular habitues of the Hunt were absent on that
occasion — conspicuously so, however, was Mr. C. E. Green, who was
attending the baseball match at Leyton with M. Tyndale White. The
number of the usual followers was considerably swelled by many strangers,
so that the field could not have numbered less than 150. Fortunately the
ground was very dry, and very little damage could have been inflicted on
growing crops. x\s for the fences in the Roothings, they take care of them-
selves. You cannot make a gap in a Roothing ditch, and a horse that does
not make due allowance for the fences that fringe these obstacles is very
soon consigned to the hammer.

High Roothing Springs were first drawn, and then some adjoining
stubbles for an outlymg fox — as usual, without result ; but the renowned
Garnetts responded at once when called upon, and the young Squire viewed
a magnificent dog-fox dart like an arrow over the ride. He meant going.
There was no time to be lost, for already Bailey's horn was twanging
through the covert, and a shrill view halloa came floating down the breeze
announcing his flight. The field stampeded in all directions, those inside
the covert being certainly best placed, whilst those who rode left-handed—
and a good many did — must have had a stern chase before they could catch
hounds. By the time we were clear of Garnetts, in the direction of Dunsley
Green, some eighty to a hundred were riding to hounds across a by no
means easy country. The Squire, who was riding •'' Diana," was taking a line
of his own on the right, over some very difficult fences, no one seeming to
care to follow his lead, while the whole of the field huddled together on the
left, following like tame sheep over the weakest place, while occasionally a
bolder spirit shot out from the throng and took his chance at a thicker or
more awkward place, but generally coming back to his friends at the next
corner, for the country was decidedly trappy.

Aspoll Park was passed, and the chase sped on very merrily until we
came to an awkward brook which the hounds crossed at once, while the
field divided right and left to look for a feasible spot. Some few hit off" a
place close to where hoirnds had crossed, but it required a clever, bold
horse to manage the drop into the stream. Miss Jones was one of the first
over, Mr. Caldwell quickly followed, and Mr. Chapman — riding a beautiful

172

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

hunter, a six-year-old, belonging to and bred by Mr. Green, of Tods Brook,
which is as bold as a lion and clever as a cat — got over at once, and also
over the next fence, which was a very awkwark one — a run up hill on
to a narrow bank, and a yawning wide ditch on the far side.

Bailey, in the meantime, hit off a place a bit lower down, and he and
the half-dozen who got over the brook had the rest of the gallop to them-
selves, for by the time the others came up the fun was over, the termination
being brought about apparently by a hare jumping up in view on the line
and the hounds coursing her for a field before they were stopped. Certainly

Newman Sparrow

after this the hne was never touched again. However, we all had a
capital gallop of 45 minutes, making a very good point, having run close
to Felsted, and losing our fox near Leighs Priory.

We now settled down to a good long jog back to Canfield Thrift, another
grand covert. What a debt of gratitude we all owe to those who have the
care and ownership of these three magnificent coverts — Garnetts, Canfield
Thrift and Canfield Hart. I believe none of them have been drawn blank
this season. Canfield Thrift has certainly not. The nearest way to it lay
through Mr. Sparrow's yard, who, in the most hospitable way, provided
refreshments for us all. Nothing goes down better than bread-and-cheese

CANFIELD THRIFT CANFIKLD MOUNT — CANFIELI) MART I 73

and a s'^ss of home-brewed after a good run, but when offered in that
hospitable way by a staunch sportsman, it certainly carries an additional
relish.

Newman Sparrow, seventy three in the year '97, and as
good a friend to fox hunting as ever Hved in his years of
prosperity. He did not find the hearts of Essex fox-hunters
turn away from him when, with the savings of the greater part
of a Hfetime lost in the Liberator Society, he had to face,
through no fault of his own, the loss of the stewardship of a
farm which he had held for no less a period than twenty-four
years.

The moment the hounds entered the Thrift a grand chorus woke its
echoes from end to end, and a blood-red rover, whose fur shone like gold,
made a dash across an open glade ; but he took a circle round before going
away, evidently loth to part with his comrade, who was viewed and allowed
to go away unmolested in an opposite direction. Everybody got a fair start
with this fox, but only those who kept their eye on the leading hound had any
chance of seeing the gallop fairly, for he twisted and turned up hedgerow
after hedgerow; but scent was so good that hounds could race all the time,
and stuck to his line like glue. Saddles emptied fast. One well-known
chesnut * with white face went fence for fence with hounds for five fields
until Jim laid hands on him ; his owner, meantime, having footed it after him,
was pretty well blown. Towards the end the pace quickened, and it looked
a certainty for a kill ; but the fox managed to find a refuge in the earths at
Canfield Mount at the end of a capital 35 minutes ; and a hot, steaming,
happy throng saw the finish of this good thing.

Here many determined to go home, but there were further, good things
in store for those who stayed. About fifty reached Canfield Hart at 4 p.m.
Hounds had not been in covert three minutes before " forrard away" in
the direction of the Forest was heard. Bailey had his hounds out like
a shot, and they flew to the Forest, the young Squire cutting the work out
on his bay mare, while a stranger on a good-looking grey was lying close to
hounds as with a lovely chorus and ravishing scent they raced round the
fish pond, and over the park into a big covert.

A tempting ride lay parallel with the line hounds were taking, and
down it most of us galloped ; but just as the railway was reached hounds
turned sharp to the right, and their music became fainter and fainter,
leaving a very large contingent — including Mr. Romer Williams, the stranger
on the grey, and several others — in the lurch. Those who grasped the
situation and turned back at once were lucky ; those who found out their
mistake a little later had to gallop all the way back to the Hart before they
got in touch with hounds again.

For the second time Mr. Miller viewed the fox away, this time in the
direction of Harrington Hall. Hounds ran very prettily, but, fortunately,
not very fast, or few of us would have seen them up to the park. Bailey
got a view of the fox in the shrubberies, but he managed to slip away in
the direction of the Forest, with the hounds close to his brush. There was
no time for delay, and Mr. Miller's lead at the Barrington brook was
freely accepted. Not more than half-a-dozen were near hounds as they

* Mr. J. G. Crosse's.

174

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

raced back to the Forest, another wide brook coming in their line. Bailey
got over with a scramble, the young Squire dropped a bit short, Messrs.
Crosse and Collins got over clear, and Mr. Arthur Edwards tackled it suc-
cessfully on " Bay Heighington." The rest found a ford.

As the last fence into the road was reached, it was certainly the final
flicker in the candle for a couple of nags, for nothing would induce them
to go out of a trot afterwards, which soon lapsed into a walk. The end
was not far off, and only a remnant of the very big field that had gaily
assembled at High Roothing in the morning heard the "whoop" ring out
over the earth, where at the end of one hour and twenty minutes our
friend had found a sanctuary.

It was now a case of home, but fifteen miles before that place could be
reached ; but with a nag that refused to be led, and had to be driven along,
it was not to be faced with equanimity. Fortunately, another sportsman

-^?^^ '_^S?xir___-j^^ ^'^'^'"'i^f^.LuA

Running for Takeley Forest

was in the same plight, so one led while the other drove. More fortunately
still, our road led us past Mr. Collins's,='' whose proffered hospitality for
selves and nags could not be resisted ; and we sat down a quartette to a
very snug dinner at seven o'clock. Our horses in the meantime were being
well looked after, and a messenger was despatched for a trap which one of
the four had left at the King William. After two hours' absence he
returned with the news that the trap had gone home.

There was nothing for it now but to face the inevitable, and get our
tired nags home as well as we could. It was a case of twelve miles for
three of us, and of having to ride a donkey for one of the three (whom I
will call " Henry John "), or being left behind. Well, to volunteer to
ride that donkey was one thing ; but to get on his back was another, for he
reared, kicked, and plunged as only a corn-fed and partially-clipped donkey

* Mr. Collins was living at Hatfield Grange.

HOW IIENRV JOHN GOT HONH-: 175

knows how, and kept three men busy ten minutes before " Henry Jolm "
was on.

Having hghted our cigars and bidden our hospitable host "good-
night," we made a start at 9.30. Luckily, it was a moonlight night, and
everything went well for about a mile, when " Henry John," in a weak
moment, thinking his saddle was going faster forward than he could,
determined to alter it, and accordingly dismounted. But getting on again
was quite another thing, for the donkey refused to be mounted, so "C."
getting off, went to "Henry John's" rescue; but the donkey beat them
both, for he reared, kicked, and plunged as if he liked it, and even the
whisper of Broncho Charlie's magic name in his asinine ears did not quell
his spirits.

After carrying " C." and " Henry John" across the road three or four
times, and nearly getting them into one of the deep ditches that ran on each
side, it was decided to lead him on until we came to a suitable field, and
here they had another struggle, eventually getting the donkey down.
" Henry John " triumphantly got astride him, and when the donkey strug-
gled to his feet, " Henry John " was on, and our procession then moved on
very comfortably until something prompted " Henry John " to come to the
front, when this wild, corn-fed ass set to work and kicked him off in the
middle of the road, with his head on the ground and his feet in the stirrups.
It looked anything but comfortable for " Henry John " ; but I am afraid
that " C." and I were so convulsed with laughter that we could not have
moved a finger to save his life. Luckily " Henry John " kicked himself
clear. The next move was to get the donkey up to a gate, and from this
coign of 'vantage " Henry John " managed to vault on, and never left the
pigskin again ; but it was a quarter to one in the morning before we
reached duke domuut.

Riding a horse upon which Mr. Chisenhale Marsh had given me a
mount on Wednesday, March 27th, I dropped in for a very good gallop
from Mill Green to Swan Wood, Stock, in the Union country, a four-mile
point. At an early period of the run the horse Mr. C. E. Green was riding
negotiated a piece of timber on the top of a bank in a most extraordinarily
clever manner, and near the end of it Miss Jones had a narrow escape of
being badly hurt, for she was dragged some distance.

This was quite a season for bye days ; we had another good one on
Monday, April ist, the rendezvous, Great Parndon. The sport briefly
summarised, a very good thirty-five minutes from a wood near Pinnacles,
killing in Parndon Woods ; repeating this, we killed near Weir-Hatches,
and hardly expecting to find again, dropped in for the best run of the lot.
From Gravel Pit Wood to Roydon brickfields, about a five-mile point, back
through Pinnacles and Parndon Hall, eventually whipping off near
Kingsmore House, no one but Mrs. Bennett, Mr. L. Arkwright, Mr.
Todhunter, and the Mate remaining for this last run.

Swallows Cross, x\pril 4th, at 12 o'clock, another bye day and another
saw pit, when we had a very good run of about an hour, at a good pace
across the open from the High Woods to Stondon, and on to Mr. Fanes'
covert. A good many were thrown out at Parson's Springs, including
Messrs. Blackborne, G. Hart, Hargreaves ; Mr. Arkwright was well in it,
and followed Daily's lead over a saw pit at the end of the run. A fair
sprinkling of Essex Union men were out, and I fancy that they found the
pace quite fast enough for them.

Another and final bye day in the Parndon country, on Wednesday,
April loth, was marked by a very fast twenty minutes from Roydon
brickfields to Parndon Hall. This ended one of the best seasons I ever
remember with the Essex hounds.

THl': ROYALS

177

Friday, December 13th. Easton Lodge. The Prince of Wales out.
A blank day.

Did not drop in for any run worth recording this season before Saturday,
December 14th, when Mr. E. Ball mounted me on his chestnut mare
" Lucy," and we had a real clinker from Witney Wood near Fyfield.
The day impresses itself on my memory, as Colonel Maclean, of the Royals,
and a lot of his brother officers were out, and they rode as straight as
British officers generally do, and did not mind falling ; I believe there were
three of them down in line e'er we reached Stondon ; the huntsman had
been hung up once and rescued by Mr. R. Ball, for we came over a

Henry Vigne

very rough country. Running by Menagerie Wood, through Navestock
and on to Dudbrook, pulling our fox down in a covert close to Navestock
Heath ; one hour and thirty minutes, most of it very fast. Among those out
I noticed the following : The Master, Mr. C. E. Green, his brother George,
Lady Brooke, Miss Jones, Miss Caldwell, Messrs. R. Ball, Jones, Major
Tait, Miss Tait, Messrs. Pelly, R. Wood, H. Fowler, Len. Pelly, Jack
Pelly, Hull, Pemberton, Barnes, Horner, Rev. F. Fane, Miss Fane, A.
Waters, Mrs. Waters, A. P. Lucas, Caldwell, George Brown, George Hart,
H. Sworder, H. Miller, R. Bevan, Tyndale White.

A short sketch of the late Mr. Vigne's hunting career has
appeared in print more than once, and although a volume might
12

178 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

well be written about so famous a sportsman, the author must
content himself with a description in these pages of some of the
good days which he enjoyed under this famous Master who,
commencing about the year 1830, kept Harriers for about sixty
years. Mr. Vigne, when he was living at the Oaks, Woodford,
delighted in showing anyone interested in hunting- over^ his
kennels, close to which he kept a tame deer to teach his jelly
dogs to " 'Ware Haunch !" a plan that was f^iirly successful in
making them stick to their legitimate quarry when hunting in
Epping Forest.

Mr. Mgne was a striking example of what may not be
generally known, but is none the less true, that the man who
retains his interest in hunting for the longest time is not always
the man who bruises across country, for I never, during the
many years I hunted with Mr. Vigne, ever saw him guilty of
attempting to jump a fence, and never met his equal in his
devotion to lunitiug.

I am indebted to the proprietors of Bailys Magazine for the
above excellent likeness of Mr. Vigne.

It was on a dull December afternoon, two days before Christmas, i88g,
that the remnant of an eager little field (that had gaily assembled in the
morning at Maries Farm at the invitation of Mr. Lewis Phillips to enjoy
a day with the harriers) were eagerly watching the patient efforts of Mr.
Vigne's huntsman (old Hurrell) and his son William, as they drew a likely
wheat field.

The day was fast waning, for it was three o'clock, and something like
despair began to take possession of us, as if we did not find there we had
little chance of another gallop, when we were startled by an exclamation
from Mr. Clarke of "There she is." And there she was, right under our
feet, snugly ensconced in her form.

The Master's face was a study, but the twang of the horn from lips that
had known at least eighty summers was a marvel ; hounds flew to it, and
the hare jumped from her form to speed over a narrow grass mead, and to
be lost to sight. Thick and impenetrable frowned the hedge ; merrily
sounded the music beyond. Mr. Clarke did not hesitate a second, but bored
his way up the bank and through the hedge, making way for us all.

There could be no mistake about it, we were in for a good thing, for
these little hounds were racing away over the grass at a pace that defied
being overriden. Crossing the Rye Hill Road, Mr. Rickett, jun., and
I\Ir. Clarke showed us the way over, for the pace was too good to linger
a second, even for a well-latched gate. Young Hurrell was in his place and
swung over the next three fences as they came. Away over a large grassy
field, past Latton Park, and hounds crossed a lane, and there was a
momentary check, just time to take stock of those who had stayed out to
the end, and who meant to be with them or die.

First and foremost the Three Graces of the Essex ?Iunt — need I mention
the three INIiss Buxtons ? — fearless to a degree, they have the knack of
getting over a country in a fashion that young ladies of their age never did
before, I trow, and, I was going to say, never will do again; that keen

M R. V I(^, N K S 1 1 A l>i K I K R S

179

sportsman, Mr. Parham, on a beautiful light-weight hunter; that eager
thruster, Mr. Frank Ball, just dropped from the clouds or the one p.m.
from Liverpool Street— how did he manage it ? The hard-riding author ■■■
of " Nigel Fortescue " was there ; also Mr. T. J. Mills, of Garnish Hall, and
his son : Mr. Benton, and the " Hero of Pluckett's," i on his chesnut ; her
Majesty's service being well represented by a gentleman on a well-bred
polo pony; I youth and keenness by a young Reptonian j on a big hog-
maned bay, somewhat under 15 all told.

William Hurrell

William Hurrell acted as huntsman to the late Mr. Henry
Vigne's Harriers for a period of forty years from November 5th,
1852, and in that capacity served him faithfully and well. He
was not brought up to be a huntsman, but he took to the game
naturally. Very popular with all classes, "Old Bill Hurrell," as
he was generally called, was as good-natured as he looks in the
above portrait, and although in late years, hounds might some-
times get away from him they rarely succeeded in slipping his

Mr. Westall.

t Mr. Gingell. t '^■h: Saunders.

Mr. Walter Buckmaster.

l8o LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

son, young Will, whom Mr. Barclay, when he undertook the
Mastership of the Puckeridge Hounds, promoted to the office
of first whip. Both father and son were imbued with a keen
love of sport ; familiar with every nook and corner of the forest
and its environs, it would have been hard for that past-master
of the science of hare-hunting, the late Mr. Henry Vigne, to
have found two servants who could have served him better.
"Old Bill," who is now a forest-keeper, when the nights draw
in, finds his way up to Mr. Ketts' house at Buckhurst Hill,
for a quiet smoke and a chat about old days.

How beautifully the hounds, taking up the line again, raced down to the
Rundells Grove end of Latton Park. Skirting it half-way towards the
keeper's cottage in the wood, we had an opportunity of witnessing a most
perfect piece of hunting, for suddenly turning off to the left, hounds had to
puzzle out a regular zig-zag line across a large stubble field liberally
dressed with manure. Gradually, but surely, they took the line to the far
side, and then bore to the left, down the fence— a rough straggling hedge.
Not fifty yards to the left was a hand-gate, of which most of us availed
ourselves. Galloping down the lane into which it opened, hounds crossed
it before we could get to them, closely attended by Mr. Clarke, who took a
crushed hat, an awkward fence, and a lead as a matter of course, as he
piloted us across another stubble to a small plantation, which was skirted,
and, before we knew it, hounds swept out of sight round the next one.
We were over the line, for the hare had taken a very sudden turn to the
right. Hounds quickly recovered the line, right under our very feet, and
sailed away over the stubble as fast as they had run over the grass.

The Reptonian took his third crumpler without a murmur in a blind,
but by no means wide, ditch. Out on the common, again piloted by
Messrs. Rickett and Clarke, we had to call upon our nags to keep in touch
of the little beauties, as they simply flew across it, for the going was heavy,
and Rye Hill Common always carries a scent. Hitting it off on the other
side of the well-drained pastures of Mr. Phillips, we raced away for Maries
Farm, which was passed on the right. Crossing the road by Shingle Hall,
a fine stretch of level grass lay before us, and it looked like Nasing
Common. No occasion to have taken the slightest pull at your reins, for
you could not have over-ridden them at the pace they were going.

Timber never baulks hounds, but we all pulled up, " even the young
Reptonian," at the stiff rails that barred the way. Young Hurrell turned
them on the right ; the officer on the polo pony and Mr. Westall, between
them, dissected a " bullfinch " on the left, but the ditch and the briars took
toll of the former.

Forrard, away over the Epping-road, they swept down the grass field
beyond, towards the Cobbins brook. Young Hurrell shoved his cob over
the briery hedge, and landed safely, though there was a nasty drop. Mr.
Parham cleverly negotiated it on the 5-year-old ; Mr. Benton got over with
a fall, but was soon mounted and going again. Three fields further on we
came to a sudden, but what proved a final check, having been running
60 minutes. Few of us regretted not killing such a good hare — shades of
night saved her.

Saturday, December 28th. The Stng Hounds were at the Kennels,
Harlow (six miles from Epping) ; Fox Hounds at Four Ashes (some sixteen

OLD CRAWLEY S ADVICE

I8l

miles further on). I left home at ii o'clock with the intention of
joining the stag ; it was intensely cold and I could hardly keep warm
jogging. The wind was due east, a quarter in which our fox hounds
generally run ; I could not therefore help longing to be with them.

However, as I neared Harlow, I thought that I would stop and call in
and see old Crawley, who had always up to the previous season ridden
the huntsman's second horse, and who was considered to be the finest
second horseman in Essex. With a splendid knowledge of the country,
and an intuitive instinct of a fox's point, rarely if ever jumping a
fence, he always turned up when wanted. I found poor old Crawley
upstairs in bed, where he had been confined for two months with
bronchitis, but the sparkle came back in his eye and his face beamed
with animation as he described the country from Hatfield Heath to Row

Row Wood (Mr. Poole counts twenty)

Wood and wound up by saying, " If you do not find them at Row Wood
at 2 p.m. you will not find them at all." And " mind you do not miss
them both," were his parting words.

Jogging steadily on, I passed by Row Wood at 1-30; 30 minutes later
it was the scene of a maddening rush, the pent-up energy of some 150
keen riders seeking vent for a long, tedious, fruitless draw; 1-30 I said.
Row Wood; 10 minutes later, just as hounds were being thrown into
Broomshaw Bury, I met them ; they had not found, and the field were
by no means in cheerful spirits. Now were old Crawley's words to come
true, for it was 2 o'clock and the hounds were hustling a fox round Row
Wood, where we were all penned in a corner, and it was a very doubtful
choice which side of the wood to take, as the ringing view holloa " gone
away ! " from the first whip came floating towards us. With Mr. Tyndale
White and several others I went the wrong side, nothing but a very
convenient road and slight check above Hatfield Broad Oak enabling us

152 LEAVES YROM A HUNTING DIARY

to catch hounds. Crossing the Hatfield Brook below the town, we ran
on very nicely towards Hatfield Heath and then turned up to the Forest
without entering it ; from there they ran very fast, crossing Sheering Street
into the Down Hill coverts, where he did not dwell but went away again
at once ; skirting Man Wood he was pulled down in Brick Kilns.
Altogether a rare good run of 60 minutes. Amongst those who saw the
finish and who went to the front I noticed Messrs A. Kemp, R. Hill,
H. Sworder (on a young horse of Tail's) and Lady Brooke.

On the same evening on the way home I came across the stag hounds
in full cry all by themselves near Tyler's Green. Thinking that the
stag would probably be killed, I stuck to the hounds, and eventually, with
the assistance of some porters, succeeded in taking him on the line near
Mr. Primrose IM'Connells ; it was freezing hard at the time.

Owing to the frost we did not get out again before Saturday, January
4, 1890, when we met at Bobbingworth, and even then it was not nearly out
of the ground, but still it was not bad going. We found at once at
Dewley Wood and ran towards the line ; crossing the lane, but not
going over the line, the fox swung down towards the river and then
turned back over the Ongar road, and away towards Moreton Wood from
there hunting very prettily by Bundish Hall down to Forest Hall. When
we got down to the osiers most of the field went left handed for the bridge,
only those who went to the right for the ford with Bailey were in time to
hear the "forrard away" from Mr. David Christy, who had ridden up just at
the right moment. Crossing the Rectory grounds, hounds set to work to
run ; leaving most of the field in the lurch, they went without a check
straight to Church Wood, through that by the old Kennels across the
Park to Kelvedon Hall, to ground. W^e were going for about 30 minutes
as hard as we could, Bailey leading with Messrs. Howard P'owler, Gerald
Buxton, and Caldwell. This run was a real clinker.

We had a very stiff day on Wednesday, January 8th, when we met at
Down Hall for breakfast. After running a fox to Moor Hall we found
again in the osiers near Pishobury, and hustling him by Moor Hall
and over the Heath road, pulled him down by Durrington House,
eventually ending up the day at Row Wood at 5 p.m., every horse
with the exception of Mr. Elder's having had about enough of it. I know
"Sir John," the horse upon which Mr. Ned Ball had kindly mounted me
did not want any more.

Quite a nice gallop for those who were in it was the burst from
Belgium Springs on Monday, January 27th, about eight ; down at the first
fence, and a bill in afterwards from the Rector for a new gate into the
road, which some one, trying to follow Mr. Bob Ball on his bay horse,
managed to break; we were in and out the lane at Green Farm just about
the time the Major" was arriving at the meet ; it had been a quick find
and he was a few minutes late. Not so Mr. Arkwright, Messrs. R. Ball,
Avila, the huntsman, and Jim, who hit the ford off over the Weald Brook
to a nicety as hounds crossed it and ran up to Weald Church and, bearing
to the right past Canes, reached Rundells.

At Four Ashes again on Saturday, February ist, and to repeat if
possible the " lucky nick in " with hounds of December 28th. I and the
Major jogged on for Row Wood, reaching it about the same time as
before to find hounds come up to the covert in a dense fog, not having found
a fox all day. When they did find at last an outlying fox they had much the
best of horses, for the country was in a terribly heavy state — Lady Brooke

* Major Tait.

A HARD DAY 1 83

was out and going very well. Wednesday, February 5tli, a real red-letter
day, the meet was Copped Hall, the find, Roydon Park. A cracker they
ran from there to the coverts near Pinnacles, and away right-handed to
Nasing Common. Found again at Parndon Wood going away over
Burchell's land and Palmer's Farm on to Nasing Common, over which
they ran very fast nearly to Nasing School, but turned to the right over
Mr. Doxat's Farm, and at a great pace up to Tattle Bushes. Messrs.
R. Bevan, W. and G. Sewell, F. Green, H. J. Price and Arkwright, all
being well to the fore. Not dwelling a second in Tattle Bushes, he took
us back over a very pretty though hilly and rough line to Parndon Woods,
and ran a half moon over Epping Green into Arthur Brown's and Peter
Smith's fields, but, returning to Parndon Woods, broke away at the bottom
and crossing by Brockles and coming back over the road by Kingsmores
ran on hard to Tyler's Cross, which was left on the right. Only Bailey,

A fast forty minutes in Essex

(A/tt-r a painti>ig by Ediniiiiii Ktlielstoii)

Mr. Arkwright, Messrs. F. Green, W. and G. Sewell, could Uve with hounds
for the latter part of this run from Parndon Woods ; I could not get a trot
out of my mare, and both Mr. l-Jevan's horses were reduced to a walk. The
fox, however, beat us — I heard afterwards that Mr. Bevan's horse died from
exhaustion.

Monday, February loth. Harlow Common. Let this meet stand out
clear and distinct, for it was a real clipper that we had from Latton
Park. We found him at the Parndon end, rattled him across to the
Harlow side and into Rundell's Grove, and he broke away over Mr,
Rickett's farm, through his garden, and then swung left-handed over
the road near Canes, and ran very fast to Wynter's Brook. Mr. C.
Green came down at this stage of the run; crossing the road by Mr. Joseph
Tucker's, they ran by Magdalen Laver Schools and by Arnold's, and then
bore left-handed by Belgium Springs, which was passed on the right ; taking
another turn, we made for Fagoters, and it was not long before we reached
Matching Green ; running close to Brick Kilns and skirting Man Wood
they led us at a rattling pace for Down Hall, where most of the field went

184 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

wrong, for the fox sailed away by Matching Hall, a rare pace to Matching
Park ; thoroughly beat, ran a circle in the wood, and was pulled down in a
barn close to the covert, seventy minutes, a six to seven mile point, and
ten or eleven as hounds ran. I took a pad in commemoration of the run.
Mr. E. Barclay claimed the mask, and Mr. Tyndale White the brush.

Among those who went right well tlirough the run were Messrs. Kemp,
Frank Ball, W. Sewell, G. Sewell, E. Barclay, Arkwright, R. Hill, and Miss
Morgan, in addition to the huntsman and whips. One of Mr. Charles
Green's Weald Coppice days, for after meeting at North Weald on Satur-
day, February 15th, when it rained without ceasing all day, and only a
moderate run came off with a good fox from the big wood to Stanford
Rivers, we left off at Weald Coppice, Messrs. H. E. Jones, W. and G.
Sewell, and H. J. Miller alone accompanying the Master. Foxes were now
beginning to travel, and with a little less law we should undoubtedly have
had a very good run with the journeyman from Brick Kilns by High Laver
Hall over Mr. James' Farm to Ongar Park. Just as they were moving off
from Belgium Springs I had the luck to view a fox in the open for them
(although the exertion necessary to attract the huntsman's attention lost
me my voice for a week), and we had a first class run by Wynter's Grange,
Rundells, Latton Park and Netteswell Cross, where we changed and got
back to Bays Grove, Mr. J. Pelly, Messrs. R. Ball and H. Fowler being
well to the front. We had a regular steeplechase from Harlow Park to the
Lower Forest through Gaynes Park up to Mr. Green's house on Wednes-
day, March 12th, and Mr. George Hart never sent in the bill for the five-
barred gate which the roan mare brought down, post and all, trying to
follow Mr. F. Green on his " Grey," and Mr. C. R. Doxat on " Polly " ;
but the best timber jumpers will fall occasionally. In the afternoon from
Parndon Woods to Pinnacles they ran equally fast, and we couldn't catch
the Mate and Mr. Roly Bevan.

An Afternoon with Mr. Vigne's Harriers has charms of its own
which even the rival claims of the Foxhounds at Row Wood and the
Staghounds at Thornwood Common cannot equal. For in these days of
ever-increasing, ever harder riding fields, what a pleasure it is sometimes
to get away from the crowd and to watch hounds work in company with
a dozen genuine sportsmen. The Master very wisely keeps, and intends to
keep, his fixtures very quiet. What a wonder he is ! How very few of us will
ever see 84 summers, and fewer still who will be able to go through the
long days in the saddle which he seems to make nothing of.

An important engagement prevented my attending the meet at Bell
Common in the morning, but fortune favoured a two-mile ride in the
afternoon, as I fell in with hounds near Theydon Garnon Church, on their
way to find another hare ; already they had had one clinking gallop across
the grass to the Forest at a great pace. Mr. T. J. Mills, of Garnish Hall,
on a three-year-old, put in an appearance at the same time.

What a glorious afternoon it was ! The soft Favonian breeze seemed
to whisper of the coming spring, and to be telling Nature that it was time
that she woke out of her long winter's sleep. It w^as an afternoon in which
sound seemed to travel most distinctly and sight to be specially clear, and
every tree and fence stood out well defined. To breathe, to live, was a
pleasure ; but the cup that was offered to our lips was brimming over with
nectar. But a truce to this frivoling ; let me sketch, if only in bare outline,
what took place.

Several fields were drawn without finding, including the one that
provided the great Pyrgo run of about a fortnight ago. Would that I had
been out ! The meet had been at Theydon Place in the morning, where the

THE CELERY HARE

185

hospitable owner, Major Tait, in expectation of finding another " celery
hare," had invited the Master and all comers to breakfast. A hare, whether
celery or broccoli fed, history opineth not, was soon on foot, and provided a
capital morning's sport — and two falls to a certain hard-riding young lady.

Sometime, about 2 p.m., the party found themselves in one of Mr.
Pegrum's fields, near the Merry Fiddlers, when up jumped a great Jack
hare, with hounds close at him. Away o'er the brook, which a hard-riding
welter-weight stayed to explore, past Barber's Wood, with Major Tait and
Messrs. R. and D. Smith and young Hurrell, and one or two more with
them. At a great pace they ran over this grass, and rose the hill for Hill
Hall; then dipping down into the valley, crossed the treacherous Roden,
fortunately by handy ford, and getting into a cramped and difficult country,
hounds, within one mile of where they killed, and at least six from where
they found, shook off all their pursuers, and, alone and unattended, killed
this gallant hare. It was the best run, Mr. Vigne affirms, that he had had
for 50 years.

^ M^ A^^^^-^ ^

^/^^ /3^-^^<^^-^^-^

The recipient of this '-quite quiet '' notice from Mr. Vigne announcing a meet of his
Harriers must have been highly favoured, as Mr. Vigne was as chary of letting
anyone know where he was going to meet as he was of jumping a fence. Ed.

I make no apology for this digression, but will proceed at once to tell
you how on Saturday, March 15th, at 3 p.m., with a wonderful intuition,
old Hurrell (the huntsman) selected another very likely field of Mr.
Pegrum's, and was rewarded by a hare jumping up right in view of the
pack, and scudding away down the brook, past Mr. Smith's house, at a
pace that, if they had held on straight, would have left us all behind.
Hounds were all in a cluster as they breasted the hill leading to the Hill
Hall coverts, and every second putting yards between themselves and their
nearest pursuers ; when making a curve on the brow of the hill, we got on
good terms again, and as they swept down into Barber's Wood, and dashed
into it with a crash of music which woke its echoes from end to end.

Young Hurrell dived into Barber's at once, with hounds, while Miss

1 86 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

Philby and one or two more got round on the left; one sportsman, on a
grey, getting a nasty roll, for it wanted a clever one to creep down the bank,
hop over the water at the bottom, and then flip over the hedge on the other
side. Here no doubt hounds divided, the bulk of the pack going away, with
young Hurrell close to them, towards Gaynes Park, while three couples
came out on the left. We had a very merry spin with these over the
meadows, back to Mr. Pegrum's farm, when young Hurrell stopped them,
and joined forces with the other hounds, which were hunting it out near the
Rectory

Very prettily they took it over Mr. Mills's land, and back over the road
and brook, and away up to the covert on the hill again ; back this time
without going into Barber's, and another turn up to the Rectory, hounds
hunting every yard. Swinging past Mr. Mills's plantation they crossed the
road once more, and went up the hill. This time most of us stuck to them
for we could hardly expect a third turn back to Barber's, and were re-
warded by hounds running smartly down towards the river, across a big
plough, and then up to Bush Grove, and through the park, Mr. Philby on
his chesnut mare, followed by his sister on " Paddy," showing the way over
the rails.

Across the grass hounds ran very fast up to the Hall, then bore back
parallel to the road. Fortunately, all the gates were unlocked, and we
could keep hounds in view as they went out at the Shalesmore end, and
then back to Bush Grove, only to come out and run down to the river,
which we did not cross. Turning back over the road up a wheat field,
hounds worked out a double the hare had made in a most marvellous
manner, and went away again at score up to Bush Grove. Unluckily, in
an adjoining plantation a fresh hare got up. Mr. Philby, who seemed to be
in the wars that day, having already had two croppers in his determination
still to be with them, got caught in a bullfinch, and was much cut about
the face. After running some time longer, Hurrell determined to stop
hounds, as it was getting late.

Although these hounds had been running two and a-half hours since I
joined them, and had been hard at work all day, they did not seem to be in
the least tired, which speaks volumes for the kennel management of their
huntsman and the breed of the pack. But there is no finer judge of a
hound in England than old Mr. Vigne.

Jogging home in a very contented frame of mind with the world in
general, and my cob* in particular (a recent present from a polo playing
friend), I fell in with two jubilant staghunters. They sang of a great run
with the stag over a magnificent country, and I subsequently learnt that a
remarkably good day's sport fell to the lot of the Essex — so one and all got
their share of the intoxicating pleasures of the chase on this memorable
Saturday.

A long, dragging day of poor sport had nearly worn itself out in the
North Weald country on Monday, March 17th, when at 4 p.m. we arrived
at Beachetts. Bailey had already half drawn the covert when, remarking to
him that, as he took the far side, I would return by the same side I had
already traversed, I had the good fortune, just as the huntsman was
blowing out of covert, to view a fine old grey fox sneaking along in a very
quiet way. My view holloa brought him to his senses, and he went out
directly hounds were on his track into Gaynes Park Wood, through which
they pressed him very fast, just skirting the polo ground, ran on across
Miss Houblon's lawn, and over Avila's farm, up to the railway crossing.

" Binjimin," given nie by Bob Ball.

THE RUN OF THE SEASON 1 87

0\'er that and the road, into Green's fields, and, re-crossin<,^ tlie rails, made
at a great pace for Coopersale Hall. As we had to gallop to Baxter's
]^ridge to get over the rails, we were most fortunate to have in Henry-
John Miller a pilot who knew an available road. Thinking that hounds
were bearing left-handed again towards Miss Houblon's, I turned into
Baxter's yard under a low gateway in some large wooden doors, but doing
so the cob hit his head, and when I saw hounds turning down the
hill, nothing would induce him to retrace his footsteps. In despair, I
urged some children in the yard to hit him with my whip, and equally
futile were all my own efforts in getting hold of his ears and pulling at the
bit, to induce him to come out of that yard. Not a bit of it, he would not
move, and I was rapidly losing all chance of seeing hounds again, when,
happy thought — perhaps he would back out. To my intense relief this
plan succeeded, and I was free ; but hounds ! oh, where were they ?

Checking, by all that was fortunate, at the bottom of the hill, how that
cob went down I need not express, but the shaking of his head plainly
showed that he had given it a nasty knock. Only just in time did 1 reach
that corner, for hounds were tailing away up Mr. Blott's field, crossing his
drive just below the house. They ran very nicely by Garnish Hall, over
that road down to the brook, near Barber's, which, though a trifling jump,
was too much for Basham's cob, for in it went on to its back, and nothing
short of a cart team would have been of any avail to extricate it from that
awkward position. Not so easy was the next fence on the left of Barber's,
for, although Mr. Fred Green, who was riding a remarkal)ly clever grey,
got over without any apparent effort, Mr. Jones on his thoroughbred mare
" Luxury," was fairly engulfed. Bailey, more knowing, or probably more
intent upon his hounds than anything else, was in the wood with them, and
got out with a scramble over a tree stump. Crossing into Mr. Rumball's
fields, and the narrow belt of trees which forms the framework of one of the
most beautiful parks in Essex, hounds were delayed by the park palings for
a minute before reaching Beachetts, where the run was virtually over, in
spite of showing a line up to Coopersale House. Mr. H.J. Miller, riding
" Merrylegs," a pony belonging to Mr. George Dawson, went remarkably well
in this run, while Mr. George Sewell on his big raking thoroughbred
chestnut mare took a line of his own, with a commanding position all
through. Jim, following him over a very high bank, had a nasty fall,
and was black and blue for a week afterwards.

The run of the season with the Essex Hounds, and some affirm the
best they have ever had, took place on Saturday, March 22nd, after the
annual meeting had been previously held at the Green Man, Harlow.

No one seemed to have the slightest idea where the first draw would be.
Some speculated that they would go to the right for Moor Hill ; others said
a quick thing from the rough fields near Barnsley's might leave all in the
lurch who were not at the meet ; while the suggestion of Mark Hall and
Weir Hatches found many adherents ; but few, I trow, ever anticipated
that, after a sharp three-mile trot, which shook off all the foot people, they
would find themselves on the north-east side of Harlow Park at twelve
o'clock.

Scarce had hounds been put in, when a fox came out on the Latton side,
right under Colonel AUsopp's feet, but, evidently frightened, beat a hasty
retreat. " Tally-ho, back ! " from the stentorian lips of the gallant Colonel,
put some 200 riders and their steeds into a quiver of excitement. Person-
ally I know no more exciting moment in a day's hunting than the first
whimper of a hound or view of a fox ; for has not sad experience taught one
that unless you do get a start with the lady pack, when there is a scent,

155 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

you have as much chance of overtaking them before tlie fun is over as of
catching your own shadow.

Was that the same fox, Colonel, whose greyhound form was pointing
like a winged arrow for Latton Park ere the faint ripple of your lusty cry
had reached the huntsman in the distant part of the covert ? I fancy not ;
but " yo-onder he goes," comes from healthy lungs, and down charged the
heavy brigade for the gate into the Harlow road. " Hold hard down the road,
sir," was no meaningless cry, for hounds were not yet out. Soon they were.
How they flung over the grass into the Park. Did you take your shower
bath, my dear fellow, with a good grace, as you were bespattered and
bespattered the galloping throng that, led by the Master, could just keep
touch of the bitch pack, as with eager jealousy they tore through the covert.
" Give them a moment on the plough." " They have got it, now you may

Harlow Park

go," came from the Master's lips ; " and you will not want pulling up again
before Parndon Wood is reached, I can fancy," he muttered, "a good mile
and a half, if it was a yard, and every inch of it plough."

A ravishing scent, the rise of the hill against us, and even the soundest
going on the headland deep to a degree, was all in favour of hounds, while a
deep gully that soon faced us after crossing a road was provocative of as
much delay as a narrow bridle gate to a Leicestershire crowd. A few,
relying upon a season's condition to pull them through, made the running
across the middle of the fields, prominently Mr. R. Ball and Miss Maudie
Dawson, who has inherited her father's keenness and hard-riding qualities.
They and Mr. Bevan were probably the first to reach Parndon Woods,
with Bailey and the hounds ; but this was only the commencement of the run,
and certainly took more out of the horses than any other part of it, for they
had not gained their second wind, and had been sent along at top pressure.

The pack ran on through the woods in a bee line without a check ; deep,

HARK ! that's JI.m's HALLOA 189

holding and muddy were the rides, as we splashed and iloundered through
the yielding clay. Hounds faltered a few seconds, as they gained the
furthest of the three woods — Long Wood, I think it is called — valuable
seconds for the fox ; more valuable still for those who had not maintained
good places. But after all it was only for seconds hounds lingered, as they
had the clue again, and were out at the top end. There was only room for
one at a time between the rabbit netting and the wood, so you could only
earnestly urge the man in front to go faster, and trust to luck to catch
hounds again. Probably the fox was headed at Mr. Burchell's, for hounds
very suddenly turn to the left, and brought down the ivrath of the Master upon
a delinquent on an iron-grey horse, who was right over the line, while a
resolute crowd stood ready to charge the cut-down-edge with ditch towards,
as hounds dashed forward again over the road — an easy place into it for a
horse that could creep ; and a very negotiable, if rather blind fence, landed
us safely out of it on to the grass.

The warning cry of " Wire " only just reached Mr. F. Green in time, for
he was bearing straight down on some tempting, but wire-guarded rails.
Two more fences turned this deadly obstruction and brought us to Nasing
Common. At the same time the Master issued a cordial and general invi-
tation for anyone to override them who could— a sheer impossibility, as
hounds were simply coursing over this tract of undrained land, deep, holding
clay, once spoken of as the future Wimbledon.

The turf was soundest near the hedge, but even there it was a case of
dipping up and down over its billowy hills like a ship in a storm-tossed sea.
Notwithstanding, some who had blood that could go were making play
across it as if finishing for the Derby. But little they recked that the run
was not half over. I trow you pitied those four or five struggling horsemen
who, right in the centre of the common, were very soon like water-logged
ships, unable to make any headway whatever. Starting at a gay gallop
they were presently reduced to a trot, which, subsiding into a walk, ended
in a total collapse. A good mile of this and we were at Nasing Coppice.
If we had to put up with a shower bath at Latton Park, we were fairly irrigated
with mud and water as we plunged through pond after pond in the Coppice
ride.

Lucky if you followed Mr. Arkwright's lead on the left and kept out of
it. Hot and glowing, three-and-a-half miles from the start, without the
semblance of any real check, we were away again from the Coppice, bearing
left-handed towards Deer Park. Mr. E. Ball dived over the next fence
under a tree, while Bailey, a bit to the right, whipped over the rails in the
corner, followed by Mr. Arkwright on " Actress " and Mr. Avila on a blood
chesnut, and in the same order crossed a slippery wooden bridge at the
bottom of a rough stubble field, rose the hill, and found themsehes at
Deer Park, the turning point, as it proved, of many a man's place and
position in the later part of the run.

Over the hurdle into the wood, after Mr. Hart, jun., who is blessed with
his father's knack of stealing over a country without ever appearing to be
in a hurry ; down the boggy ride ; we were getting used to them, and by
the time we got through, there was not a sound to be heard or a hound
to be seen. '■^ Hark ! that's Jim's holloa." He had viewed the fox away in
the direction of Galley Hills. Up the green lane, through which the van
on the right, led by the Master, desperately plodded, for it was fairly up to
horse's hocks ; but even to gain this miry lane it had been a case of the
first come the first served, for there was only one possible place into it — a
deep, boggy hole. Never did gad-fly tickled bullocks stampede for a cooling
pond and mud-bath with greater eagerness than the sixty or seventy

I go

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

thrusters on the right rode for this muddy outlet. The first ten or fifteen
lost little ; but if you allowed ten yards for lost ground (never to be reco-
vered for the next six miles), for each man that came after them, you would
not have been far out in your calculation. I know one man,- who was
riding a blood mare that can stay, gallop, and jump anything. I can vouch
for his heart being in the right place ; but with bachelor politeness he got

Mrs. Handfield Jones

through that gap about fiftieth, and never got to hounds again before
Epping Forest was reached. Possibly this was only another indication of
the great pace hounds were going all the time.

Mrs. Mandfield Jones, n(fc Maud Dawson, second daughter
of George Hogarth Dawson, was, before she married, as fond

G Sewell.

GALLEY HILLS TO EPPINC; I9I

of hunting as her father, to whose early and careful tuition she
doubtless owed the oraceful seat and good hands that always
enabled her to hold her own with the best when the pace
had made the company very select.

Fortune continued to favour those who steered their course on the left ;
for the hounds came right across their front just before touching Galley
Hill. Over the first grass field after leaving the lane, no one, not even the
huntsman, could manage more than a trot, so deep and holding was the soil.
\"ery heavy, too, was the next one, recently sown ; but it was down hill.
Shut off the steam doivn hill, is Bromley-Davenport's advice, and not bad
advice either : and Mr. Lockwood, who was leading at this point, remem-
bered it. Necessary, too, for there were two awkward, trappy jumps at the
bottom which landed you into the road. There was galloping room in the
next grass field, too rusty a hue for permanent pasture.
On, on,

. . For the bitches were racing before us,
Not a nose to the earth, not a stern in the air;
And we knew by the notes of that modified chorus.
How straight we must ride if we meant to be there !

The more left-handed you steered the worse was the next fence to be nego-
tiated. Even Mr. F. Green's willing roan declined to he landed on it, and
persuaded his owner to try lower down.

Hounds just touched the plantation on the right of Shatter Bushes, and
then went away up the hill towards Cobbins-end. It was a big order to
request even a blood one to execute — the stiff post and rails up the hill — but
the shortest way is the usual one chosen by Mr. A. Kemp, and his good
black mare was asked to attempt it. But with a due regard for her owner's
neck, she fiatly declined. In the meantime they could be easily turned by
jumping o\'er a bank and small brook. If your horse had not recovered
his second wind as you rose the next plough and dipped down to the
Cobbins Brook, his chance was gone. Over the brook by the bridge, a
momentary falter in the road, a salutary " hold hard " from the Master, and
we were ding-donging on again as hard as ever. Only those near hounds
ever get those momentary respites — rare pulls in their favour. Those in
the back ground knew nothing about them, but had to keep for ever pegging
away in the vain endeavour to come up to the front. Turning slightly to
the right, Mr. Kemp let daylight into a bullfinch, and was pulled off;
while Mr. R. Ball's horse, ivhisking high and strong into the air, landed him
safely over. The next fence, a wattled hedge with ditch on the far side,
was a fair test on the go left in your horse, for it would not stand trifling
with.

By Spratt's hedgerow, which was just touched on the right, a man was
seen frantically waving his arm, indicating the direction the fox had taken.
But " let well alone " holds good with hounds equally with horses' tails, so,
although there was a momentary hesitation, Bailey never touched them,
but let them work it out. The man had evidently turned the fox. Hitting
it off into the rookery plantation, you had to rush through and jump out
quickly, to be with hounds, as they rattled over the hill into Jenkins's
Spinney and over the long brook-divided mead. Reaching the brow of the
next hill, Epping town could be seen in the distance, with the pack driving
steadily on before you.

The two following fences were fully as honest as any that came in the
run — the first, a down-hill jump, over a blackthorn fringed ditch ; the next,

ig:

LF.AVKS FROM A IIUNTINC. niAKV

a scramble over a high bank. One more field, and we reached the Bury
Road. Crossmj^f it we were on the well-drained land farmed by Mr. G.
Pegrum. Hounds probably ran .slower at this part of the run than any
other. It is well known that there is little scent with a sinking fox; but
still they dribbled steadily on, right up to Shaftesbury Farm ; and crossing
a deep lane, ran very prettily parallel with the Lindsey Street road, over
Mr. y\rthur Wliipps' grass fields, not a yard of barbed wire in any of them
— Mr. W'liipps is much too good a sportsni;m to encourage that.

Lieut.-Col. Hon. W. H. Allsopp

A series of six razor banks and ditches had to be negotiated, much to the
delight of tlie Lindsey Street population, for one and all left their dinner-
to watch the fun. One enthusiast was so excited that he took his hnifc and
fork with him, and so armed jumped several fences. Another reliable eye-
witness has assured me that sportsmen came dribbling up for hours after-
wards wanting to know where hounds were. A local contingent, headed by
Messrs. Ball, galloped furiously up Lindsey Street parallel with the hounds.
They were too maddened with excitement to hear the holloa from Mr. Aldred,
who had just viewed the fox at the back of his house, struggling across one
of my fields. He was five minutes in front of hounds then, which he
succeeded in making ten by the time — weary, worn, and tired — he was
viewed with draggled brusli crawling into the Forest — a six-mile point, as

LIEUT.-COL. THE HON. W. H. ALLSOPP

19:

the crow flies, from Galley Hills. Hounds carried the Hne right up to
Miss Abbatt's School, and, happy omen! up to within fifty yards of the
Master's grounds. Here four hounds turned back on the very track the fox
had taken, behind the chapel. At the same time, a holloa over the road
could be distinctly heard. Had Bailey turned into Mr. Whipps' yard
instead of going through my fields, he would have been right on the track
of the fox ; but even then I question whether he would have caught him,
for scent is rarely good in the Forest, and hounds could never speak to a
line again, though their waving sterns proclaimed their suspicions. They
had been running for sixty-five minutes up to Epping town, and must have
covered at least twelve miles. It was a grand run, grass, woodland, and
plough, and thrust and thirst from start to finish.

Lieut.-Col. the Hon. W. H. Allsopp was Major in the 3rd
Battalion Worcestershire Militia when this portrait on his good
grey horse "Coroner" was taken at the Norton Camp,
Worcester. " Coroner" was a good performer in any country,
and when in the hands of Mr. T. G. Smith, of Worcester,
from whom the Colonel bought him, he jumped the Crowle
brook, and although carrying 15 st. in the Essex Welter
race at Rundells in 1890, came in third, with his owner
— the Colonel — up. All men who hunted with the Essex
were very sorry when the Colonel gave up his winter
quarters at the Green Man, Harlow, and sought fresh fields
and pastures new, for he was a very cheery companion in the
hunting field, a good man across country and a staunch
supporter of the local races, in which he generally had a
flutter. The Colonel's love of horses has taken him into a
wider field. In 1896 we find him holding the office of
President of the Hunters' Improvement Society, with which,
as one of its most active members, he has ever since so closely
identified himself.

13

Darnley

CHAPTER \TI.

Darnley — Architect — 5/;- Claud dc Crespigny — Hypatica—The Funkev — Mr.
Colviu's Golden Lady — Jachdaw — Totncs—Rosc of Devon — The River
Dart — J Good \Vin--Lord Alfred — Hop Bitters — 5;^. Deverenx — True
Love for Germany — Bryn — Verbena — A Bad Conveyance — A. J. Tzi'eed—
Woodside — 1 890-91, a Poor Season — W. Synies' Cnimpler — Snoiv Wreaths —
The Queen of the Valley — W. Morris — Ed. Neave. — The Merry Fiddlers —
Let Well Alone— Workman— Henry Petre—A Mud Bath—Capt. Dn
Cane — Matching Green, 1891 — A Deal in the Hunting Field — Dr. Syntax—
Weston's Patent — Griffin's Wood — The Peel Family — D. Cuuliffc Smith —
The General Meeting — Mr. Green Resigns.

Ml\. H. R. B. TWEED certainly chose a pretty name when
he assumed the historic one of " I)arnle\'," l^iit unHke
that luckless mortal, he has held it untarnished and covered it
with the laurels of the chase. Coming of a i^ood s])ortinn" stock,
his father, a parson, hein^" as fond of shooting- as a day's
hunting, Mr. Tweed was entered to hoimds at a very early
aoe, antl his is one of the few figures I can so vividly recall,
looking back through a vista of twenty \ ears, that used to
charge with such avidity the overgrown Roothing ditches in
brambly October. Wonderfully has he kept his nerve, and
great have been his successes between the flags in Essex
and other parts of the country, as we all know well. His
brother, too, Mr. A. J. Tweed, whose good hunter, "Wood-
side," accomjKuiies this sketch, has nin him close, and is

196 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

always in '^rcat request at the time of point-to-point chases ;
l)ut methinks the music of hounds has more charms for him
than the clano" of the sadclHno- bell, or the hoarse shouts of the
mol). exciting as it may be, to win a ding-dong race by a
short neck. Many of the farmers' chasers has Mr. Tweed
ridden, none better than Mr. James Rust's " Architect," on
which he won the Farmers' Steeplechase at Champion Lodge,
we believe in the year 1886. Mr. Rust wears the trophy, a
gold watch, given by Sir Claud de Crespigny, to this day,
and no doubt thinks of the old horse every time he winds it
up after a heavy market-day at Chelmsford.

Another good horse of the same class with which Mr.
Tweed was successful was Mr. Herbert Richardson's "Marvel,"
on which he won the Shrubland Park Steeplechase at Ipswich
in 1890. His brother subsequendy won the Essex Union
Point-to- Point on this horse, while Mr. Darnley was trying
to sleep off slight concussion sustained at Galleywood the
day before. ^lention may be made of one or two more
good chasers which Mr. Tweed steered to victory for other
Essex sportsmen, commencing with Mr. H. B. Dickinson's
" Hypatica," a thoroughbred mare by " Blair Adam," and
bred by Mr. Dickinson on his ranche in Argentina. She
won the Roothing Steeplechase at Galleywood in 1888; the
last time Mr. Tweed rode her she fell with him at the drop
fence near the entrance gate at Reed Hall, Colchester, and
lay across him w^ith her legs going round his head like the
sails of a windmill. Calling to a dragoon standing by to
catch her legs, pull her over and free him, he received the
reply. "What about her kicking me?" Fortunately a better
plucked niessmate came running up and soon did as Mr.
Tweed required, using at the same time some very strong-
epithets to the funker.

Mr. R. B. Colvin's "Merrythought" was a good mare.
Mr. Tweed won the Open Race at the Essex Hunt Meeting
in 1 89 1 on her, and quite expected a sequence of wins had
she not developed a leg. He thinks, however, that "Golden
Lady " was the best of Mr. Colvin's that he ever rode. In
1890 she Won the Open Race at the East Essex Hunt
Meeting at Galleywood, with Tippler up, and within an hour
Mr. Tweed rode her for the Hunt Cup over the same
course, when, in spite of being knocked down at the water
jump he caught the field of .seven before they rounded the
Church, and won in a canter. Unluckily she also developed a
leg. As good a looking one, but up to more weight and a

iqS leaves from a hunting diary

line l)()kl rciiccr. was Mr. Colvin's " Knight Templar," on which
Mr. Tweed won the Hunt Plate at Colchester in 1891, and
the Hunt Cup at the East Tlssex Meeting at Galleywood in
the same vear. 1 Jarring-, however, his old friend, Lord Alfred,
Mr. Tweed thinks ihat Mr. (i. Vane Milbank's "Jackdaw"
was the best fencer and oamest horse he ever rode in a
steeplechase. In 1S94 he won the Essex and Suffolk Hunt
Plate at Colchester on him and the P^ast Essex Plate at
Galleywood.

Mr. Tweed's expcM-iences, however, are not confined to
Essex : he is not likely to forget the natural fences he
had to tackle o\er the Totnes course in Devonshire, when,
in addition to the huge stone-faced banks peculiar to that
country, the river Dart had to be forded twice, not to mention
travelling over 300 yards of high road. It was in September,
1891, when riding Mr. H. C. Collier's "Rose of Devon''
over this course, Mr. Tweed missed the ford and fell into a
hole in the river. By the time he had scrambled out the
leading horse had secured a quarter of a mile start. Bustling
along to catch him, Mr. Tweed fell again at the ditch on the
hill. h^)rtunately there was still a mile-and-a-half to go ; so
losing no time, he again went in pursuit, and gradually
wearing the leader down, won in a canter. A good per-
formanc(^ indeed, two falls and a win.

We now come to a few of Mr. Tweed's steeplechasers
which have carried him well to hounds, and with the exception
of "St. Devereux," which his brother rode, have been ridden
by him in all their races.

Starting with "Lord Alfred." whose portrait, with Richard
Driscoll, trainer to Mr. C. W. Waller, at Royston, Cambs, is
herewith given, we have to chronicle a succession of brilliant
victories. This game horse, a chestnut gelding, stood 17
hands ; he was bred in Ireland in 1882 by "Aeronaut" out of
"Barbara" by "Bar One" — a mare noted for foaling good
jumpers, as she was the dam also of " F'atherland," "Golden
Dream " and "(iolden Ring."

" Lord Alfred's " performances while in Mr. Tweed's posses-
sion were the following :

November ^th, 1891, won Hunters' Selling Steeplechase
of ^25 at Galleywood, beating a field of 8. Distance 2 J miles,
weight 12 stone 7 lbs.

April \%tli, 1892, won the United Hunt Steeplechase
Plate at Colchester of ^25. Distance 3 miles, weight
12 stone 10 lbs.

LORD ALFRED

199

April 22ud, 1S92, won the F^ciston Park Steeplechase
at Ipswich of £^0. beating- *'Too Much," "Carlsbad" and
5 others. Distance 3 miles, weight 12 st. The day before
the last performance he ran in the United Hunt Cup at
Rundells, and when i>"oin^- well was knocked over by the
swerving" "Covert Side" at the open ditch beyond the Stand.

April 2%th, 1892. won the East Essex Steeplechase Plate
of ^21 at Galley wood. Distance 2\ miles, weight 13 st. 3 lbs.

May lotk, 1892, won the Hamilton Stakes Steeplechase
of ^42, at Buncray, beatino- "Covert Side" and two others.
Distance 3 miles, weight [3 st. 7 ll)s.

Lord Alfred " and Richard Driscoll

November 10///, 1892, won the United Hunt Steei)lechase
of ^21 at Gallevwood. Distance 2t,- miles, weio-ht i^ st.
3 lbs. ^ - ' \

November \jih, 1892, won the Open Steeplechase of ^,40
at Bury St. Edmunds. Distance 3 miles, weight 13 st. 7 lbs.

April 6ik 1893, won the Roothing Steeplechase of £^0
at the Essex Hunt Meeting at Rundells. Distance 3 miles,
weight 13 St. 7 lbs.

November 2ird, 1893, '^^OJ'^ the Essex Open Steeplechase
of .^30 at Galleywood. Distance 3 miles, weight 13 st. 3 lbs.

On April ^th, 1894, "Lord Alfred " ran in the Light Weight

200 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

Hunt Cup at the Essex Hunt Meeting- at Rundells. and when
leading three fences from home missed his stride in taking off
at a small fence with a narrow trappy ditch on the take-off side,
got too close, blundered on landing, half recovered himself and
then turned head over heels, breaking his back behind the
saddle. A gun was sent for. but the poor old fellow died
before it arrived. The old horse was a bit hot with hounds,
fidgety on a bad day, but all there when hounds ran. He was
a bad roarer from his youth up. but used to catch his second
wind after going a mile. He was a perfect hack, and could
carry himself jauntily into Chelmsford after an 1 8-mile ride
home without having once tripped his toe during the journey,
a feat which is beyond the power of most thoroughbreds.
" Lord Alfred" only gave Mr. Tweed four falls, one in a run
from Forest Hall to the High Woods, when he got too close to
a grass-grown ditch ; another, when leading a youngster at
school over Mr. Tweed's steeplechase course at Woodham,
when he took off too far away from the brook and struck the
opposite bank ; the third, when he rolled over Mr. Tweed at
Bedford by taking off in the furrow of a ridge and furrow field,
the fence being on the top of the ridge and pretty stiff ; and the
last, when he was killed at Rundells. So long as he met no
animal which chopped him for speed before he got his second
wind, he could always stay the 3 miles, and even when beaten
he would" keep on struggling and jumping faultlessly. He
was an invaluable schoolmaster for young horses, as he
fenced in such good form, and young'uns, we know, always
take their cue from the schoolmaster. As a hunter he had
the great defect common to the English thoroughbred ; he
could not stand what the late Harry Hieover called the "day
labourer part of the business." Three days a fortnight
would get him dreadfully light and put him off his feed.
Instead of turning his attention to his winter oats, he would be
dreaming of Bailey and his horn.

"Hop Bitters." a brown gelding by " Barbillion " out of
" Hopbine," was a good stamp of the thoroughbred hunter,
standing 15-3. long and low, with a rare back. He was a good
mount when hounds ran, but nervous and irritable when his
mind was not intent on business ; he was no good for boring a
hole through a hairy place in a pottering run. Mr. Tweed
remembers Mr. Carnegy saying to him, after refusing such an
obstacle, " Pull out of the way, and let me have a go ; my fellow
does not mind scratching his face."

" Hop Bitters " won the Essex United Hunt Cup of /30 at

nJtg .

wg

•es

ogo:

^ o S o

P O -MT3 O

u:^

i! nJ

202 LEAVES EROM A HUNTING DIARY

Ruiulclls. on A])ril lOth, 1890. Distance 3 miles, weight 13 st.
4 11). Prcxious to this race he had not been out of the stable
tor ten clays, owing to a leg, which always gave Mr. Tweed a
lot of trouble in ^training the horse ; otherwise he would have
won more steeplechases.

"St. Devereux," by " Mornington " out of " Schehallion "
1)\ " Blair Athol," was a good hunter and fencer. Rather high
on the leg and narrow to follow, but with a lion's heart in him,
he was what the dealers call a light-'earted oss, always had a
kick in him, and would land one very warm at the meet. Mr.
Tweed relates that once, after riding him in a tremendous
gallop with the Essex Union, after one of Mr. William
Gardiner's good foxes, from Noak Wood up to Thundersley,
eight miles as the crow flies, and getting one fall, he let fly
at a cart going through Rayleigh on the way home.

"St. Devereux" won the Roothing Steeplechase at Galley-
wood, in 1890.

" True Love," a brown mare by " Philammon " out of
" \'era," was very good looking and had perfect manners with
hounds. She had had a hard two-year-old season in Ireland,
running second several times to good horses, and her heart
was broken by whip and spur ; Mr. Tweed ran her several
times in 1891, and never touched her with either; but early
punishment had ruined her, and if she landed over the last
fence in a race with a strong advantage, she would begin to
shut off steam when she heard the shouting. So perhaps Mr.
Tweed did well when he sold her to go to the stud in Germany.

" Bryn," a very clever chestnut gelding by "Sweetbread"
out of " Chaff," was hunted as a three, four and five year old by
Mr. Tweed : he and his brother were joint owners of the horse,
and sold him as a six-year-old to Mr. C. \'. Tabor, who won
the United Hunt Cup at Rundells with him in 1896 ; and also
beat a big held at Woodbridge, Suffolk, for the Woodbridge
Plate.

If Mr. Tweed has had his share of good ones, he has not
escaped a clumsy one or two ; perhaps " Verbena," which gave
him eight falls between Screens and the High \\'oods, during
one run in 1889, was about the worst.

" 7 he best conveyance to hounds I L-jer rodc^ So wrote Mr.
A. J. Tweed, when he sent me the photo of this well-known
animal, a bay gelding by " Pride of England," dam by the
" Hadji." Standing 16 hands, but on very short legs, he did
not appear nearly so high ; he was very successful in the show
ring, carrying oft first prize in the 14 st. class for hunters, first

WOODSIDE

20-

in the lii^ht-wei^iu class, and Champion Cup for the best
hunter in the show at the h^ssex Aoricultural Meeting at
Romtord in 1893, and a first and second prize at Ross Horse
Show in 1893, ^"<^ two thirds at Hereford in the same year.
In 1894 he won the Essex Welter Point to Point, carrying
14 St. at Great Easton, when the going was cruelly heavy, and
followed this up by winning a steeplechase at Ipswich. He
was a rare performer across country, and would tackle anything
one liked to ride him at : Mr. Tweed says that he never got
to the bottom of him. He sold him eventually to Sir Gilbert
Greenall, the present Master of the Belvoir Hounds.

Mr. A. J. Tweed's " Woodside '

Tlie season of 1890-91 will always be remembered as about the worst
on record, owing to three things: — dry cub hunting period, a very long
and continued spell of frost, a very dry and early spring.

It opened so badly that I really thought it hardly worth while writing a
diary. Nor did I start to pen these lines until March 7th, 1891. I
remember one good morning's cub hunting from Nasing Coppice, from
whence we ran a fox to Warlies, and killed in the open. I remember
Matching Green, and associate with it a very indifferent run.

I remember about a week afterwards being out in the Shatter Bushes
country, when, jumping into a road I jarred my spine, and had to be driven
home in a farmer's cart, and I did not ride again for about ten weeks, frost
intervening. I remember hunting one Wednesday, some time very near the
end of January, and having a very fair morning, finishing up with a good
gallop from Mark Hall to North Weald on my old grey pony.

^ b a,

o c

I ^

DC

WILLIAM SYMES HAS A BAD FALL 205

I remember going down that Wednesday night to Rugby and hunting
next day with the Warwickshire, and the following day with the Atherstone
when I got two falls. I remember the week after going down to Rugby
again and having a day with the North Warwickshire, and the following
day with the Pytchley, and early in the run coming to grief over a gate ;
which accident provoked a comment in the Field from " Brooksby," and
hurting my back again made necessary a lift home in a butcher's cart, and
ten weeks' rest before I could ride again.

Saturday, March 7th, 1891. Stag hounds at Magdalen Laver. For
quite six weeks there had been no rain and the Master at once told us on
our arrival that there would be no scent. Mr. Harrison provided a very
good luncheon at Mr. Lucking's house. Almost directly the deer was un-
carted (an untried stag) a very heavy storm of rain came on. We had a
ringing run of about two hours round by Weald Bridge, Sewald's Hall,
Harlow Park, eventually taking at Harlow ; the deer having broken his
fetlock had to be killed. Within two miles of Harlow, Mr. William Symes'''
on his mare " Miss Templar " got in a ditch, and with his mare on the top
of him, it looked like being a very nasty thing ; luckily there was plenty of
help at hand, and after about half an hour's work we managed to get him
out ; he seemed to be in a great deal of pain, so we had him driven home.
A great many of the followers of the foxhounds were out, including Major
Tait, W. and G. Sewell, Miss Oliver, Messrs. Endon Oliver, E. Ball, F.
Ball, H. E. Jones, Miss Jones, Messrs. Caldecott, Avila, Howard, Symes
(two), Scruby, Tyndale White, Barclay, Arkwright, and Caldwell.

Monday, March 9th, Dagenham. I did not go to the meet, but left home
about 1.45 p.m. and fell in with hounds at Lambourn End. Colonel Lock-
wood's coverts all being drawn blank, also the Forest (Hainault) ; it was
determined to go on to Loughton Shaws, which had not been drawn for two
years ; here we found, as luck would have it, and had a capital scamper up
to the Forest, where he got to ground ; very few were left to see the end,
C. E. Green, Mr. F. Green and his daughter, Mr. S. Caldwell and Avila
with the hunt servants. The same evening as we rode home (it had been
bitterly cold all day) it commenced to snow and by early morning it lay to
the depth of four inches everywhere, with heavy drifts in places and about
four feet deep just outside my house.

Tuesday, March loth. The snow had by no means melted, and it was
very cold and snowing again towards evening.

There was no stint or lack of cheer when Mr. Harris issued a hearty
welcome, to one and all, to a capital champagne luncheon at Passmores on
the occasion of the Staghounds meeting there on Saturday, March 14th. A
goodly throng, (which, but for snow-bound banks and ditches, would have
been of much larger dimensions), put in an appearance. The deer — a hind,
a well-known heroine of last season, but which this season had not been tried
before — was enlarged at about a quarter to one, and immediately pointed
for Parndon Woods.

When the hounds were laid on they settled to it at once, and it was
quickly evident that in spite of the snow there was a scent on the plough, and
equally certain that horses do not understand snow-filled ditches, for at the
second the Master came down. It was all plough — heavy plough, sir ; but
it made all the difference v/hether you were near the pack or a quarter of
a mile to the bad, as to the way you get over it. If you followed the Major
down the headland, you could note how beautifully the hounds were running

* Mr. Symes has done little or no hunting since.— Ed.

2o6 LKAVKS FROM A IIUNTINC DIARY

down the furrows! \Vh;it a pace tliey went; liow forcibly a pro-cham-
pagne remark came to your mind—" That they would run clean away
from us."

Nearing Rye Hill Common. Locked by all that is venerable ! and "Done,
Sir ! " we exclaimed, as we scanned the gate. No, there was a corner on
the left, but you had to gallop left-handed after Mr. Hart before you
regained hounds, as they raced over the grass meadows up to Mr. Prior's
farm, and over Mr. Rickett's big newly-drained field, over which the
Master, Mr. Hart, Major Tait and Mr. Morris were nearest to hounds.

Entering the Lower Forest at Thornwood Gate, hounds ran through it
at a great pace over the Epping Road, and then turned right-handed by the
side of the line. The Master's grey whipped round at the cleaned-out ditch
near the brick-fields, but yielded at the second attempt, accompanied with
a fierce stab of the spur, for the hounds were racing up the grass.

Never stand dreaming, while yonder they're streaming ;
If ever you meant it, mean it to-day ;
Bold ones are riding, and fast t)nes are striding.
The Queen of the Valley is forward, away !

So Mr. Neave's lead was quickly accepted. Oh, you road skirters ! You
missed some fun as you passed under the bridge and shirked the line, for
the Oueen of the Valley had run parallel with it ; the Master was over the
next fence — a bank, sir, with a snow-filled ditch — and the hard-riding
stranger on the bay was on his head, but had time to catch a funker's cob
— mine, sir — before he got on again. Those who whisked over Mr. Avila's
spiked palings into his wood you could count on one hand, while some on
the left were making good play, led by that bold and accomplished horse-
man. Ah, the young one did credit to her pedigree. Who will ever forget
Mr. T. J. Mills' " Polly " ? and with Sir Peter's blood, she can waltz through
the stickiest plough. Oh ! Sewell, was it the pace that made the gallant
chesnut stick his head out and decline the thorny fence into the road ?"-^'

Mr. George Hart, Mr. Avila, and Mr. E. Neave (the Master and
A.D.C.) were in the position they had maintained, and would maintain to
the end which had not come yet. How they raced over the beans ! The
fences were trappy, but the lane was handy for Mr. Scruby and others.
Hold hard, sir, on the Coopersall road, and take out your watch — thirty-
three minutes to here, and seven miles as the crow flies will take a lot of
beating. But the Queen of the Valley had grown distrustful of the snow
wreaths, or was determined to let the roadsters have another chance, for she
went, unviewed by any of us, towards Theydon Mount, and, bearing left-
handed, led us nearly up to Toot Hill before leaving the road to plunge
through a dark corner of Ongar Park Wood.

How cleverly Mr. Hart's horse did the bank into the wood ! If you
wished to see hounds come out and hit the line off over the big grass
meadow leading to Ongar Park Farm, when blanched she had swung to
the right towards Blake Hall Station, you had no time to lose. Another
snow-bound fence, and the Master's grey flipped over the rails, with a yard
to spare, into the hock-deep snow. Mr. Howard was just over the stile in
time to turn them — did he mean it ? — as they left the small wood near the
line (" Mr. Morris, you certainly cleared away a lot of snow when you stood

* The same fence and same cob, vide run in '96. Really, Sewell, you must get a fresh hunter
before you iry that fence again. -Ed.

WILLIAM MORRIS

\oy

on your head "). Another mile, and we took the deer at the homestead of
as good a sportsman as ever got into the pigskin — Mr. George Brown ;
and a dozen miles, as bounds ran, in sixty-five minutes, is what we made it,
our only regret being that none of the fair sex — and many started — were there
to see the Queen of the Valley taken.

William Morris on his favourite grey

This good horse, formerly the property of Mr. C. E. Green,
is fairly typical of the class of animal that gentleman used to
buy to carry his weight over the Essex ploughs. Mr. Morris
declares that he never had and never wishes for a better one.
We can quite believe this when Mr. Morris, who always rides
as straight as a gun barrel, tells us that in the five seasons he
has ridden him, the grey, who loves timber and iron sheep
hurdles as much as he does his own manger — for he is a rare
doer — has never once put him down. The horse loves hounds,

!08

LEAVES FROM A IIUNTIN(] DIARY

and on one occasion with sla^hoinuls and when g'omg at a
hrook, stopped dead to allow a tail hound, that unnoticed by
Mr. Morris had slipped in front of him, to get over, and then
pulling himself together hopped over at a stand.

Mr. Neave acted as a whip (perhaps one of the most nerve-
trviiiL^- operations) to staghounds for several seasons. This was
durin'o- the mastershij) of his brother. Mr. Sheffield Neave, of
the Essex Staohounds. To bring on the tail hounds over a
stiff countr\ when all vour friciuls are lost to sight (though

Edward Neave

l)erhaps to memory dear, according to the way they have been
riding), or turn hounds at the end of a long run on a tired horse,
a man must ha\ c his heart in the right place; but who ever knew
a Neave with his heart in the wrong one ? So Mr. Edward
Neave. with his horsemanship, bold riding, and inexhaustible
patience, made an ideal whij).

The Merry Fiddlers was the fixture for the last day of the season
1890-91, and a dark-clad lot of sportsmen they were who turned up to see
the last act of the drama on Saturday, April 4th. Dark clothed ? Yes,
certainly ; for, lieside the Master, the Messrs. Price and Waters were the
only sportsmen who had donned the orthodox pink. But, messieurs, the
day was worthy of a pink. Jim Cockayne, who since Bailey had been laid
up had carried the horn with such success, cheered on the hounds — a mixed

COCKAYNE HUNTS THE HOUNDS

209

pack, as they silently drew Barbers, Bush Grove, and the remainder of the
Hill Hall coverts. I will not recount the names of all the other preserves
drawn blank ; but in the Gaynes Park Wood a great dog fox was viewed,
to which hounds stuck for sixty minutes, mostly woodland hunting, until
they fairly pulled him down in the open near Mr. Hart's.

Ikit the run of the day has yet to be described. It was getting late, and
the wind that came up from the east in cold and fitful puffs brought up a
dampish mist. Many had gone home, little recking what was in store ;
others dallied behind, of whom, more anon ; but a select few were fortunate
enougli to see hounds thrown into Harlow Park, the far side of which Jack
only just gained in time to get a view of the fox that broke across the road
for Latton Park. And a great dog fox it was that the first echo of Jim's
voice had startled from his kennel. Not a second did Jim lose getting the
hounds out of covert ; the ride through Latton lay handy enough to keep

The Merry Fiddlers

you in touch of hounds as they drove forward, gladdening the heart of old
Boatman (the keeper), as he got a view of pursued and pursuers. We were
impatient and in great hopes, as hounds ran steadily through the wood ;
but when they crossed our front for a moment, and a moment only, we
were in doubt. But forward away, in the direction of Parndon, set our
minds at rest, and we jostled as eagerly for the outlet to the open as a
schoolboy rushing for his playground. Mr. T. J. Mills was going very
strong up to Rye Hill Common. (There is only one drawback to the
common — there are two boggy watercourses running right across it, and
when hounds race over it as they did that night I will defy you to keep
pace with them.) The Master had a valuable horse in the grey he was
riding, for he was over the common as soon as anyone, and leading the van
as we steeplechased over the next two or three grass fields.

2 lO

I.EAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

A momentary hesitation on the plough at the left of Maries Farm — a
very welcome one to the young squire whose fox we were running, and who
here, after a hard and stern chase, had managed to catch us. Alas ! Endon,
why didn't you persevere a little longer ? Getting on the grass again,
hounds pressed on into Maries. Some legitimate doubts may be expressed
as to why Mr. Parham did not join us at this spot; why the welter on the
roan rode so forward ; as to the exact spot where Mr. Sorrell lost his hat ;

J. Brockett Sorrell

and where Messrs. Sworder, Lyall, Ball, and Major Tait eventually
managed to overtake us ; but there could have been no doubt whatever
about the performance of that good hound " Startle," who was across the next
grass field before her companions were out of covert. Forrard ! was the
cry over the road that ran parallel with the Cobbins Brook — here con-
veniently bridged — it attracted us as a magnet does a needle ; and it was
only the sight of the Master's form sailing along in wake of hounds that
kept us from crossing it.

Never part with your chesnut, Sewell, for you owe him a lot of grati-
tude for refusing the wire ! Mr. Kemsley, however, is too good a friend of
the liunt to put up wire, and to the left of where you were trying to break
your neck there was a good way over. Crossing the Epping road near Mr.
Kemsley's haystacks, hounds were brought to their noses on Mr. Olney's

lA'LT WELL ALONK 2 1 I

plough, but turned on the steam on hitting the grass beyond, and ran fast
to Orange Wood. On the way the choice of a locked gate or ditch-guarded
rails had to be made. Not a moment did the Master hesitate, but, catch-
ing hold of the good grey, sent him at the rails like a rocket. Rising well
at them, he got his forelegs over, but failed to clear his hind ones; their
weight and his rider's 17 st. did their work, and brought the rails down
with a crash ; and so we reached Orange Wood as soon as hounds entered
it. There was not a whimper, for the fox had turned short under the wood ;
but that true hound "Workman" had never left the line, and "Trusty"
never doubted him : —

He guides them in covert, he leads them in chase ;
Though the young and the jealous try hard for his place,
'Tis " Workman " always that's first in the race ;
He beats them for nose, and he beats them for pace.
Hark forward to " Workman," from daylight to dark !

Jim had the hounds out at once, and those who had followed them into
the wood had the choice of a high bank or stiff rails before they could get
out. Again the Master's grey came to the front, but this time the grey
intuitively knowing that they would not bear trifling with, landed well
over. The Admiral, too, one of our most thrusting welters, and that
dashing light-weight, Mr. Seymour Caldwell, had no intention of shirking
them, and rejoined the pack as they breasted the hill. Thick and brambly
loomed the fence, and locked was the corner gate ; Mr. Arkwright was off
his nag, and, putting his back to it, had it off its hinges at once, while Jim
charged the fence lower down successfully, but no one followed him. Shall
I tell ? Yes ; for he confessed it himself, and I also have a confession to
make — the welter on the roan" turned away, and so did Sewell ; down to
the keeper's house they went, and going, went further and further away
from hounds, which were still bearing to the right, passing on through a
narrow strip of plantation, through the corner of which Mr.. Seymour
Caldwell plunged with the pack, and emerged in safety on the grass beyond.
But it was a nasty place ; my craven heart failed me, and I sought, right-
handed, what the hatless Mr. Sorrell and others had shown to be feasible.
But to turn away, if only for a few yards, and as many seconds, is fatal in
most cases ; and just here hounds were on grass, going a great pace. As
we rose the hill behind Gills Farm, and dropped down the grass slope to
Ball Hill, it was a stirring sight, and none, I trow, shut off the steam in
their endeavours to catch hounds, who were over the brook at the bottom.
Again, uphill you had to stick very close to them to see any of the fun ;
the fence at the top had a front of brambles rising from the ditch ; but,
though Mr. Caldwell failed to simplify it, Mr. Arkwright made amends,
and, as he was not hurt, he will excuse the allusion.

J. Brocket Sorrell, to my disappointment, was not photo-
graphed on his well-known nag " Let Well Alone," which
rejoiced in a tail so luxuriant that it was the constant subject of
tender solicitude to all who saw it. Neither a long tail nor a rat
tail, what was it.'^ Everyone had some suggestion for improving
it, from trimming off two feet to curling it. To have pleased
all would have been quite the impossible thing, so to every
adviser Mr. Sorrell's invariable reply was " Let well alone," a

* Mr. F. Green on " Blue Beard."

2 12

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

name that stuck to and clung to a good horse, upon which his
owner, who has hunted and shot in the Essex country longer
than niost. enjoyed many seasons' sport.

Mr. Henry Petre, who so successfully hunted the carted stag
in I'Lssex for very many years, carrying the horn himself, was,
when I knew him, a man of rather quiet, and as Mr. G. Hart
thought, almost too reserved manner for a Master of Hounds.
Be that as it may, he was very popular, never dropped on
to the forward riders, but liked to go the pace himself, and to
see others going it.

\

Henry Petre

He took many a toss, but always came up smiling after
the worst fall. Cine incident that Mr. Hart relates, perhaps,
gives a key to his character. " Just going," at George
Brown's .suggestion on one occasion, "merely to see the turn-
out."* Mr. Hart and Mr. Brown eventually found themselves

* How many go out with that resolve ?
themselves in at the take ? — Ed.

How many break it and find

THE LAST DAY OF THE SEASON 213

at Harlow, the hounds pulling down their stag in the open
near Hubbartls Hall. Mr. Hart jumped off his favourite horse,
" Tippler," to go to the rescue, when the favourite made off,
with Mr. Petre after him, all the way to Canes. Although
riding a thoroughbred, Mr. Petre failed to catch the runaway,
but effectually relieved the anxiety of those who saw a riderless
horse come galloping into the yard — ^a kindness Mr. Hart never
forgot. To resume the run : —

Nothing like sticking to the reins. I remember Mr. Henry Petre telling
me that he never let go of the reins in his life when he fell. Another fairly
easy fence, and, still going downhill, there was a teaser where hounds went
— a brambly bank, thorny fence, and a considerable drop to the ditch
beyond. Mr. Caldwell, Mr. Arkwright, and a few others took it as a matter
of course ; but here was exemplified the one thing lacking in this run to
have made it perfection, viz., a little more pace — the pace when to hesitate
is to be lost, for " Hesitation '" joined hounds again directly, and saw them
swing into Mr. Nicholl's plantation. Turning left-handed over the Cobbins
Brook, we had to gallop back 100 yards for a bridge. Galloping up the
right-hand side of the wood, hounds were out on the wheat beyond,
" Workman,'' " Fearless," and "Tempest" alone working it over a cold
bit of plough, which brought us on to the grass and well-gated demesnes of
Copped Hall. The going had been very light — how could it be otherwise
when you saw the dust fly on the dry fallows ? — but yet many a horse was
blowing and many a tail wagging as we galloped across the park, and
through the grass rides of its boundary fence, ere reaching the Warren.
Exactly fifty minutes from the find we were in the forest, which at
5.40 p.m. was a pretty safe place for a fox, even on the last. day of the
season.

1891-92

Monday, October 12th. Tyler's Cross. Several well-known members of
the Essex Hunt were present, in addition to the Master, Mr. C. E. Green ;
Mr. Arkwright, Messrs. Caldwell (2), Miss Caldwell, Mr. G. Sewell, the
latter riding the " Curate," Mr. Endon Oliver and his sister, Miss Tait,
Messrs. Steel, Todhunter, Lee, Pyne (2), Miller, Price, Howard Fowler
and others. We had a very merry morning, found at once at Tattle
Bushes and ran to Roydon Park, where we killed ; had another spin from
there, killed, and a capital gallop from Pinnacles to Roydon Park very fast.

Saturday, October 24th. High Roothing Street, 10 o'clock. W. and G.
Sewell and I sent our horses off at 7 o'clock for the King William, whither
we drove and mounted. It was a beautiful morning and quite a large
crowd out, including Major G. Capel-Cure, Messrs. Du Cane, W^aters, Cald-
wells, S. and R. Christy, Jones, Hill, Price, Tyndale White and Lady
Brooke. We had a jog of at least three miles to Crows Wood lying on the
right of Garnetts, where we found a straight-necked customer at once ; one
rattle round the covert and he was away. Not many open places in the first
fence. Bailey nearly down at one and hounds filtering through the other
gave those who had got over early a good start, for about ten minutes
hounds ran very fiercely, Tyndale White and Arkwright leading the van.
Green and Howard Fowler close up. G. Sewell came down in a ditch and
W. Sewell caught Du Cane's horse. This fox disappeared like magic.
After this, we had another gallop of about forty minutes in and about

214

LEAVES I'ROM A HUNTINc; JHARY

Olives. A swollen brook, however, which hounds kept crossing and
several foxes on foot rather spoilt this gallop. Willie Sewell's cob slipped
up on a bridge and landed him in six inches of liquid mud. Two very bad
foxes afterwards killed near Olives brought the day's proceedings to a
close. Considering the amount of rain we have had this autumn, the
country rode very well.

Captain J. B. DuCane

Captain J. H. 1 )ii Cane has often Ix-cn taken for Mr. I{.
Caldecott, and he rcscnihlcs him not onl\ in physiognomy. l)ut
in possessing a similar reputation for hcino- one of the hardest
riders to hounds that Essex soil has e\er })roduced.
" He is the stuff that soldiers arc made of."

Monday, November 2nd. Matching Green. Much the same as other
Matching Greens. A great crowd on wheels and on horseback. I had
to leave early but managed to see a cub killed before doing so.
-- " Never swop horses in mid-stream " is hardly applicable to changing
mounts in the hunting-field, otherwise Mat Milton would hardly have made
three hundred guineas of the bay horse (dear at one hundred), one of three
bays " you couldn't tell asunder," which Dick Christian, who then rode for

A DEAL IN THE HUNTING FIELD 215

him, had placed on the day two farmers, John Parkes and Jack Perkins,
had been trying to cut him down. In Dick's own words, " I did the
changing so sly, be hanged if they knew," and the third horse had the
credit of having carried him all day.

So many a deal has been made with advantage in the hunting-
field ; and I had never any cause to regret shifting the saddle from a good-
looking bay pony I then possessed to the back of a flea-bitten grey, " Dr.
Syntax," and giving his owner, Mr. Pyne, a small cheque for the difference.
On Wednesday, November 4th, we had two runs in the morning. ist,
from Nasing Coppice to a tree in Warlies Park, from which we failed to
dislodge our fox, and another from Galley Hills to Warlies Park and back
when a long trot to Tattle Bushes was decided upon and it was en route the
deal took place. Finding at Pinnacles, we had a most enjoyable run of an
hour and when the flea-bitten grey hopped over a V-shaped stile, about the
first fence he encountered, his owner confessed ever afterwards he was very
sorry he had parted with him, as it was a bit too much for the bay cob ; two
more stiff pieces of timber before the run was over, the last one near
Tattle Bushes. Mr. Arkwright's " Diana " hit it hard and Mr. George
Sewell on " Duchess" only just scraped over ; the style in which the grey
took it quite put me in love with him, and, although he was only a bag of
bones at the time, with careful feeding he put on flesh, and proved, if not
the best, the second best, horse I ever possessed. He could stay all night,
could gallop through dirt better than any horse I ever had and was a
perfect timber jumper, rarely putting me down ; he had only one fault ; he
was a puller, and a double rein snaffle, with martingale, the only bit you
could ride him in. Mr. Peel, of Cheshire fame, made his dehut with the
Essex Hounds in this run and went uncommonly straight, too.

The Hatfield Broad Oak Saturday on November 14th was far above the
a\erage day's sport, commencing with a very fast ten minutes from Row
Wood in which, as hounds v/ere running towards the Forest, Mr. Frank
Ball, on " Harkaway," came to grief trying to follow Mr. Longbourne over
a very nasty fence. My next note is that I was riding with Vickery's patent
bars, and jumping a hurdle (I must have been sitting very loose) a leather
came out and let me down ; no more patent bars for me. That was in '91 ;
now in '99, having been hung up three times, I have taken to Weston's
patent and swear by them. Afterwards we had a clinking run from Barring-
ton Hall to Wilson Springs and to ground at Canfield Mount. Only those
lucky enough from the turn at Wilson Springs had a chance with them : I
was out of it and so was the Master, and I again took the wrong turn at
Row Wood with a rare good fox which we had brought from Poplars. As
hounds raced from Man Wood very few besides Mr. Arkwright, Mr. G.
Sewell and Jim saw anything of the latter part of it.

W'ednesday, November i8th. The Kennels. Previous to throwing off, a
meeting of the Hunt Club was held, and George Sewell was elected a
member. It was a very misty day, but as it turned out a right good scent-
ing one ; we found at once in Mark Hall, and ran fast to Vicarage Wood and
slowly back by Bay's Grove and Harlow Common to Latton. Going away
from there, we rattled along at a good pace to Maries Wood, some rails en
route near Rickett's proving irresistible to Messrs. Longbourne, G. Sewell
and a few others. Crossing the road, we turned into Mr. Crane's field, and,
riding straight at some rails out of it alongside Mr. E. Barclay, we nearly
came to grief, for we jumped on to a regular cart road with quite a raised
bank on the other side. " Dr. Syntax " recovered himself most cleverly, but
Mr. Barclay came a rare crumpler without being hurt. Away over the
grass and into the Epping Church road near Kemsley's hay stacks, hounds

2l6

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

were soon over Cobbin brook. The old ford which we knew appeared to be
wired up, and so nearly all seemed to think, and away most of them went
for the plantation, deaf to all entreaties. I essayed it and found one loop-
hole. Jumping off my horse and fording across and pulling out the stakes,
we managed to get through ; this was a good turn, for as we jumped into
the Bury bridle road near the hay stacks we were joined by those who,
having found another ford on the right had been able to tackle the rails
which immediately fronted them. Many, however, were completely done
by galloping down the Bury road. Away over the beans to the plantation,
barbed wire along the fence, or in and out of the spinney, which you liked
best. Bailey and Jim jumped into the plantation, but there was one way
out of the scrape— some stiff rails, barbed wire on the top. These rails we
have jumped before, so followed Mr. Arkwright over at once. Mr. Howard
Fowler hit them very hard and somebody else smashed them all to pieces,
wire and all.

.■.^/.

/^"

i'i a_-,'-<''WT;F^^""S—

Griffin's Wood

From this point we bore away down hill, but our fox, evidently headed,
had taken a turn towards Epping again, and merrily sped the chase round
New Farm and down to Griffin's Wood. Barbed wire again, by all that's
provoking I Down jumped the Master and Jim to try and demolish it,
while others sought a way into the plantation and jumped the rails out of it.
Hounds ran on very fast through the Warren and out again over the park,
and away for another turn round the Bury fields, only to get back to the
Warren and the forest ; rattling through this at a great pace nearly to
Luffman's earths, he found refuge near the King's Oak. In the evening
we had another clinker from Latton Park to the Lower Forest, Messrs.
Arkwright, S. Caldwell, E. Barclay, Percy Pelly, G. Sewell, Miller and a
friend being the only ones who remained for it. It was a regular steeple-
chase. We ran back again, but much slower. It was quite dark when we
left off at 4.20, after certainly one of the best days I ever had.

A RAVISHING SCENT 2\*]

Monday, Nov. 23rd. Thornwood Gate. A cold raw morning. My little
daughter, " M." — though her pony was led by Jenkins, managed to see
a good deal of the fun. Not a whimper in the Lower Forest or Rough
Talley's, hut a right good halloa in Gaynes Park set all our pulses throbbing.
Out by the Riile Butts two fields and an open ditch, one of the fields, a
\ery heavy one, found us in Rough Talley's, where our fox did not dwell
a moment, but was viewed over the line by some platelayers into the
Lower Forest. Here a good many were soon plunged into the lowest
depths of despair, for they did not get out, when hounds running the
outside, feathered over the road and were away in a minute over the grass
meadows towards Duck Lane. It was a nasty up-jump out of the road,
and Bailey's horse did not like it, but Mr. Tyndale White gave him a lead
and we followed one another pretty sharp, and set to work to take every-
thing as it came — a drop fence, then another drop, a pretty flight of rails
and Bailey was boring his way into Duck Lane, while Mr. Hart swung open
a gate into and another out of the lane, and switching over the next
fence, hounds scudding away on our right. The huntsman, Messrs. Du
Cane, Tyndale White and Longbourne being well up on that side — a fence,
with wire but, thank goodness, rails to make a horse rise, and over a very
heavy piece of seeds we ran very fast. Messrs. Du Cane and Longbourne,
disdaining the gate, flew the Weald Brook. Mr. Tyndale White had a
lead down the next grass meadow, but came to a stopper; however, turning
left-handed over a ditch and fence, popped his grey over the rails, with
ditch to him, into the same field as the hounds, Bailey asking someone to
break them, but neither " Rosa " nor Du Cane's horse could assist in that
performance, so over he came. Keep the grass ! A warning too late for
Mr. Du Cane who had swung over the rails into the stubble, while Bailey
hit the road in time to see that his fox had been headed, and two of the
leading hounds were already up it. No occasion for a cheer, even from the
huntsman, for the scent was ravishing. Messrs. Du Cane and Longbourne
charged into the stubble together, while the huntsman kept the parallel
road, for already horses were beginning to hold out signals of distress, for
there had not been the semblance of a check and the going was remarkably
heavy.

Leaving Little Weald Hall on our right, we jumped out of the road
into some heavy ploughs, and ran without dwelling to the North Weald
road, where Mr. Arkwright, on " Diana," got a cut in, his light weight
serving him, and he went on over the plough with a lead. Hounds checked
a minute on the North Weald road, which allowed the Master, Mr. C. E.
Green, with a flying squadron behind him, to come up. How hounds
stuck to their fox in the forest, rattling him round in grand style ! We just
got up to Crane's in time to view him over, and, cheering hounds on, we
raced back to Weald Coppice ; one turn round its leafy precincts and whoop !
they had him. It was a capital hunt, and I claimed the brush for M.
W. Sewell rode my new horse " Tinker," purchased from Mr. C. R.
Doxat, and got on very well, considering he knew very little about jump-
ing and absolutely had only one side to his mouth.

Wednesday, Dec. 2nd. Tyler's Cross. There was a very heavy fall of
rain in the night, but clearing up, we had quite a spring day— more like
summer than winter. After a run in the Pinnacles country, the going fright-
fully heavy, we for a wonder drew Parndon Woods blank, but found in a
covert just beyond Passmores, and ran on up to Parndon Hall and lost this
one. " No scent " they kept saying, but very soon sang a different song when
we got to Mark Hall, for from there they had a screamer through the
kennel field, across and away to Barnsley's, and on at a great pace to

2i;

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

Moor Hall, and over the rough field to Heathen Wood and Down Hall,
where we lost.

Matching Park blank at 4 p.m., and a pleasant jog home in the
twilight with the brothers Ball brought a very nice day to a close.

Mr. Peel's c(iucstrian adventures would hll a volume, and a
very interestino- one it would prove, could he be prevailed upon
to write his riding' reminiscences. I can only recall one equally

Archibald Peel on " Foxhall "

ardent fox hunter o( his years whom I ha\-e met in the hunting-
field, and that was the late Sir William FitzHerbert, in Derby-
shire. Mr. Peel is one of the most encouraging- examples to
the middle-aged lover of fox hunting of the possibility, though
perhaj3s only to the few, of pre.serving one's nerve into the
seventies, and riding with the dash and boldness of a youth of
twenty-five. Mr. Peel sticks at nothing; directly hounds begin

THE PEEL FAMILY 219

to run he starts cutting out the work, and ^-enerally gets down
at some fence no one else will look at ; but I have never seen
him down on the wrong" side, nor watched him but he was
sailing away directly, and very otten alone in his glory. His
name occurs frequently in these pages, and space alone prevents
my enlarging upon his merits as one of the quickest men to

Miss Ethel Peel on "Blanche"

hounds I have ever seen. Fox hunting Is hereditary in the
Peel family. Mr. Peel's father, who was a Cabinet Minister,
declared that there was no joy on earth to compare with riding
a good horse in a good country alongside hounds running with
a breast-high scent.

There was not a pin to choose between Mrs. Butler and her

LEAVES EROM A HUNTING DIARY

sister. Miss Ethel Peel, whose portrait on her well-known grey
nvAW " Blanche" is given on the previous page, when she was
hunting with the Essex Hounds, and it came to the question of
ridin-'^to them. Eike her sister, she probably preferred a
mount on the -rev, but whether mounted on the favourite or

Mrs. H. Butler on "Ladylove"

any other animal, she always rode her own line, as far as it
was possible to do so in Essex, and I can honestly add that
I have never yet seen a lady out with the Essex Hounds
who went better than Mrs. Butler and Miss Ethel Peel, when
hounds were running. It would ha\e been impossible.

MR. V. E. GREENS "MAXIM 22 1

On Saturday, Dec. 5th, Mr. Harry Sworder ■■ tried his hand on
"Tinker," and confessed afterwards that he never had such a doing in his
life. This horse, as I said before, had only one side to his mouth, and
I must honestly say was about the worst mount I ever had.

From Row Wood to the heap of fagots was short, but quick enough to
weed most of them out, except Mr. J. Tabor, Mr. Du Cane and Jim.
Finding again near Wilson Springs, we had a hunting run of nearly an
hour.

Mr. Green had sent us all by road to the Hart, so hounds got away
by themselves, but came back to those who, in desperate haste, rode to
overtake them, or who, with Messrs. E. Ball and G. Sewell, recognising
that they were thrown out, held quietly on, until, on comparatively fresh
horses, they could join in as the chase crossed their front. All with the
exception of about a dozen, arrived at Canfield Hart, but only half of them
saw hounds race to Harrington Hall, where they killed. En route Mr.
Arkwright charged a big blind place on " Diana," and had an imperial
crowner — no one else tackled it. I think, Mr. Waters, you were there. With
me you'll remember it, though in the year 1896, in Canfield Hart, when
talking to Mr. Arkwright about his well-known mare, he had forgotten this
little incident, although he recalled that about the first time he rode
" Diana " she gave him three crumplers.

Wednesday, Jan. 27th, 1892. Little Laver Mill. We had about three
weeks' frost in January, but it was fairly out of the ground when we met at
Little Laver Mill, on Jan. 27th, the following being out : — Sir Henry, Lady
Brooke, Messrs. Barclay, Edwards, Arkwright, Caldwell (2), Sheffield,
Neave, Tyndale White, Jones, Du Cane, Christy, Ball, C. Buxton, among
others. From the Brick Kilns to ground near the King William was not bad,
nor the 55 minutes afterwards, though a ring from Man Wood, killing at
Row Wood. Foxes in the cabbage fields near Down Hall, with partial and
catchy scent, brought a very nice day to a close. As we turned our horses'
heads homewards from Down Hall heavy rain commenced falling.

" Never go home before the hounds " was a maxim Mr. C. E. Green was
never tired of instilling into us, and several had occasion to bitterly regret
not laying it more to heart one memorable White Roothing Saturday,
February 6th, when, after running a fox from a covert, close to Wilson
Springs, over a big country, and killing him at Canfield Hart after i hour
45 minutes, hounds had a clinker from Down Hall to ground at Latton,
running at our heels all the way. The fellows who rode in it reached home
almost as soon as we did ; Mr. R. C. Lyall was entering his stable-yard as
hounds ran full cry into Harlow Park. Of the lucky ones who saw this
run and enjoyed their dinner in comfort and peace that night, let me mention
Miss Colvin, Mr. C. E. Green, and his brother, Captain George Green,
Mr. Arkwright, Messrs. E. and F. Ball, A. J. Edwards, and A. Waters.
Their horses were clean beat, and could hardly raise a trot between them
when they reached Harlow Park.

Prevented from going to the meet at Weald Gullet on Friday,
February 26th, I made for Latton, hearing that hounds, being unable to
find a fox, had gone there ; and I came up in time to see both Mark Hall
and Bay's Grove drawn blank. It was then determined to draw some
cabbages near Harlow Station when up jumped a fox ; he had a very
narrow escape, for, having doubled sharp back, he could not come past us,

* Mr. Harry Sworder seemed never to mind what he rode ; he had a knack of
making them all go. His question, like old Wilson's, of Enfield, was not, " Can they
jump ?" but " Can they gallop ?"

2 22 ].KA\ES FROM A HUNTIXC DIARY

and hounds were all round him. Luckily, however, he made a bolt with
one hound close at him across the line, hounds tearing along m view and,
bearin<^ right-handed, ran very fast up the meadow towards Weir Hatches.
It was'^a case of the devil take the hindmost ; however, Messrs. Bevan and
\rkwright, with Bailey, reached Weir Hatches with the hounds, which
probably divided, for they crossed the line but came back to Bailey's horn,
and away we went again at a great pace to Parndon Hall and over the
Park down to Passmore's, Harris's. Bearing left-handed through the Fir
Plantation, they ran up to Netteswell, back through Vicarage Wood, rattling
him along over Mark Hall Park across the road, nearly to Harlow Station

Drummond Cunliffe Smith on "Chancery

again, and, bearing left-handed, ran very fast through Weir Hatches over
the road once more and up to Latton Rectory, where they pulled him down
after a capital 50 minutes. Most of the horses, except Mr. Arkwright's and
the grey, had had enough. It was a jolly gallop. Home again at 6. None
of us could catch Mr. Drummond Smith in the evening gallop with a
fox from Mr. Fitch's stack heap on Monday, February 29th — a day marked
by cold showers, and one of the Colonel's foxes killed in a run from the
Big Wood to the Forest; and another of Mrs. M'Intosh's chopped in
covert. Hounds came away from the stack heap as if glued to their fox,
and streaked through Miss Houblon's garden and across Gaynes Park and

MORKTOX TO TEIOBV 223

through Beachetts to such a tune that no one could hve with tliem beyond
that covert except Mr. Drummond Smith, and him we never caught
before hounds bayed their fox to ground at Shalesmore. Jumping the
stile and gate, the first two fences, and going the wrong side of Mr. Avila's
Farm House didn't help matters. I am afraid Mr. G. S.

I). Cunlifte Smith, eldest son of Sir Charles Cunliffe Smith,
inherits all his father's love of hunting- and shooting, and for
many years was a devotee of polo, a taste acquired in his
Cambridge days. Why the heir to such a rich baronetcy has
not yet taken to himself a wife is a matter of considerable
surprise even to Essex Benedicks.

With Mr. Sheffield Neave's Staghounds. — I always say that each
time I go out with these hounds the better I like them, and I venture to assert
that this was the general consensus of opinion of those who assembled to see
them throw off at Moreton on Saturday last. The following are a few of the
names of those who were there, in addition to the Master and his first aide-
de-camp (Mr. E. Neave) : — Messrs. Harrison, H. E. Jones, E. Ball, Hart,
Harris (2), Sewell (2), Elder, Dalton, Oliver, Westall, Steele, D, Gingell,
J. Gingell, J. Longbourne, Pemberton Barnes, Foster, and Lines; Major
Tait, Captain Nelson, Sir Charles Smith, Miss Oliver, three hard-riding men
in neat grey mvifti, and three equally thrusting sportsmen black-coated and
top-booted, whose names I did not know. Mr. W. Alger mounted his grey
cob just to see the start ; and owing to the serious sickness in his house, his
near neighbour, Mr. Daniel Gingell, gave one and all a hearty welcome.

A fine open piece of country had been chosen for enlarging the untried
hind, who gamely struggled for that freedom which she felt within her reach
as she sniffed the soft breeze and trod the plebeian plough. But she had
not calculated on the dash, courage, and perseverance of the twelve couple
of hounds who, ten minutes later, were loosed on her track. Sinking the
wind, she scored the first point in the game, and hounds had to put their
noses down to puzzle out the line; but staghounds have a wonderful knack
of stealing over a country however bad the scent may be, and ten minutes
from the start the field had all settled down in their places. Mr. Neave
has a capital way of preventing them pressing his hounds, and woe betide the
unlucky individual who rides behind instead of their right or left !

There was no crushing and jostling for places at the fences — -plenty of
time, plenty of room— and a good-natured throng turned to the bridge that
spanned the stream below Norton Hall. Running parallel with it almost to
the Osiers, they struck across the park. Leaving Norton Hall Farm on our
left, we came down to a wire-guarded fence, the Master narrowly escaping
it. Crossing the Chelmsford road near Spurriers Farm, hounds ran on fast
to Parslow Farm Hall, where, getting on the grass, we soon found ourselves
at Blackmore. Leaving Jericho on the left, we bore away for Shenfield, the
fences coming fast and thick, much to the delight of Mr. Jones, who, in his
usual manner, was showing the way on the right ; while Mr. Ball, on his
chesnut mare " Lucy," was piloting a contingent on the left.

Passing near Mr. Edward Courage's house, we bore away towards
Thoby, Avhere a longish check took place ; and a good many, not following
the Master in the wide cast he had to make before hitting off the line again,
were left behind. Those, however, who stuck to it had the satisfaction of
seeing the hounds at their best in a very pretty piece of hunting. Crossing
the line, they ran up to their (juarry in the brook not far from Mountnessing,

2 24 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

where we got our first and last view, Mr. 15all lassoing her in a most artistic
manner. Only seven beside the Master and his staff persevered to the end
— viz., Messrs. G. and \V. Sewell, E. Ball, W. Pemberton Barnes, Foster,
and Jerrard, most of whom had some seventeen miles to jog home ; but the
Master, not content with providing them with a good run, insisted upon
refreshing them and their weary horses as they passed his hospitable
house.

It was a most sporting run, and for those who enjoy riding over a good
country it was all that could be desired. Starting with a sample ot the
koothing ditches, we got a taste of the Doddinghurst banks, and wound up
in some large spreading pastures of Leicestershire appearance.

Mrs. Ballock was one of a lucky quartette, who, leaving home on
Monday, March 21st, about 1.30, dropped in for a very nice afternoon
gallop with one of the Colonel's fo.xes which, after running across Rolls Park,

The Kennels

was pulled down on ]\Ir. Alfred Savill's farm at Chigwell, within view of
Warren Hill, Mr. Sewell's house.

Saturday, March 26th. The Kennels ; the General Meeting. Mr. C. E.
Green tendered his resignation, and a committee was formed to take
into consideration the best means of hunting the country in the future.
We did not get away much before 12 o'clock, but when we did, we certainly
had one of tlie best runs I have ever had. Of the first fox found in Harlow
Park, little need be said, as we were unable to do much with him, or with
another viewed away from Parndon Wood ; but a different tale must be told
of the great dog-fox that set his mask for the open. When the bitch pack
were thrown into Pinnacles hounds were nearly divided, but, fortunately,
Bailey got away with the pack all right in good time ; crossing two ploughed
fields in the direction of Parndon, it required a clever horse to drop quietly
on to the bank over the ditch, and a still cleverer one to pop into the road and

P.AILEV HAS A BAD KALI. OVKR WIRE

:25

thread his way over the bank into the next field, a grass meadow. Shpping
down to the brook, we quickly hit off two fords over it, soon breasted the
hill up to Mr. Green's house at Parndon over the road, and, still pressing
on at a good pace, left Mr. Harris's house on the right, when after
running up the next field hounds began to turn a little left-handed ; crossing
another brook, several very nice grass fields came in our line, with a stiff
fence into a road, Mr. Tyndale White on his chestnut leading over it.

Hounds were now tearing over the grass ; crossing a road and a couple
of lanes, with fences coming thick and fast, we soon reached Harlow
Common, over which hounds ran very fast into Latton ; here the stamina
and breed of most of the horses was put to a severe test, Mr, Ball, on
his chestnut mare " Lucy," and the huntsman reaching the covert as soon
as anyone ; hounds never dwelt a second, and as we galloped on with Bailey,
it was a rare treat to see them come out on the left and race away over

Homeward Bound.

A Halt for Refreshments.

After a raintins. I'V Kdiinaui Ethelsto

the grass towards Rundells. Crossing below it, and over the steeplechase
course, hounds tore along at a great pace, Messrs. Tyndale White, Jones and
the huntsman with a strong lead going through the gate at the end of the
long grass meadow together ; bearing slightly left-handed, they still pressed
on, over the grass and, getting on some ploughed land near Mr. G. Hart's
farm, they crossed the road and went racing along the brook, another
slight turn to the left, letting a few up. He was now running in view and
hounds were very much tailed out ; one try for liberty round Mr, Trevennen's
stack yard, and the bitches had him ; forty minutes, and at least, a six mile
point. It was very close and hot, and all those who had ridden the line to
hounds had had quite enough — at least their horses had. Messrs, Gerald
Buxton and Willie Sewell were well up towards the end, but it was a
steeplechase all the way from Latton. It is not very pleasant to see a man
laid out flat, with every appearance of a broken neck, but I certainly thought

15

2 26 LEAVES EROM A HUNTING DIARY

Bailey was a doner, as, after turning turtle over some barbed wire on
Mr. Bott's land near Waltham Abbey, in a run from Galley Hills, en
Wednesday, March 30th, he lay without moving ; I was just behind him
and saw it all happen ; hounds were going very fast, there was a gate
at tlie bottom of the meadow, and the fence at the side looked tempting
enough, and it's few gates Bailey ever stopped for when hounds were
running. Putting him into a cab, fetched from Waltham Abbey, after
he had come round, was a more cheerful business.
The card for Saturday, April i6th, was :

TO FINISH THE SEASON.

4.30 n.;//., Hdi'loa' Bush Common — 3.30/.;//., Weald Gullet.

The idea of this original double-barrel day to wind up with was that
hounds might be able to run with the dew on the grass, scent having been
absent owing to the east wind and glaring hot sun. Determined to see this
double meet, I got up at 2 a.m., had a capital breakfast at 3.15 a.m. I
expected Sworder, to whom I had oflfered a mount, but he did not turn up.
The howling wind and bitter sleet which rattled against the window panes
was anything but promising. However, I set off on my three-mile trot to the
fixture shortly after 4 o'clock, in the teeth of the driving snow and sleet, and
arrived at the meet to find only two others there, ]\Ir. Howard Fowler and
young Rickett. We were very dubious about hounds coming, and so went
off in the direction of the Kennels and met Bailey with his hounds. The
Master soon turned up, and amongst the few who did, I noticed Lady Brooke,
Miss IMorgan, Mr. Quare and his daughter, Messrs. Caldwell (2), Chaffey
Collin, Arkwright, E. Barclay, G. Buxton, F. Green and his son. It snowed
now harder than ever, but in spite of this hounds were thrown into covert,
Latton Park. A fox was quickly on foot, but hounds could not run him a
yard ; a few other coverts Avere drawn, when, seeing how hopeless the case
was, the order was given for home, and in consequence of the snow the
afternoon fixture was also cancelled, and Monday fixed for Blackmore to
wind up with. Taking the season of 1892 all through, it can only be pro-
nounced as a very rugged one, good sport alternating with frequent spells
of frost, dry weather and other drawbacks. All other packs in England
seemed to have fared badly.

Hatfield Heath

CHAPTER VIII.

Cubbing in 1892 — C. E. Gveen — Charles Cratvley — The
Matching Green — Curtis Mill Green — Rose Hall—
the River — Home at 2.30 — Leisure Hour — Mr.
T. J. Mills— The Fagot-stick Fox—R. Waltham-
Farm — Cubbing in 1893 — Hard Ground — Farmers
— The First October Gallop — F. Green, jun., breaks
RundelVs Grove — Duchess comes to grief — H. J .
Sands — Dagnain Priory — Bedford's Chaffey Collin
White Roothing — Cedric — Collin's Leap.

King William — A Foggv
-Navestock Church — Over
E. Barclay's Harriers —
— L ewis Ph illips — Maries
Complain of Small Fields
his arm — Harlow Park —
Price has a bad fall — ■/.
5 Run — Hatfield Toum —

CUBBING commenced, September 17th, at 5.30 a.m., at Latton Park.
Harvest had pretty well come to an end, the ground was hard and
dry, but a large held, as usual, turned up at the opening meet, in-
cluding many on foot, S., with Mr. and Mrs. Saunders, participating in the
fun. Among those riding were the following: Mr. Arkwright, the Messrs.
Caldwell, C. E. and F. Green and his son, R. Bevan, W. and G. Sewell,
W. Buckmaster, MacEvans, who was staying with me for the meet, Mrs.
W. Sewell on the grey cob, Miss Hattie Tait, Mr. and Mrs. Crocker, Mr.
Jones, Mrs. Waters, &c.

Saturday, October 15th, Good Easter. A good beginning, too, it proved,
after a three weeks' absence from the field, for we had a most excellent day.
Sport briefly as follows : The meet at 9.30 necessitated leaving home
at 7, after an early breakfast. Some rumours of the expected presence
of the Prince of Wales at the meet caused perhaps a more numerous
throng than usual to turn out, and amongst those at the meet I noticed
Messrs. Usborne, Ball, E. and F. Price, Waters, Caldwells (2), Jones and
Miss Jones, many Christys, Hull and a lot of strangers. After killing a
short-running cub we got "away with a real good one from Boyton Springs,
and it was evident, as Bailey remarked as we crashed through a fence
together, that " there was a scent on the plough," for hounds ran hard and

228

LEAVES FROM A IIUNTINC. DIARV

fast through the Osiers, the bulk of the pack going to the right while Bailey
was left behind with a few on the left. It was some time before he got
all his hounds together again, for they now ran on hard, the pace being so
good that Blyth, the farmer, tackled some barbed wire, luckily breaking a
strand and letting us through ; when, however, we reached the road there
was a check, and hounds without a huntsman shortly became subdivided
again. Directly Bailey got to his hounds another fox was viewed near
College Wood, and he gave us a rare run of an hour and fifteen minutes
before he yielded up his brush. The pace was very good at first and the
ground holding. One ditch had two in it at once, and a stile brought Mr.
Chaffey Collin to grief on a blown horse. Eventually we ran up to Spring-
field, and after crossing the river two or three times we ran into our fox by
Mr. Wells' house close to Chelmsford.

C. E. Green

W^e shall have no better portrait of " Charlie Green." as he
is called by his familiar friends, than ihc above, which appeared
in ]^ailys Magazine in June, 1 889, until a grateful county, at
let us hope, no distant date, shall have presented him with a
picture of himself and his favoin-ite hunter. No picture,
however, of the subject of our memoir will be complete that

C. E. GREEN AND HIS SECOND HORSEMAN

229

does not include a portrait of Mr. Green's second horseman,
Charles Crawley,* a faithful servant, who must have been in
Mr. Green's service nearly all his life, and who was as well
known in the Essex hunting- field as his master.

There is no room here for a long- biography of Mr. Green.
What he has done for cricket in Essex he has, and is striving
to do, for hunting with the Essex Hounds, i.e., make it an
unqualified success. Entered at a very early age with the late

The King William

(En route to the Axe and Compasses, Nov. 21, 1896)

Mr. C. E. Green's "Factotum" Mr. Brindle James Dunmow

Charles Crawley Mr. Sheffield Neave, M.S.H. (age 83)

Mr. Henry Vigne's Harriers, he has hunted on and off with the
Essex Hounds ever since. Taking up his residence in the
southern borders of the country about the season 1881-82, he
assisted the late Mr. Loftus W. Arkwright as field master in the
seasons 1886- 1888, and succeeded Mr. Arkwright as Master in
1889, retaining office until 1S93, when Mr. E. Salvin Bowlby
and Mr. Arkwright's son took up the task, the latter
relinquishing it and handing it back to Mr. Green at the end of
the season 1898-99.

* If anyone wanted to know the way home after a long run, from what-
ever part of the country he hailed from, nine times out of ten it was a
case of " Oh, ask Crawley ! " — Ed.

230 LEAVES FROM A TIUNTING DIARY

Wednesday, October 19th, Coopersale. A large muster, including the
High Sheriff, who came up smiling after his previous day's defeat at the poll
by Chilton. Miss Burns and all the Miss Buxtons, the Olivers, Caldwells,
Mr. and Mrs. W. Sewell, Messrs. Elder, Jones, Pelly, G. Sewell and many
more. We had a nice morning's sport, including a capital spin from Shales-
more to the Beachetts and back to Shalesmore. Did not kill. The Mate
riding his young horse, which carried him very well.

Matching Green of 1892 will probably be remembered as one of the
foggiest on record. Mr. Usborne told me that he had not missed a
Matching Green since 1867, and could not recall such a day — and twenty-
five years is a fair period of time to look back upon. I cannot tell you half
the names of those who, through duty, curiosity, or pleasure, ticked off
another Matching Green to their credit. I fancy duty had a fair following,
for a good many had deferred the dangers of the chase until the last
moment, and had given the leaves every chance of coming off before putting
in an appearance. Curiosity, however, accounted for a lot, especially
carriage folk ; and pleasure had, as usual, by far the largest share of
votaries. Let me give a hundred names of those whom the above motives
had brought together, viz., the Committee of Management, Mr. C. E.
Green, Mr. Loftus Arkwright, and Mr, Tyndale White (the first two in the
huntsman's cap) ; Lady Brooke, Lord and Lady Rookwood, Col. Lock-
wood, M.P., Mr. Robert Lockwood, the High Sheriff, Mrs. C. E. Green,
Mrs. Tyndale White, the Misses M. E. and O. M. Yerburgh, Mrs. Ward
Saunders, the Rev. A. and Mrs. Roberts, General Marter and Miss E.
Marter, Col. Clay, General Hodding, Messrs. Gilbey (3), Messrs. W.
Buckmaster and Dewhurst (fresh from Trinity College), Miss Burns, the
Rev. F. A. S. Fane, Mr. C. Arkwright, Mr. 'G. Hart and son, Mrs. and
Miss G. Waters, Mr. R. Hill, Mr. McEvans, Mr. E. Pelly, Mrs. L. Pelly,
Miss Sewell, Messrs. G. W. and A. Sewell, Miss Glyn, Mr. Elder, Mr.
H. E. Jones, Miss Jones, Mr. Bowen, Capt. Nelson, Mr. H. R. Bagot,
Mr. P. Hargreaves, Mrs. Bullock, Messrs. Lobb (2), Mr. T. Quare and
daughter, Mr. T. R. Hull, Mr. A. Suart, Mr. and Mrs. Pyne, Mr. H. J.
Miller, Mr. H. Sworder, Mr. F. Stallibrass, Mr. Usborne, Mr. Patchett,
Miss Tait, Captain Meyer and party, Mr. J. Sands, Mr. W. H. P. Barnes,
Mr. J. Harris, Messrs. Ball (2), Messrs. Caldwell (3), Mr. Christy, Mr. and
Mrs. Weston Crocker, the Rev. L. Capel-Cure, Miss Capel-Cure, Mr. C.
Collin, I\Ir. G. H. Lee, Mrs. Mcintosh, Miss Morgan, Mr. and Miss Oliver,
Mr. Price, Mr. J. E. Tabor, Mr. J. Todhunter, Mrs. Osgood Hanbury, Mr.
Howard, Mr. Westall, Mr. Willis, Mrs. Bennett, Mr. P. J. Lee, ^Ir. F. E.
Loyd.

Here we have names enough to furnish material for a dozen narratives,
and I have only one to relate. The executive were not to be baffled by fog,
and about 11.45 hounds were thrown into Man Wood. Never did hounds
getaway so quickly, never were a crowd more hopelessly left in the lurch,
as when they slipped away over the muddy lane which flanks Man Wood,
towards Down Hall, and the twang of Bailey's horn rang shrilly through
the fog ; not more than a dozen were with them and only two pink coats —
Mr. S. Caldwell and Mr. R. Lockwood — and the rest were chiefly farmers,
including Mr. Howard, Mr. Willis, jun., and Mr. Hart, who had an eye to
what was going on instead of coffee-housing. After reaching the Down
Hall road, hounds, luckily for most, turned back to Man Wood, and coming
to a check near the brook, let the field up ; but there was plenty of room
for hounds to work as they ran on through the fog-encircled fields, back to
Man Wood. Mr. Jones's pink, flashing like a meteor through the dripping
fences, was an excellent mark to ride to.

2y.

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

Splashed, befogged, begrimed, hot, cold, contented or otherwise, we
were soon all back in Brick Kilns without finding, and half the field
witnessed the obsequies of a trap-held fox in a neighbouring covert— a
cause, methinks, of bitter grief to the owner, Capt. Meyer.

The run of the day was to come from Down Hall. One rattle round
the covert and the fox had gone like a flash to Man Wood ; past the house
and down the avenue surged the throng, and as they gained the open
country they took open order, and hot, impetuous youth sought the bubble
irpiitafioii in a Roothing ditch, and the man of wise saws and modern instances
kept out of the whirl. For sixty minutes hounds ran on, fast and merrily
too, somewhat circular, no doubt ; but what did it matter, you could never
see more than half a field at a time, and the fences came thick and fast
enough to satisfy a Jones or a Roly— and the country was dotted with
straggling strugglers.

The Gorse, Down Hall

The leaders with flushed faces and keen enjoyment rode on the back of
hounds, one of them being Mr. Seymour Caldwell, who held pride of place
from start to finish and shared honours with the huntsman. Then came
those who rode alternately at hounds and at the leaders, and rode with zest
and took what Providence sent them in their stride, contented and happy
to be able to live at all with hounds in such a sea of fog, and they included
Mr. Hart, Mr. H. Sworder, Mr. W. Sewell, and Mr. Balloch. Then
others who had never fairly started, and never succeeded in getting into the
same field with hounds until it was about all over ; and then others who
had meant well and had gone astray on their own line ; and yet more
who never meant it, and where they had been to we never learnt.

Wednesday, January 25th, Harlow Common. A very large meet, in-
cluding Lady Brooke, Sir T. F. l^uxton, Lord Rookwood, Messrs. Ball,

u

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

Arkwright, Caldwells (4), Sewells (3), Kemps (2), Buxtons (many), Pellys
(2), Jones (2), Hull, T. J. Mills, Hargreaves, Waters (Mrs. and Miss), Miss
Fane, Mr. Tyndale White, Mr. Horner, Mr. Borwick, and Mr. James Green.
We had a very nice day, made up of a gallop from Barnsleys, followed by
another from \'icarage Wood, and winding up with a good spin from
Parndon Woods to Harris's, and on to Pinnacles and Broadley Common.

The meet at Passingford Bridge, Monday, Jan. 30th, was graced by the
presence of Lady Brooke, who made her iirst appearance in this trappy
country, in which, however, she seemed as much at home as in her native
Roothings; a merry morning, with one of Col. Lockwood's foxes in,
through, and round his covert, a brace of foxes away from Sir Charles
Smith's osiers, and a brace of foxes away from Curtis Mill-green. And
with tlie latter my tale commences.

Horse Shoe Wood, Rose Hall

Little recked those who boldly took their stand at the top of this wild
covert, or who in patient hope waited in the valley below, of the great run
they were in for. Scarce two minutes in covert before a deep note, answered
by hound after hound, and followed by Jack's scream of " Gone
aw-ay I " and some of the pack were already out. Mr. Sworder viewed a
fox stealing up the hill on the right, but there was another fox away below
in the valley, and on his line the huntsman was cheering on the body of
the pack.

Settling to it at once, liounds drove along over the plough, and raced
away to Rose Wood. That maddening chorus proclaimed that they were
close at him, as they rattled him round that horseshoe covert. With arched
back he came looping out of the wood, to shoot across the grass like an
arrow, over the road into the big Navestock pasture— a ringing view holloa
announcing his flight.

THE CURTIS MILL GREEN RUN, JAN. 30, '93

235

Many hugged the road round the corner, as only a flyer could get them
out of the big pasture into the next mead, over which hounds were tearing
along, for the hedge was stiff and the gaps were railed. A wide ditch with
a green and treacherous landing was tested by Major Carter and accepted
by Miss Jones without a moment's hesitation ; and we dashed past the
house of Mr. Stiell, who cheerily waved us on. (No fox-hunter himself, he
he is one of the many unselfish, non-foxhunting farmers to whom we ow^e
so much ; he has acres of grass, and not an ounce of wire have I ever seen
on his farm.)

Crossing the road, out of which Mr. Barnes' good horse flung himself
like a rocket, hounds flew down the pastures for Bois Hall. They turned,
however, for the fox had been headed, and, re-crossing the road, ran
through the plantations at the back of Navestock Hall, and went at
Pytchley pace over the next big grass enclosure up to the boundary
plantation.

i'^tm^iitfMiiiiJiiiM^biL 'i&'j.M:-^-^

By Navestock Hall and Church

The ditch was well cleaned out and the stakes on the opposite side
neatly trimmed : Lady Brooke was one of the first over. The ride through
the covert all that could be desired — good sound galloping for half-a-mile.
Well it was so, or we could hardly have hoped to live with hounds at the
pace they were going.

A single rail across the ride brought Mr. S. Pratt to grief, and lost him
the place which he had maintained so well. Nearing the end of the covert
came the intelligence from the first whip that the fox was over the river.
A low rail with a drop out of the wood, and the leaders were racing up to
the river brink with the hounds, w^atching them (and hesitating which ford
to ride for), as hounds shook their dripping forms on the opposite bank of
the muddy stream. Never was the truth of the old proverb, "The man
who hesitates is lost," better illustrated than on this occasion. Only those

236 LEAVES EROM A HUNTING DIARY

who grasped the situation at once, as hounds bore down to the river and
made for the right-hand ford— and they included Messrs. Pemberton-Barnes,
R. Bevan, and McEvans— or to the left — with Mr. Walthani (who viewed the
fox and one hound three fields ahead of the pack on his left), Miss Jones,
Messrs. Kemp and Sworder, and Captain Wilson— ever got near hounds
again for the ne.xt two miles.

The gate into the ford was mud-bound, but Mr. A. Kemp was off like a
shot, and soon had it open. Bearing still left-handed, hounds lanced over
the next three or four pastures and crossed the Ongar road. Not a gate or
a gap into it, but a stiff thorn fence or rails with a ditch beyond ! Mr. Kemp
chose the latter, and recovered himself handsomely on the best of shoulders.
Two more grass fields, and only a dozen men anywhere near the hounds,
the most prominent being those whom I have already mentioned. Three
choking ploughs, it took the leaders all their time to keep near the fleeting
pack. A momentary respite near Knightsland Wood, which was passed
on the right, and we were making for the Stanford Rivers brook. One at
a time, through the ford. Lady Brooke being one of the first half-dozen
through, as she had been one of the first to retrieve the river disaster.

Up to the fence, guarded by a rotten-banked ditch, and single file again ;
and so to Nickerlands Lane. Mr. McEvans led out on his good black.
Three more fields ; and, forty minutes from the find, hounds w^ere running
desperately keen through the big Ongar Park Woods, and, making one or
two circles, this grand fox succumbed. A hound run, sir ! For they never
required huntsman's aid. I take it to be a three-mile point from Curtis
]\Iill-green to Bois Hall pastures, and from there to Ongar Park Woods
another five as the crow flies ; and to do this in forty minutes speaks for
itself and of the severity of the run. Hounds being taken home at 2.30
requires no further comment."

Wednesday, P'ebruary 8th, Nasing Common. A very good day indeed.
We had a capital spin in the morning with a fox that was making his way
into Galley Hills. Mr. Peel was well to the front. After running a ring in
the Nasing pastures, we lost our fox near Nasing Coppice ; the going was
very heavy. Our second run was even better ; we found a fox in Latton,
and hounds ran fast towards Parndon Woods, and then bore left-handed
across Rye Hill Common, where they checked ; hitting it off", however, once
more on IMarles Farm, they ran very fast over the grass to Shingle Hall;
jumping out of the lane, Miss Colvin got her horse in a ditch ; the Rev. G.
Ward Saunders, riding " Leisure Hour," stayed behind to help extricate
her. Crossing Epping Green Lane w'e ran past Parndon Woods and over
the Epping Green road and came to a check in a drain on Mr. Palmer's
land ; this gallop was very fast. Just before reaching Epping Long Green
Mr. Peel, who was going remarkably well, came down a buster. The third
run in the evening w^as the best, iit seq.

A hot, bright skirmish in the morning through the Nasing pastures
with a fox not unacquainted with Galley Hills : and what promised to be a
brilliant run in the afternoon from Latton Park was nipped in the bud by a
drain near Nasing Park, was a fitting prelude to the run which commenced
at 4.15 p.m. from Roydon Springs on Wednesday evening, February
8th. Many, with due regard to the capabilities of one horse, had gone
home, and those who had been fortunate enough to secure a second found
tliat he had had enough before the run was over. Some fifty, perhaps, all
told, were there as hounds came away from Roydon Springs, and, taking

* In this run, Mr. Seymour Caldwell gallantly tried to swim the river, but failed, owing to
the boggy landing ; and Mr. Green, who stayed behind to help him out, lost the run. — Ed.

23S LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

the line through Pinnacles, ran on at a great pace towards Parndon. The
brook was conveniently bridged, and the fences could be jumped six abreast.
As we reached the road near Parndon Hall, a holloa was heard in the
park, but hounds were too keen to get their heads up, and turned sharp
to the right with their fox. Over two quickset hedges, and a scramble in
and out of the Hare Street Lane, hounds kept racing on down the plough
to Todd's Brook at the bottom. Once over it, they were much inclined to
turn left-handed, and several sportsmen did the same, only to find that
the leeway they lost could never be made up, for, coming to a slight check,
Bailey held them to the right again. Hitting it off, they ran diagonally
across three sown ploughs — beans and clover, heavy going, but light,
easy fences, well within the scope of a pony — up to Harris' brook.

A youthful rustic had by his enthusiastic holloa turned our fox, and
hounds went up the ridge and furrow at right angles to the brook; but
owning it up the next headland, commenced to run again at a great pace.
A boggy sort of ditch, flown in places and crept in others, decided our place
in the run for the next two miles. Bearing down hill to the quickset fence
at the bottom, Mr. Buxton sent his horse along with a good lead on
the right, the huntsman. Jack, Mr. E. Ball, and Mr. Arkwright being in
close attendance. Four or five more grass fields and we reached the road
near Parndon Wood. Not a second did hounds dwell ; and here we had
some of the best houndwork of the run, for they raced on through the whole
extent of these big woodlands, making them echo again and again with
their musical chorus. The rides were heavy, and the two ploughs between
the woods most frightfully sticky ; but near hounds it is wonderful how a
horse that is blown will keep pegging away. Far better then, Mr. Barnes
and Mr. Sewell, had you stuck to the little band whose names I have
mentioned than turned away to the Rye Hill Road. The going was good
between the wire netting and the boundary of the top wood, as in single
file we reached the open. Two strangers — one in a neat- fitting habit, the
other pink clad — were with the leaders as they left the woodlands behind.
The huntsman's horse beginning to feel the effects of the pace, a small
ditch brought him down. Over Mr. Burchell's land, and we jumped in and
out of the road on to the Nasing Lodge Farm, running steadily over the
grass fields and striking the Common, over which hounds flew along. Mr.
Gerald Buxton leading in their wake, followed by Mr. E. Ball and four
others, reached the coppice with the hounds, and galloping their best, were
just in time to see them come away and run on towards Harold's Park.
Before reaching the avenue they turned right-handed, and carrying a slow
line on to the common, came to a check near Nasing Park. They had
been running some 50 minutes, so no wonder most of the horses, including
the huntsman's, were done to a turn ; although Bailey persevered for
some time longer in the hope of picking him up. The dozen survivors
of the fray — and they included three ladies, Miss Tait, Miss Georgie Waters,
and Miss Richardson — with the Rev. J. Pemberton, were not sorry to turn
their horses' heads homewards, with the reflection that such a good fox
has escaped.*

By the kind invitation of Mr. Flux, Mr. Edward Barclay's Harriers met
at Coopersale Hall on Saturday, February 18. To meet the Master came

* Had three horses out this day, and gave each of them a turn, which no doubt
inspired the following lines of Bevan's : —

".Vnd Yerburgh thinks how cunning he
To post his second horse at three ;
Yet when to fence that horse demurred
He almost wished he had a tliird.''

MR. E. BARCLAYS HARRIERS, 93 239

Mr. H, J. Miller and his son, Mr. T. J. Mills, Mr. Willis and his nephew,
Mr. Gingell and Master B. Fitch, Mr. Gerald Bu.xton and his sister, Mr.
H. Fowler, Mr. G. Dawson (riding a pony, but what a pleasure to see him
in the saddle once more), Mr. Pease, Mr. C. Pelly, Mr. Dent, Mr. E.
Oliver and his sister, Mrs, Redwood, Mr. Westall, and, on foot, Mr. Flux
and Mr. Patchett, Q.C., and old Hurrell — not a large field, but one and all
imbued with a keen love of hound work.

A very smart little pack are Mr. Barclay's Harriers, whipped in by
yotmg Hurrell, who for so many years did the same when his father was
carrying the horn for the late Mr. Vigne. We noticed, however, that he
was not there on Saturday. Got a day off to be married, we heard.

After trying Mr. H. J. Miller's and some of the Garnish Hall fields, a
move was made over the road to Mr. A. Pegrum's farm ; it was decided to
stake everything on the certainty of binding on Mr. James Smith's land,
with the possibility of having to whip off if the hare made for the coverts —
for Mr. Barclay is a great stickler for not disturbing a covert. Our hopes
and fears were both realised, for we found a hare at once, but, making for
the woods, hounds had to be stopped. Then, more fortunate in a ploughed
field near Hill Hall Farm, hounds got away on grand terms with a fine
hare. She had no time for twisting or turning, but went away like a dart.
Three or four (including the Master) who were riding left-handed were
cornered at starting by a thick and very un-Essex looking blackthorn fence ;
but Mr. Gingell took the initiative by charging up a bank to the left, and
so turned it. Hounds, in the meantime, had not waited for anyone, so
those who had gone right-handed had it all to themselves in and out of the
plantation on the top of the hill. Dawson ! you had doctor's orders not to
jump a stick ! Why did you persist in ramming that cob through after
hounds, as in the teeth of almost a gale of wind they swept down the long
grass fields to the brook at the bottom, not jumpable where hounds
crossed it.

The right-hand contingent, led by the Master and Mr. Pease, were
again fortunate, as they hit off a convenient bridge, and, galloping a couple
of hundred yards down the road, nicked in as hounds crossed it, and raced
up the long clover-sown fields of Mr. Mills's.

How we on the left, again, cursed our luck or judgment ! Yes, Mr.
Dent and IVIr. Buxton, you were both there; and I make no apology for
mentioning your names, for was I not, with the whip, in the same plight ?
and I am afraid that if hounds had not come to a check in another mile we
should never have seen them again. But that run was over — a fast and
glorious burst while it lasted. Where that hare went to will always be a
mystery to me, for Mr. Barclay cast all round the compass without hitting
off her line.

But there was no mystery about the next hare, for after running her
hard and fast for forty-three minutes, and after some of the prettiest hound-
work I have ever seen, hounds ran into her ; and Mr. Avila, on whose farm
she was found, was in at the death, in time to be presented with the fine
Jack hare that had afforded us so much sport. But at the risk even of
boring those who took part in that good run, I will jot it down more in
detail. Mr. Pease was the first, I believe, to get a view of her as she
scudded over a large wheat-field, and with " 'ware wheat, gentlemen," we
divided right and left to gain the headlands. Mr. Pease, riding the horse on
zi'hich he ivon the Cleveland point-to-point, scrambled into the road on the right
and dived boldly into a farmyard.

It is easy enough to get into a farmyard, but not always so easy to get out.
But not a gate was fastened, so we all emerged in safety, and, jumping a

240 LKAVES FROM A IIUXTINC DIAKV

wattle-defended bank, saw the little pack, carrying a capital head, as they
went streaming over the pastures. Crossing a brooklet at the bottom, and
threading a straggling bullfinch, they made a wide circle round these
meadows, and then swept up hill again through a wood on its slope.

A regular Essex bank had to be negotiated to get round the wood —
straight and steep as the side of a house. No wonder Mr. Fitch's horse
came back with him ; but, getting clear and remounting, he sent him at it
again, this time with better success. Leaving the wood behind, hounds
fiew along over the grass, and once more crossed the road (what a beastly
drop into it !), over some cold ploughed land to a plantation, where she
vainly tried to shake off her pursuers. Failing to do so, she went away
in the open agam, and, taking very much the same course, was viewed into
the wood, every nook and corner of which she tried before she would leave
it. What a chorus there was as the pack came tumbling out of covert in
close pursuit of her ! Surely,

A cry more tunable
Was never holla'tl to, nor cheered with horn.

Gaining the road, she nearly succeeded in baffling these hounds, matched
in mouth like bells, and for the first time they were at fault. But Mr.
Pease, who demonstrated that he could hunt as well as ride, padded her up
the road, and Mr. Barclay, taking up the clue, traced her exit into a
ploughed field, where she broke in full view of the pack, who, coursing
her over two fields, ran into her in the boundary fence of the plantation,
which sanctuary she had vainly tried before. All were delighted with the
run — none more so than old Hurrell, who was in at the death ; unless,
perhaps, we except two little girls,'' to whom the Master gallantly pre-
sented pads.

In a splendid hunting run of one and a half hours from Duck Wood,
Dagenham, on Friday, February 24th, when we killed at Hare Street, Mr.
R. Bevan and Mr. Horner both took a roll over wire without any
serious damage. There is no doubt that we must have changed once at
least, as at the pace we went no fox could have lived in front of hounds so
long. Mr. Harry Sworder, riding my bay horse " Melton," was leading all
the way, and young Jerrard, on my big black (a horse that once nearly
broke my neck over some rails out of Newbold Revel Park, in the Atherstone
country), was whipping into him very well. A double at starting, and the
Dagenham brook half way through the run, thinned out the crowd, which at
no part of the day was a very big one. The following were among those
who were out: — Mrs. Bowlby, Mr. Arkwright, Col. Lockwood, Miss
Morgan, Mr. Tyndale White, Mr. Pemberton-Barnes, Mr. J. Pelly, Mr.
P. M. Evans, Mr. Waltham, ]\Irs. Upton, Major and Mrs. Carter, and
Mr. Sellar.

The hitc Mr. T. j. Mills, of Garnish Hall, Theydon Hois,
was a conspicuous fiL^Lii-c for man)" years in the hunting' held
with the Essex Hounds. A kind,j;ood-hearted fellow, a thorough
gentleman in every sense of the word, he was as straight as
a gun-barrel in his dealings, and faced the bad times that set in
in '79 with pluck and determination, though the struggle in
his case was a hard one, making him fear that when his time
was up that he might not ])a\ 20s. in the £. This fear was
never realised. Most of his hinuing was done on one horse.

Miss G. Waters and Mibs Osylh Veiburt-h.

T. MILLS

241

that had to take him to market, out on business, or about his
farm, but that one horse gave him unquahfied pleasure, and
leno-thened his hfe. He loved to holloa a fox, and nearly
always had one at home for us in his fagot stack. He
could beguile man)' a weary ride home with yarns of the old
days when Conyers hunted the country : he and the late Mr.
Fane between them could have filled a volume or two with
anecdotes of the chase in Essex. Mr. Mills was much missed
when he died, for he belonged to a class that is rapidly dying
out, the yeoman farmer. Probably his best and favourite
hunter was the chestnut mare " Polly." that won the Farmers
Point-to- Point 14-stone class on more than one occasion, ridden
by Mr. W. Symes : she was beaten by a horse of Mr. Dickin-
son's the last time she ran, when I had to steer her. How the
saddle bulged out from her sides with the amount of lead,
(about 3 stone) that had to be carried, I shall not readily forget.

T. J. Mills

How Mr. Mills' fox beat the Essex Fox- Hounds when they met at the
" Merry Fiddlers," on a spring-hke morning, Monday, March 6th, is here
set down. Patiently we waited in the road while the " yap ! yap ! " of a
sharp terrier at work in the faggot heap at Garnish Hall warned us we
might have to leave at a moment's notice. But patience gave way to
impatience, as not a fox would budge ; and hounds were taken on to the
Hill Hall coverts, when, just as they were being thrown into Bush Wood,
" holloa ! " after " holloa ! " was heard from the direction of Garnish Hall
— as on a former occasion, so now, the fox had made the best of his way
into Barbers. Bailey had the lady pack on at once, and leaving Barbers
16

242 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

behind, they ran to Hill Hall, close to the house, and struck across the
road just below Beachetts. By the way that they commenced running
over the grass fields of that good sportsman and friend to fox-huntmg, Mr.
John Miller, it was quite evident that there was a scent, as it was equally
apparent, by the determined manner in which T\Iessrs. Howard and Avila,
their nearest attendants except Bailey and Jack, sat down to ride, that they
did not mean to be left behind.

Swinging up the hill, hounds turned through the spinney on its slope,
and went in a bee-line for Shalesmore, and well within touch of those on
the right riding parallel with the brook at the bottom, or the smaller con-
tingent—including Messrs. Howard, Bevan, McEvans, Avila, Sworder, and
Waltham— on the left, who gladly availed themselves of the convenient
line of gates to and through Tawney Hall farm to Shalesmore. How
fortunate that hounds never run mute through a covert, for out of sight

,^ '^^^

T. J. Mill's Fagot Stack

nothing but their sweet chiming gave us any clue to the point they were
driving for. Single file down the woodside, and then we viewed them out
at the bottom end. Crossing the road, they hovered on the brink of the
river.

There was a ford to the right, and a bridge to the left, and the river ran between,
So we turned our horses, and galloped our best, though never a hound was seen,

as Mr. Rudyard Kipling might have sung had he been with us.

No, not until we had passed the Miller's house did we get a glimpse of
the pack, as, alone, they had run on over the water-meadows, only to
recross the river opposite Patch Park. Here, many— including the Hunts-
man, Messrs. Sworder, McEvans, Borwick, and Balloch — crossed the
river by the ford, only to find, after going over two or three more grass
fields, that hounds were turning back.

And then came the turning point which, in every foxhunting run, as in

mills' fagot stick fox

243

every man's career, is inevitable ; and which, " taken at the flood, leads on

to fortune," but taken at the ebb leads knows where — for a known ford

lay only two fields behind us, and an unknown one many more in front,
leading directly away from Colonel Lockwood's coverts, for which most of
us very naturally thought the fox was making. Mr. Harry Sworder did
not hesitate a moment, and his prompt and bold decision settled the
vacillation of more than one.

Bailey, too, kept to the right bank of the river, riding parallel with the
hounds as they drove over the water meadows on the left, and so reached
the ford, through which he and Mr. Sworder were about to plunge, when it
appeared that the next field was wired in right across the line hounds were
running — the only time in my limited experience that I ever remember wire
being a blessing in disguise, for it certainly kept us from crossing that ford,
and, as luck would have it, just below Mr. Kemsley's house hounds came
over the river again.

Richard Waltham on "Peggy"

Mr. Waltham is one of the farmers, too few alas, who is
able to get a clay's hunting now and then in our Monday
country. No one, however, enjoys it more, and no one has
done more good from time to time in smoothing over difficul-
ties arising from such things as poultry claims on the Monday

244 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

sitk'. Mr. W'altham rides hard and strai^i^-ht, and prefers his
own Urn: to anyone else's.

I fancy the peaceful little hamlet of Abridge must have been startled
from its usual lethargic condition by the thunder of horses' hoofs, as, like a
mighty flood, those who had been riding on the left bank of the river rattled
o'er the stony street in eager and hot haste to catch the fleeting and now
silent pack, which, having crossed the road, left the river for the fourth and
last time behind. A gate into the road was jammed and settled the ques-
tion of jumping in and out. A dozen at least were over abreast, straining
every nerve to catch the bitch pack, who were swinging with the steadiness
of a pendulum to the left, with —

Not a nose to the ground, not a stern in the air.
Crossing the road near Theydon Hall, we swept down the meadows over
which we quite recently had such a clinking run with Mr. Barclay's
Harriers.

Who was that dark-coated sportsman wath a clear lead of every one,
looking a very centaur, as, without any apparent effort, he landed his horse
over fence after fence ? And they couldn't gain a yard on him ! Mr.
Waltham, of course ! A farmer against the field on a good horse — for a
"pony," if you like — against all the pink and silk clad thrusters. Single
file down to the brooklet at the bottom, and as we rose the opposite hill, we
took more open order. One of our quickest men ■' in a quick thing took a
header ! On such occasions it is a rare pleasure to catch and restore a
horse. Bearing rather to the right, the pack crossed the Ongar line. How
we should have got over had it not been for those white railway gates, I
shall not attempt to solve ; but the temporary delay caused by opening
them did not produce any inconvenient crowding. Some say eight, some
say ten, went through with the huntsman.

Pointing for Debden Hall, it was passed on the right, and though hounds
now struck into a frightful barbed wire country, by good fortune we hit off
the only fields that were free from the snare, turned over the Loughton
road, and so reached the Forest, where, in the big earths near Luffman's
Lodge, this good fox got to ground. Fifty minutes from the time we left
Barbers was quick work for the eight miles of country covered, and it was
a fine hoimd run, too, for Baily never touched them once. So, Mr. Mills,
we will toast you and your fox in a big bumper, and may we find and run
him again is the ardent wish of us all.

Mr. E. Barclay's Harriers met on Tuesday at Maries Farm, Epping,
upon the invitation of Mr. Lewis Phillips, who extended a most hearty wel-
come to all. Three ladies graced the meet with their presence — Miss
Leatham, Miss Lamarque, and Miss Yerburgh. Miss Leatham had a
narrow escape from a nasty accident. During a sharp burst in the second
run she put her horse at a very blind ditch, with an awkward rail on the
far side, and her horse, failing to clear it, fell back with her among the
brambles. With considerable agility she succeeded in freeing herself, and,
remounting, was soon to the front again.

Among others at the meet we noticed Mr. Patchett, Q.C., Mr. Hoare,
Mr. Parham, Mr. Rickett, Mr. Westall, Mr. E. Oliver, and the Huntsman
of the Essex Hounds, who began his day well by bolting two very fine foxes
from a drain, and promptly stopping it. It was some time before a hare
was found ; but there was a dusting scent, and the seventeen couples
simply flew along, distancing all their followers.

* P. M. Evans.

MR. LEWIS PIIILLirS INVITES THE HARRIERS TO MARLES FARM 245

Racing across Rye Hill Common towards Parndon Woods, the hare
fortunately doubled back, and led a merry chase towards Latton Bushes,
where she obtained sanctuary, for hounds were whipped off. Anotlier very
good gallop was afterwards enjoyed, nearly all on the grass, Mr. Phillips
getting a capital view of the chase as it swept past his house. Mr. Parham
would not avail himself of the convenient gates, but sent his good horse —
the " Priest " — at a succession of fences in a manner that must have
astonished even that seasoned fencer.

Never was ground harder, and consequently never was cub hunting
carried on under more adverse conditions than at the opening of proceed-
ings this season. Hardly any one going out with hounds gave cause for
some grumbling on the part of farmers. Very little pleasure, if any, could
be extracted from an attempt to ride to hounds before the heavy, soaking
rains which commenced falling in October. This was rather fortunate for
me, for having dislocated my shoulder in September, I was precluded from
attempting to ride, my first venture being when hounds met at Parndon
Woods, the time 8 o'clock. The morning was quite a merry one, and was
enjoyed by all who took part in it, and included Messrs. Steele, Arkwright,
Pelly (2), Sewell (2), H. Fowler, Jones, Kemp (2), Green and Todhunter,
and Mrs. Waters.

We had quite a nice little hunt from Parndon Woods over some of Mr.
Smith's fields, and killed our fox ; another found napping in a turnip
field shared the same fate, and a third from Roydon Park was finished off in
Tattle Bushes.

However much diversity of opinion may exist about the first of every-
thing being the best, not excepting the first kiss, the first peach, and
the first rose of summer, no difference of opinion can possibly be enter-
tained as to the pleasure of the first real gallop with hounds that falls to the
lot of those who have entered on the season's duties. Is it not delightful
to feel the rocketing bound of a free-going horse under you once more, to
whisk over the blind ditches, and to feel that your nerve is as good, aye,
better than ever ? Ask those who were out on Saturday, October 21st, 1893,
at the 8 o'clock meet of the Essex Hounds at Sheering Street. PU give
you some names of those who were there to choose from. The Masters,
Mr. Loftus Arkwright and Mr. Bowlby, Lord Rookwood, Miss Jones, Miss
Docwra, Messrs. Bevan, Bowlby, jun., Chaffey Collin, F. Ball, W^ and G.
Sewell, E. Caldecott, Doxat, Lines. It was a quick find in more senses
than one, for the covert of that name was true to its reputation, and a stout
cub went away at once, as some found to their chagrin who arrived too late
on the scene. Running nearly up to the Sheering road, there was a gather-
ing of forces at the gate leading into it. Mr. Jones popped in and out
before the lock was picked, and those who followed found that Bailey, at the
tail of his hounds, had found the only way through the covert.

A man at plough viewed the fox away from the wood, which was soon
left behind, as were many more, including a check-coated sportsman,''' for,
coming a cropper, his nag went gaily on without him, and the fun was over
by the time he and others caught them at the Forest. It was a good, fast
gallop, and quite enough for horses with long coats and short of work.
Quick Wood was drawn again, and then Moor Hall coverts ; chopping one
fox, hounds got away with another on good terms, which they ran to ground
at Heathen Wood. On the way back to Moor Hall a roving young cub was
viewed. Bailey clapped hounds on at once, and they gave us a merry
dance to Sheering Hall and Durrington House, towards Hyde Hall.
Coming back, hounds ran him over the Harlow road and the big clover

* Mr. W. Sewell on "Berserker."

246

T.KAVKS FROM A HUNTING DIARY

tield towards Down Hall, and fairly pulled him down in the open. A
discovery was made during the morning by some of the early risers that for
a good real stay by, nerve strengthening pick-me-up, nothing beats rum and
milk with a biscuit.

Monday, October 30th. We met at Havering at 10 o'clock. A cold
morning. I drove with M. to the meet. We found at once in Mrs.
Mcintosh's coverts, and ran to ground, just enough to show there was
a scent. By the time Bailey got back, he had intelligence of another fox on
foot. Directly hounds touched the line they went away at score. A low
rail barred the exit from the stack yard, and only those who jumped it had
a chance of getting on terms again with hounds for some time after. Run-
ning in the direction of Hogg Hill, they turned back by Pyrgo, and even-
tually ran to Dagenham. It was a most sporting run. Messrs. R. Lockwood,
Flint, and several of us got falls, young Mr. Fred Green having the mis-
fortune to break his arm.

F. Green, jun.

F. Green, jun., like all his father's sons, was blooded at an
early age ; in his own case it was his 8th birthday, November
8th, 1877, that was so fittingly celebrated. It has been Mr.
Green's fortune to ride with hounds all sorts of horses, good,
bad and indifferent ; and, possessing a nerve almost as good as
his father's, which is saying a good deal, it has been his creed
to extract all the go out of them it was possible to obtain.

By November the ground was much too hard for sport, as the following
brief entries show.

November 13th.— No sport, for above reason, Swallow's Cross.

November 20th. — No sport at Kelvedon.

November 27th.— Harlow Common, Lord Londsdale must have been
very disappointed with his day in Essex (he had been huntmg the previous

DAN L GINGELL BLOCKS THE WAY 247

one with his own hounds, and had come up by a special train and was
due back at his own covert side the following day), for we only just saved
the blank with a short scurry of five minutes across Mark Hall Park to
ground, but even those brief moments gave us the opportunity of admiring
the cleverness of Lord Londsdale's black horse as he hopped over the ha
ha, in the Park.

Wednesday, December 6th. Hatfield Heath. — The most disappointing
season on record. Saturday and Monday preceding we were stopped by
frost — up to the present time we had only had one run. However, we
had a very fair day at last ; there were plenty of foxes in Down Hall,
Man Wood, Brick Kilns and Row Wood. A good many were out,
including T. and G. Gilbey, Caldecott, E. Ball (F. Ball was laid up with
gout, but drove to the meet), Mr. and Mrs. Crocker, Mr. and Mrs. Bowlby
and son, Arkwright, Chaffey Collin, W. Buckmaster, Hull, Jones,
Miss Fane, Major and Mrs. Carter, Miss Capel-Cure, Captain Riddell,
Pemberton-Barnes, Tufnell, Miss Morgan, George Hart, Green of Parndon,
and the Rev. L. Scott. Our first draw was Quick Wood blank : then
we went on to Down Hall, where we found at once. Unluckily, we
killed our first fox inside the covert. We soon got away with another at
the lower end and ran towards Sheering over a lot of cramped fences,
we then turned right-handed and ran very fast to Man Wood. Not many
saw this hunt as they were left at Down Hall, but amongst those who
did were Mr. H. E. Jones, Major Carter and Mr. W. Pemberton-Barnes.
After a good hunting run from Brick Kilns, we wound up the evening
with a very pretty fast gallop from Row Wood to Poplars.

Wednesday, December 13th, 1893.— Leaving home late I fortunately fell
in with hounds at Shatter Bushes ; it was a very wild day, but very mild.
They had had a very sharp ten minutes up wind from Galley Hills to the
Windmill in the Waltham Road. We found in Shatter Bushes and
ran up to Nasing Coppice and back to Galley Hills, from there we got
on fresh terms, and getting away again from the bottom of Galley Hill
we crossed the road and ran up to Hollyfield Hall, and bearmg right-handed
got down in the Marshes below Mr. C. J. Bury's, slow hunting down wind,
our fox had either laid upon the plough or we got on a fresh one, for
we ran back at a rattling pace to Galley Hills. There was a stream of
pursuers at least a mile long ; we did not dwell a moment in covert
before we were away again at the bottom and at a great pace by Dewey's
up to Shatter Bushes. Bearing right-handed we ran fast across W^arlies
Park to Copped Hall Green and lost in the Forest ; it was a real chnker.
A great many were thrown out at Galley Hills, but Mr. G. Buxton, Miss
Buxton, Mr. Arkwright and Mr. A. J. Pease riding Mr. Howard Fowler's
grey, were not among the many. Drove you to the meet, Mr. Ball, on
Monday, December i8th, at Swallow's Cross, but you mustn't blarne me for
that nasty roll your new chestnut gave you as we came away with a fox
from the High Woods, though we ran to ground in the field it happened in.
Mr. Dalton I trow, riding a horse formerly the property of Mr. Elder, which
carried him so well in the run on January 8th, i8go, enjoyed the subsequent
gallop across Hylands Park up to Galley Wood Common quite as much as
Mr. Usborne, INIajor Ricardo, Mr. Fane and his daughter, and Mr. E.
Caldecott, who were well in that day. Your bay horse however, made no
mistake. Master Ned, the following week in the twenty minutes burst on
Wednesday, December 27th, from Mr. D. Christy's cabbages to Ongar
Park, though I do not think any of you could quite catch Mr. Gerald
Buxton ; but we put it down to M. Daniel Gingell, who hung on a bank at
the only loophole out of one field beyond Greensted Wood for such a length

!48

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

of time as to drive us all to desperation, though even then it was not good
enough to wait for the hunting-crop which was recovered next day. Mrs.
Bowlby was one of the few ladies who saw this run.

Anything but a pleasant morning for hunting must have been the
thoughts of many when they met at the breakfast table on Wednesday,
December 20, as they witnessed the rain dashing agamst the wmdows and
heard the wind surging with gusty violence. Fortunate were those to
whom the meet at Thrushes Bush lay handy, for by ten o'clock tlnngs
looked a little better ; but the rain still came in fitful showers, and a tall
hat was hardly the most comfortable, if the most orthodox head-gear.

Harlow Park

Some sixty or seventy were at the meet — a small field for Essex — clad
in sombre hue, with half-a-dozen " pinks " at the outside ; but sixty out of
that seventy meant business. I can give, if not all, most of the names: —
The joint Masters (Mr. Arkwright and Mr. Bowlby), Mrs. Bowlby, the
Countess of Warwick, Sir T. Fowell Buxton and the Misses Buxton (3),
Mr. Noel Buxton, Mr. A. J. Edwards, Mr. Biron (late Master of the
Surrey Foxhounds), Mr. W. H. Pemberton Barnes, Mr. R. Bevan, Mr.
Ford Barclay, Mr. Basham, Mr. G. Brown, Major and Mrs. Carter, Mr,
Caldecott, Mr. Dunlop, Mr. Green (of Parndon) and his son, Mr. F. Green,
jun., Mr. and Mrs. Howard Fowler^- Mr. G. Gilbey, Mr. G. Hart, Mr. J.
Harris, :\Ir. Horner and his son, Mr. T. R. Hull, Mr. H. E. Jones, Miss
Jones, Mr. T. Matthews, Mr. P. 'S. Lee, Mr. R. C. Lyall, Miss Morgan
and a nephew, Miss Oliver, Messrs. Pelly (4), I\Ir. H. J. Price, the Rev. L.
Scott, Mr. and Mrs. W. Sewell, Mr. G. Sewell, Mr. Steele, Capt. H. F. M.
Wilson, Mr. Brumskill, Messrs. Avila, Lines, Morris, and others.

Now for the run — certainly one of the best I have seen during the
fifteen years I have hunted with the Essex hounds. Harlow Park again, at

-^;^*^s^w-- ■>-■ . 11

2=^0 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

about 12.30, and a screaming scent in covert. The fox broke at the south
side, but by the time you had dived down the middle ride, he was back,
with the chattering ladies at his brush. Some said he was a big fox, but I
didn't think so, although I agreed with Bailey that he would have to look
sharp if he wished to escape that day. Crossing the road near the Sun
and Whalebone, they ran him through Latton Park into Rundell's Grove.
The Master held the field in check for a minute; then, when the welcome
" Forward away '" was heard, there was a rare gallop for a start over the
big grass fields. Leaving Rundell's on the left, they crossed by Mr.
Satch's farm, and turning out of the lane, ran at a great pace up wind
towards the Lower Forest, coming to their first check at Mr. Boram's — a
two-and-a-half mile point.

Over the Harlow road, and turning off at right angles from the course
we had been coming, plough was exchanged for grass, but the pace was as
good as ever — little" chance of catching hounds again if your horse refused ;
none whatever if you got a fall ; and one riderless horse at least was going
the line on his own account. A mometary falter on a bit of wheat, and then
over a big seed field — part of the course over which the Master steered
" Diana " to victory in the point-to-point of two years ago. Mr. Symes
would forgive us, I know, for hounds were going a cracker. Into his long
meadow, and then over Knockers, we crossed the Epping road just below
the Lindsey-street cottages. Hounds ran steadily over these meadows of
Mr. G. Pegrum's up to the Bury-lane. Unluckily, there was wire in
several fences, and a strand between two trees brought one of our most
popular riders to grief, cruelly cutting his favourite mare,- and ripping his
mackintosh and saddle to pieces. Messrs. Jones and Bevan managed to
escape it all, and, striking into the lane with hounds where they crossed,
got away on good terms with them ; turning over the Epping Bury road
they ran straight for the Warren.

Again, the greatest caution had to be used, for there was wire in nearly
every fence. How one sighed for the good old days of ten years ago, when
there was not a yard of wire on the Copped Hall Estate.f Major Carter
jumped a strand without knowing it, and found himself like a rat in a trap,
wired in all round. Just before reaching the Warren, we had to jump into
the road. Thank you, Mr. Jennings, for having that strand taken down,
or we should all have been shut off from hounds, who were racing through
the Forest. It was so wet that there was actually a scent — another three-
and-a-half mile point as the crow flies from Mr. Boram's ; and the time
from the find — thirty-five minutes — I took it carefully — will give an idea of
the pace. Another straight line of two miles, and they marked this good
fox to ground, in the big earths at Luffman's — fifty-minutes from the
start.

Monday, January ist, 1894. — Dagenham. It looked any odds against
hunting the night before, and the roads were hard and slippery going to the
meet. W'e found a fox, however, at once at Dagenham, and ran at a great
pace very straight to Havering, where we lost him, came back to Mrs.
Mackintosh's and in the gorse found the fox that on two previous occa-
sions had given us such capital sport. Running to Dagenham and South
Weald and making several rings, he tried to regain the sanctuary of
Havering, but running from scent to view, hounds pulled him down in the
open — a rare good run of one hour and twenty minutes. Mr. C. E. Green

• Mr. G. .Sewell's "Duchess."

t Mr. E. J. Wythes has had all the wire reniuved off his estate since he came to reside
at Copped Hall.— Ed.

MR. H. T. IMUCE HAS A NASTY KAIJ.

25

and nephew out (first time this season) and Messrs. E. Sheppard,
Dalton, F. Ball, and others. Mr. E. Caldecott also was well to the fore
and M. A. J. Tweed, riding his famous hunter " Trumps," which he
subsequently had the misfortune to kill at Harlow races, would not have
received the brush if he had not earned it.

Very wintry weather set in, and hounds did not get out again before
Friday, January 12th, 1894, at Great Easton. On Saturday, the 13th, they
had a rare good run from Witney Wood to the High Woods. It was in
this gallop that Mr. Price, who was right to the front on his chestnut, met
with such a nasty accident, through his horse landing in a rabbit-hole, that
he was kept out of the saddle for many weeks. Out for exercise with my
son, I came across Mr. Price as he was being put into a cart. Also Mr.
Usborne, and a lot of other road riders who were completely out of it.

Past Horsefrith Park for Blackmore High Woods

Dagenham ! What sport we have had from there this season. From
the very commencement of cub-hunting we have had runs that were well
worth chronicling ; but the crcme de la crcine was that of Monday, January
29th. Hardly a breath of wind, merely the whisper of the departing gale,
ushered in a lovely hunting morning — a morning at which to linger at the
meet, and do justice, as we did not fail to do, to the hospitality of one of our
oldest and most open-hearted members, Mr. Sands.

In addition to the Master (Mr. Arkwright), I noted Mr. Bowlby ; that
youthful member of the Hunt, the Rev. F. A. S. Fane, who has only
hunted, he told me, sixty-eight years with the Essex Hounds ; Col. Lock-
wood, M.P., Messrs. E. and F. Ball, Mr. W. H. P. Barnes, Miss Buxton,
Mr. E. Caldecott, Mr. Christy, Mr. Chaffey Collin, Mr. W. Cook, Mr. P.
M. Evans, Mr. F. Green, jun.. Miss Heseltine, Mr. Horner and his boy,
Miss E. Morgan and her niece, Miss Oliver, Miss Tait, Mr. J. Pelly, Mr.

2::; 2 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

L. Felly, Mr. J. Sands, Mr. D. P. Sellar, Mr. and Mrs. W. Sewell, Mr. G.
Sewell, Mr. D. Smith, Mr. R. Smith, Mr. A. J. Tweed, Mr. W. Westall,
Capt. H. F. Wilson, Mr. A. E. Woodward, Mr. Helme, Capt. Ricardo,
Messrs. F. and S. Pratt, Mr. Miles, Mr. Patchett, Q.C., Mr. Lawrence,
Messrs. Avila, Crosse, Morris, Tippler.

The little dark bay Irish horse "Victor," standing- 15.2,
purchased from Mr. Alexander Ward, Hon. Sec. of the Essex
Union Hounds, upon which Mr. Sands is here depicted, may be
taken as a fair type of the class of animal upon which he has
always gone so straight with hounds. The following lines

John Sands on "Victor"

from Mr. Bevan's poem of "Matching Green" o-ive a o-ood

insight of his
knocked down

:Indly qualities. He had been ridden into, and

" And Johnny Sands, no ruffian's charge

His genuine pluck could shake.
When prostrate by that cruel blow

He lay but half awake.
Men say they heard his kindly lips

Utter no other sounds
Than, ' Friends, don't let me keep you here,

Go on, and join the hounds."

The late rains had fairly settled the ground, and by the time we reached
Mr. Pemberton Barnes' coverts only one opinion was held, viz., that on
such a day there must be a scent ; and hearts beat high with expectation

'54

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

when hounds were thrown into the Bower Wood. At the first cheer of the
huntsman, a bold, straight-necked fox took his departure ; but not unseen,
as the echo of Bailey's horn to the lusty " Holloa ! " at the far end of the
wood brought the dog pack out right on his heels. Away over the two
grass fields with the drop fence at the bottom, they swung up the hill,
threading a narrow plantation, and were over the rail-guarded park. Bailey
and Mr. Collin were off simultaneously, struggHng with the fastenings of
two gates. Twenty-five seconds accomplished one, thirty the other, and we
raced over the park to catch the leading hounds, three couple of which had
gone clean away from the rest.

The line was over a heavy wheat field, and not many followed the
huntsman, but held down the road or turned in with Mr, Collin and others
to the plantation, through it, and out on the road.

Bedfords

The hounds got together as we turned over a quickset fence to the left,
and galloped down a narrow meadow to a thick thorn fence, which the
leaders, suspicious of a hidden wire, were carefully refusing. It was easily
turned, and I can only note that the fences came thick and fast, that there
was no time for picking and choosing, and that Bailey got off well with the
loss of his cap as he led us over a trappy double into a road. A heavy
field, upon which I, for one, devoutly hope that the next time we cross it the
draining operations will have been completed, brought horses to a trot.

To the right of the plantation with Mr. Pemberton-Barnes was the best
line, but lost you a brook to your credit, for we got it nicely bridged. And
then a steady pull up hill, with a real Essex bank at the top — not a weak
place to be seen ; no, not after Mr. Collins' and Mr. Sewell's horses had
airily scaled it. One or two more heavy fields, then another road, and we
struck the grass beyond and raced down to the railway, reaching it half way
between Harold Wood and Brentwood Stations. The approach to an

CHAFFEV COLLIN S RUN 255

inviting archway under it was guarded by a sinuous and serpentine brook.
Some called it a river, others a yard-arm of the sea ; but steep and rotten
were the banks, and deep and murky flowed the stream, and few showed a
disposition to have a cut at it. But Mr. Tweed, riding " Woodside," was
not to be denied, and, taking it in his stride, landed handsomely over, only
to fall back as the rotten bank gave way, causing him a mauvais qiiat d'heuvc
trying to recover his horse. He deserved a better fate.

The knowing ones never left Bailey, for if there is a way in and out of
any brook in Essex, he is the one to find it ; and they were well rewarded,
for he soon discovered one. On your luck in getting your turn to follow
him entirely depended your place for the rest of the run. Capt. Wilson,
Mr. Arkwright, Mr. Sewell, and Miss Buxton were among the first six who
got over. Mr. Caldecott, on a horse that had the legs of most of us, made
for a bridge, and was the first to catch hounds as they led us over a nice
country, easily fenced, to Mr. Ind's house, Coombe Lodge.* Mr. Caldecott
again got away with a few leading hounds that kept to tlie line ; but, after
leaving the park behind, Bailey had to " throw up the sponge " and confess
himself beaten by a rare good fox that had done the six-mile point in forty
minutes. Such, I am assured, was the time and the distance. Mr. Calde-
cott was in his element, leading the van, as he always does in the Dagen-
ham country ; and he will have to be a bold man and well mounted who
will throw down the gauntlet to him in his happy hunting ground. All,
however, were delighted with the run, for all got a cut in either at the start
or the finish.

Meeting at Shonks Mill on Monday, February 5th. No one could catch
Mr. A. J. Tweed, who was riding his horse " Woodside," in the screamev
we had from Mr. Christy's cabbages to the big woods. How your horse
was blowing, Mr. Jones, as we scrambled through the fence into the Toot
Hill road together, but not worse than the grey cob ; but they had
recovered their winds by the time the fox had been marked to. ground at
the Rifle-butts.

Saturday, February 24th, brought together a large field, the greater
part of whom were doomed to disappointment, as covert after covert was
drawn blank, and carefully drawn, too. Likely fields were cracked up ;
thatched sheds and ancient elms, the assured haunt of well-known foxes,
proved equally abortive ; no wonder, then, that there was hardly anyone
left to lead the forlorn hope to try a few rough fields, as at four p.m. horses'
heads were turned kennelwards. Sir Evelyn Wood, V.C., had gone, Major
Riddell and Mr. Tresham Gilbey had trains to catch, and Mr. and Mrs.
Bowlby, and 150 more of those who had assembled with the disappearance
of the frost at White Roothing, had taken their departure.

Only twenty, or perhaps thirty, remained to tell the tale, or to take part
in the stirring gallop that commenced at five minutes past four with the
" toot, toot," of the Master's horn, as the keen eye of Mr. Chaffey Collin
detected the thief of the world, the robber of hen roosts, stealing out at the
bottom end of a long straggling field at the back of Hatfield town. There
was no time, much as you would have desired it, to take it easy over the
first deep stubble, as Bailey, with lightning speed, clapped the hounds for-
ward. Still less was there room for hesitation as you reached the boundary
fence — a wide and rotten banked ditch, that landed you into the three grass
meadows down which the bitches were racing. Single file we clattered over
the wooden bridge, Mr. Gurney Sheppard with the lead ; a gate into the
road at the end of the meadow, a man in the act of opening it, Mr. Sheppard

Mr. Ind was standing near the lodge gates as we galloped past, and cheerily he waved

.S6

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

jumping it, and Bailey, with a broad and delighted grin on his countenance,
enjoining us to hold to the left as hounds crossed the turnpike, are pleasant
thoughts that come back to us now. Not so pleasant, the man in a grey
coat who came cutting in as we scrambled out of the road up a steep bank.
Then bearing left-handed, the field spread out and selected their places in
the next fence, which brought at least one man to grief.

On, up the headland, after Mr. Howard Fowler's good grey, if you
would be near them, and we struck the road from the Heath that leads
past Row Wood. Right-handed up the grassy lane, a momentary falter,
and the pack were racing on again towards Hatfield Grange. Mr. Sheppard
was down, getting a nasty kick on the face; Jack caught his horse, and

Cedric "

seeing him making good tracks, you could sail on with a clear conscience ;
but very possibly at the pace the ladies were going wished you were riding
" Correze," " Covertside," or one of the other candidates for the G.N.
Turning sharp again to the right, for hounds were fairly pressing their fox,
they crossed the Down Hall brook, only Major Carter going with them.
Fortunately they turned parallel with us, and we skirted a wire fence and
snicked them at the bridge at the bottom of the hill.

For a few seconds there was some uncertainty which side of the road to
select, the Man Wood or Down Hall. It was soon settled as the pack got
together, and ran on very fast over some heavy fields to Man W^ood, the
Master on " Diana," Mr. Chaifey Collin and Mr. Jones being nearest to
them. Here, my friend, if you were well mounted you ought to have put
on the steam, for, as events turned out, it was the critical point, the very
best part, the cream of the run. A few fields ahead Man Wood loomed up
clear and distinct, and experience had taught how often a fox will try every
nook and corner of this big covert before facing the open again. Contrary,

COLLIN S LEA I

257

however, to custom, the one we were in pursuit of never dwelt an instant,
but went straight through. Mr. Chaffey ColHn seemed to divine this, for
he had a clear lead of every one as he rode hard for the right-hand corner of
the field that skirts Man Wood, and as he jumped in and out of the lane he
was near enough to hounds to know that there was no time to be lost as
they raced on for the open again.

Those who kept nearest to the leader, including Mr. George Sewell,
were in time to see him in the grass field with hounds flying towards White
Roothing. Very few, however, were near enough to relate how Mr. Collin
jumped what has hitherto been looked upon as an impossible place, and
which brought Jack, who was riding " Catapult," the only other one who

C. Chaffey Collin

attempted it, to grief. I know by the time the majority of us, who were on
the right, emerged from Man Wood that we were at least in tiine to see
some turning back towards Man Wood, evidently to avoid what will hence-
forth be known as " Collin's leapf and others returning down the meadow
seeking for a convenient place in another very unnegotiable fence. Personally
I was too far behind to see hounds, until the huntsman pointed them out on
the sky-line near White Roothing, and said, " Yo-onder they go, and only
Mr. Collin with them."

There was nothing for it but a hard, stern chase, in the hope of catching
hounds. Passing close to White Roothing village, they turned slightly to
the left and ran up to Cammas Hall, which lies on the right of Row Wood,
and here, at least, the right-hand contingent got up to them, the man in the
grey coat coming to the front again, being in such a hurry to do it that he
cut in at a half-open gate, caught it with his knee, closed it on his horse,
and came a rare buster. His horse getting away, he was not seen again.
In the meantime those on the left who followed the Master— who, by-the-

258 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

bye, was the first to catch hounds— fared well or badly according as they
were mounted. Certainly, a hearty vote of thanks was accorded to Mr.
Sheppard for smashing a thick bar that blocked one gateway. Mr. Waters
earned similar gratitude for making matchwood of another.

Horses were evidently getting blown, and Mr. Jones's coming down for
about the fourth time was not asked the question again. Those who in this
stern chase had not pressed their horses beyond their stride now came to the
front, for the run was not nearly over, and they included the Master, Messrs.
Ridley, Fowler, E. Ball, Waters, Hull, and a man* on a wonderful chesnut
pony. Crossing the road, we ran up to Broomshaw Bury, and leaving it on
the right, hounds ran over a beautiful line of country and easy fences at a
somewhat reduced pace. The huntsman's horse, thoroughly cooked,
refused to jump any longer, and still hounds ran on. Mr. Chaffey Collin
most generously lending Bailey his horse, he soon caught them ; nor did
they require any assistance before Barrington Hall was reached, when fifty
minutes from the find the curtain fell on as pretty a play as was ever placed
before Essex sportsmen. I regret that I cannot add sportswomen, for not
one remained to see it. There was a great demand that night for gruel, tea,
fresh-boiled eggs, and the last cigar at the hostelry in Hatfield town, and it
was nearer eight than seven before many of us reached home.

Mr. Chciffey Collin, whose portrait, together with that of
his good horse " Cedric," adorns these pages, comes of a good
old Essex family which for many years had been identified with
fox-hunting in their county. Known as " Long Collin " by
his friends, and their name is legion, he has never taken for his
motto, " Look before you leap," or, faith, he would never have
got over so many of the big places with which he and his good
horse " Cedric " have been credited. A notable jump was
that near Man W^ood, the great evening run alluded to before,
when he brought Jack Turner, the only one who attempted
to follow him, on that grand performer " Catapult," to fearful
grief. The mare split her pastern on landing and rolled over,
but, strange to say, got over the accident so well that it
did not stop her winning a brace of point-to-point races in
subsequent seasons. Twenty-six feet four inches this little
leap measured. Mr. Collin generally rides in mufti, and his
brown coat, if a stranger can keep his eye on it, is a beacon
good enough to follow. No one loves the Essex country
more, and after a few days in the fashionable grass countries
in 1898 he remarked to me that he preferred a blank day in
Essex to a day in a strange country, however good the latter
might be. Mr. Collin, however, would rather that I should
sing of his horse than himself. " Cedric " had only seen
hounds once when Mr. Collin purchased him in 1891, but in
such hands he soon became a very clever and accomplished

Lord Brooke's tutor.

■Ml

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vX^^\

1 il
ill #f

iw^

Iw^

Mil

a,

1 ,

I

f ; '--'21 ' C'^ap

2 6o LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

hunter. Tis wonderful what a horse can and will do if the
rider's heart is in the right place. Standing 15.3, well ribbed
up. "Cedric" was a capital stayer, and until he passed into
the possession of Mr. Newman Gilbey (I think in 1897),
carried his owner pretty regularly two days a week. Although
he never won a point-to-point race, he went very near it in
1885, when he was only beaten by a head.

Gilston Park

Gilston Park

CHAPTER IX

Gilston Park — E. Salvin Boidby — The Annual Meeting, March lyth, 1894 — ^^^^
Mark Hall Run — Full Cry past Maries — Andrew Roddick — The Duke of
York's Own Loyal Suffolk Hussars — A lovely country bar the wire — The
Admiral to the rescue — The Lea Valley — The Melles Family — Bones and
Brigadier — The German Officers — A late draw — Golfing tueather — The Essex
Stag Hounds — Grange Farm — A scent on the dusty ploughs— Sampling a
blind 'un — Sheffield Neave, M.S.H. — Stratford— Captain Digby Neave —
Leinster — False Prophets — Lnffman s Earths — Twenty good days — Newman
Gilbey — The Challenge — The Denouement — John Swire — York.

BOSLEY'S Fox. Monday, February 26th, i8g|. Passingford Bridge
Hounds slipped away by themselves from Ongar Park to Blake Hall
Station, and on by North Weald and back to the Woods, Mr. A. Darby
catching them as soon as any one. In the evening ten only of us remained,
for a good run with an outlying fox of Bosley's, at the back of Weald
Church. Messrs. E. and F. Ball, Miss Morgan and her nephew, Messrs.
Caldecott, Darby, Arkwright, and two men from Brentwood. Found him
again, and he gave us a capital gallop by the wood near the " Talbot,"
up to Blake Hall Station Wood, and on to Dewley Wood and Blake Hall.
Wednesday, February 28th, 1894, Little Laver Mill. A regular Essex
morning. To the meet in a driving sleet, the country quite under water.
A good many out, including Col. Lockwood, Lady Warwick, Sir Evelyn
Wood, V.C., Major Riddell, Capts. Ricardo and Bruce, Sellar, Messrs.
H. E. Jones, F. Ball, G. Sewell, Hull, Christys (2), H. Fowler, C. Collin,
Lee, Evans, and Buxton, Miss Jones, Miss Morgan, and many more. We
found a fox at Brick Kilns, and he took us along well to Man Wood, enter-
ing the lower end, and going out towards Row Wood by Cammas Hall, and
lost at Poplars ; 25 minutes' very nice hunting run, and quite fast enough
with the country so deep. Found again in some cabbages near Matching
Park, and ran very fast through there and on to Down Hall and Man Wood,
and out towards High Laver, where we lost. Found again at Matching
Park, and went a spHtter to Moor Hall, through and on to Hobb's Cross,

62

LKAVKS FROM A IIUNTINC; DIARV

and back to Matching Tye, to ground in a summer house (Sir Evelyn
Wood being about the first up), from which Jack and I and T. Matthews
eventually bolted the fox after hounds had gone home.

Major Riddell will never forget the good hunting run of an hour and
fifty-five mmutes from Menagerie Wood, on Monday, March 5th, when we
killed in one of Mr. Fane's coverts. I say Major Kiddell, for he and the
huntsman were the only two who rode every field with the hounds, or could
stick to them all the time. The best part of the run was the first, as our
fox went straight away from Park Wood, and nearly up to Brentwood
before he turned. Mr. P. M. Evans went home before the run was over,
and the Mate on his young mare was out of it — -why will he ride young
ones ? — though he managed to drop in in time for some refreshments at
Captain Ricardo's afterwards.

E. Salvin Bowlby on " FoxmauU "

I should like to have had <i photograph of his favourite grey
hunter which carried him so well for so many seasons in Essex,
and must have jumped nearly every ditch in the Roothings.

E. SAT A' IX P,()\VLi;\

263

" Do you like the Roothin^s better than other parts of your
country?" was a question I put to Mr. Bowlby, late one
afternoon, near Row Wood, in the season of 1897. "^ ^^'^^^
when I was younger," was the reply. Those who witnessed
the straight way he rode across them some years ago, when

E. Salvin Bowlby

longer

a young- man, will 1

eadilv believe this. What is

bred in the bone will out in the Mesh, and Mr. Bowlby 's family,
portraits of some of whom will be found on page 265, inherit

264 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

his keen love of sport, and do not know what fear is when it
comes to jumpino' blind ditches. From 1893 to the end of the
season 1897-98 Mr, Bowlby held the joint mastership of the
Essex Hounds with Mr. Arkwright ; he now holds the same
position with Mr. C. E. Green, of Theydon Grove, Epping.
Each year as it goes by finds the members of the Essex

Mrs. E. Salvin Bowlby on "Charlotte"

Hunt mure keenly alive than ever to the fact that it was a
lucky day for them when at a critical period in the fortunes of
the Hunt, Mr. Bowlby was induced to come forward in con-
junction with Mr. Arkwright and undertake the onerous duties
which attach to a Mastership of Hounds.

'Tis well for any Hunt when a Master's wife is as devoted
to the sport as her liege lord. 'Tis fortunate indeed when the

266

LKAVKS FROM A HUNTING DIARY

w itlc inllLicncc she exercises is all lor ^oocl. 'Tis doubly so
when that inlliience which ^ixcs the tone to a Hunt, welds it
and binds it together in a chi\alr()us band, is shared and
advanced by a kindred spirit, by one holdin<4 a similar position,
the wife of a brother Master. In Mrs. Bowlby and Mrs.
Arkwrii>ht all these conditions are fulfilled.

Arthur Salvin Bowlby

Arthur Salvin Bowlby hunts his two or three days a week
regularly ; dislikes jostling for a gap in the crowd, but dearly
loves a good gallop in the evening. To his skill in amateur
photography I am greatly indebted for several of the best
illustrations in these volumes, notably the meets at the "Green
Man.' Harlow, the portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Bowlby and
Mrs. Arkwright, Parndon Hall, &c.

Monday, March 12th. — Blackmore, a blustering windy day, with falling
glass, (lid not portend good sport, but the unexpected often happens, and if
we did not have the run of the season, we certainly had a most enjoyable
woodland day, winding up with a fast straight scurry in the open.

MK

L. 1. W. AlCKWRICIIT ON

ARLIK

267

3.30 saw us at Forest Hall. Not many had gone home, for a fox
of renown was known to haunt those good vulpine preserves — a fox who
had the credit of having stood up before the hounds for one of the best
and fastest forty minutes which they had had that season, and to have fairly
beaten them, and who with a more catchy scent simply laughed at hounds
when they went away from the bottom end of Witney Wood on this
occasion.

Mrs. Loftus J. W. Arkwright on "Charlie"

A light-coloured fox, he was first viewed in the covert by Mr. Ridley,
and then by Mr. Uunlop ; but not a man, including the keeper, viewed him
over the second ride, so Bailey did not get away upon quite his usual good
terms. Over the first two grass fields we rode in desperate haste, for some
of the leading hounds had already crossed the lane. Getting together on
the plough, they ran steadily on, coming to a check in a road ; fortunately
a hedger had viewed the fox over the grass ; hounds commenced to run at
a great pace. Sir Evelyn Wood, V.C., quietly selecting his own line, led
the left-hantl contingent, while the Master on his grey, Miss Morgan, Mr,
Helme, and Mr. Cowee, were close in the wake of hounds, and Major
Riddell, Captain Bruce, and Mr. Dunlop were taking all that came in their
way on the right. Just a little more pace would have converted this fast
gallop into a steeplechase. As it was, at the end of twenty-five minutes we

268 LF.AVKS FROM A HUNTING DIARY

pulled up at the High Woods, hot, and thankful for such a good spin, only
lamenting with the fast waning season that we could not expect many more
like it.

Through the sad death of Mr. Theobald, who, though not a follower of
these hounds, was universally esteemed and respected, the meet which was to
have taken place that week at Dagenham was postponed to the next.

The annual general meeting was held at the Green Man, Harlow, on
Saturday, INIarch 17th, Lord Rookwood presiding. Few were sanguine
enough to anticipate the capital gallop that was in store for us — one that
(juite upheld the phenomenal sport these hounds have invariably met with
on the day of their annual meeting. Last year was, perhaps, the only
exception, and that is easily accounted for by the state of the ground.
Whether it is the country, the season of the year, or whether Bailey keeps
the pick of the kennels for this occasion, I do not pretend to know ; but I
venture to prophecy that as long as an Arkwright lives at Parndon the
annual meeting will be synonymous with a good day, for the Arkwright
coverts and Arkwright foxes are second to none in England.

The following were present at the meet : — Mr. and Mrs. Bowlby and Mr.
Arkwright, Mr. Bevan, Mr. E. Ball, Mr. F. Ball, Mr. and Mrs. Pemberton-
Barnes, Mr. Basham, Mr. Benton, Mrs. Bennett, Mr. Bevan, Mr. G. Brown,
Mr. G. Buxton and Misses Buxton, Mr. Carr, Mr. Caldecott, Mr. Chaffey
Collin, Mr. and Mrs. W^eston Crocker, Major and Mrs. Carter, Mr. and
Mrs. Docwra, Mr. P. M. Evans, Mr. Howard Fowler, Mr. J. Gingell,
"Sir. D. Gingell, Mr. Green (Parndon), Mr. F. Green, jun.. Dr. Grubb,
Mr. G. Gilbey, Mr. George Hart, Mr. J. Harris, Mr. Horner and his boy,
Mr. T. R. Hull, Mr. H. E. Jones and Miss Jones, Mr. P. S. Lee, Colonel
Lockwood, M.P., Mr. R. Lockwood, Mr. R. C. Lyall, Miss Mann, Mr. T.
Mathews, Miss E. Morgan, Miss Oliver, Mr. Oldham, Mr. E. Pelly, Mr.
J. Pelly, Mr. L. Pelly, Mr. Patchett, O.C, Mr. and Mrs. Price, Mr. E.
Quare and Miss Quare, Rev. L. Scott, "^Mr. J. Sands, Mr. Shapland, Mr.
j. Scruby, Mr. G. Sewell, Mr. and Mrs. W. Sewell, Mr. Single, Mr. Drum-
niond Smith, Mr. Tyndale White, Mr. A. Waters, Miss Georgie Waters,
Mr. W. Westall, Captain H. Wilson, and Mr. A. E. Woodward.

It was past mid-day before Bailey with the lovely lady pack rapidly
threaded his way through the crowd of horse, carriage, and foot folk that
thronged the street of the pretty little town of Harlow, and perhaps a
quarter past before he cheered hounds into Barnsleys, where the run com-
menced for many of us ; for not finding, he slipped quietly off towards
Mark Hall. Was it a ruse ? If so, it came off very well ; and the Master
piloting us out through the wood, we could see hounds in the distance, just
entering the Mark Hall coverts. " It was no time for dallying," as old
Johnson says of a man of forty who talks of taking a wife ; and only those
who set off at once, at a smart gallop, for Mark Hall were in time to hear
the view-halloa away, and to see how quickly Bailey laid the hounds on.

" One moment, if you please ! " from the Master ; "just let them settle,
and then catch them if you can." As they raced over the grass, up to the
plantation, near the road, through it, and straight on to the rectory, swing-
ing round it, and just touching Vicarage Wood ; one at a time, over the
rabbit netting surrounding it, and then down to the left-hand corner of the
next fence. If you followed the hounds, and had jumped through the
next hedge, you could take a pull at your horse, for the fox, having been
headed, hounds were over the line. Quick as thought, Bailey cast them to
the left, and, settling down, they ran on at a great pace by Gravel Pit
\yood, two narrow hand-gates threading the field out, and sending them,
single file, up the headland to Bays Grove, where already Jack was waving
his cap as he viewed the fox away to Latton Park.

270

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

How the field loosed out over those next two big fields, without gaining
a yard on the pack ! Bailey was nearly down as he jumped out of the first
field, for the ditch was wide, and the fence concealed it. Up to the corner,
near the stile, and his horse flew like a bird into the grass meadow, over
the dead bushes, and six-foot drop, quickly followed by the Master, Mr.
Howard Fowler, Mr. Jones, and Mr. Collin. Three more narrow fields,
three more fences, and we were over the lane, down which pressed an
excited band of flying horsemen ; through the farmyard, on to the common,
which was soon dotted with panting steeds, as they were urged over its ant-
hill-covered and holding surface. Nor could you have covered the hounds
with a sheet, for they were fairly tailed out as they entered Latton Park.

Full Cry past Maries Wood

Our fox, in the meantime, too quick for the whip, had gone out at the
bottom of Rundell's Grove, and a minute was saved — or lost, which you like
— before we were away once more, over the grass, pointing for the steeple-
chase course. Nearing the road, which drew many out of the line, like a
magnet, our fox never crossed, but ran straight on past Horse Shoe Farm.
The rails were low, and the next fence jumpable, but right in front a horrid
strand of barbed wire ! To turn to the right, over another fence, and seek
egress lower down the hedge, was the work of a few seconds ; but you had
to be quick, for the going was all grass, and the pace quite ultra.

With a regular scramble for place, we reached the Rye Hill road one at
a time, and 200 coming at it like bees to their hive. First a squeeze
through a gap, then a ditch-defended bank into the next field, a sharp slew
round and a drop over a briery fence into the lane, followed by another
ditch and bank out — all within fifty yards — brought us on to the arable.
Never were two ploughed fields more welcome, for they brought hounds to
their noses, and gave us all time to get up.

FROM SCENT TO VIEW 2 J I

Picking out tlie thread again in Mr. Rickett's long meadow, 800 hoofs
came thundering down it after hounds. Through the gate at the bottom
they turned up tiie hill, Mr. Tyndale White, in quite his old form, quicker
than anyone. Over the next razor bank, with a deep drop beyond, into
the wheat. Still on, over the stiff trimmed blackthorn hedge, past Maries
Wood. Mr. White skimmed the rails while Major Carter flew the brook,
and we reached the road, where the Master got us well in hand.

Getting on Mr. Kemsley's land, hounds ran on towards the old church,
Mr. Kemsley himself being on foot as the chase swept by, and if the smile
on his face is any indication of what he felt — well, we can make ourselves
easy about any future bill of damages. Leaving the church on our left,
and safely over the water jump in the corner, we could loose our bridle reins
again. Down the pastures to Chambers' Farm ; crossing the road by a
scratchy bank, the Master's horse refused, but soon yielded to the pressure
behind. Down the hill to the lane, hounds crossed it, two fields from the
road, a weak place by a tree made weaker by Messrs. Fowler and Caldecott.
The dead branches crunched and crackled under their horses' hoofs as they
scrambled down the bank ; on through the splashy and boggy lane for a
hundred yards ; then right-handed we turned down hill, towards the
Cobbins Brook. Mr. Ikixton's mare was being sent along best pace, and
when he remarked that we were heading for Luffman's Earths, which, as
luck would have it, he had neglected to have stopped that morning, one
could not help recalling the anecdote of the famous Will Dean, who, when
his hounds were running hard in a line with Daventry, whence they
were at that time many miles distant, swore exceedingly at the whipper-in,
saying, " What business have you here ? " The man was amazed at the

question. " Why, don't you know," said he, " and be to you, that the

great earth at Daventry is open ? "

But the great earths at Luffman's our fox was never to reach, for his
bolt was well nigh shot. Passing the keeper's house he ran the brook side,
by Spratt's hedgerow, and the pack, running from scent to view, went
tumbling over him into the brook. Forty-five minutes ; a six-mile point,
and at least eight as hounds ran. If not quite so fast as some of the
thrusters would have wished, it was fast enough for most, and afforded the
greatest enjoyment to the greater number. Mr. R. Lockwood, better known
as Bobby Wood, said that it reminded him of old times — as it certainly
reminded me, to see the masterly way in which he, Mr. George Hart, and
Mr. George Brown steered their own course and rode every yard of the run.

On Wednesday, March 21st, in a bright sun and easterly wind, we met
at Copped Hall Lodge gates. No prettier place could have been chosen for
the purpose. Standing on the edge of the Forest at the junction of three
roads and surrounded by well-kept greensward, it looks its best at a bumper
meet of the Essex hounds, and a bumper meet in March goes without
saying.

From far and near they gathered — on wheels, on cycles, and on foot.
To give you half the names of those present would be quite the impossible
thing. Lady Leucha Warner drove up before hounds moved off, also Mrs.
Gerald Buxton, while on horseback I noted Mrs. Bowlby, Mrs. Mcintosh,
Mrs. Carter, Mrs. Bennett, Mrs. W. Sewell, Mrs. Redwood, Miss Morgan,
Mrs. Waters, Miss Webster.

There were many surmises as to the draw — none, I believe, were correct,
for we went straight off to Mr. Edwards' coverts at Beech Hill Park ; our
first visit this season, and probably the last, for it is a wire-begirt region.
Very little enthusiasm was exhibited when hounds were thrown into the first
covert, yclept Poplar Shaw. I felt none myself, for driving past the day

272 leavp:s from a hunting diary

before I liad noticed on the adjoining farm barbed wire stretching along by
the side of the road nearly to Waltham Abbey. However, our fox, when he
broke, took a very good line, and although we rode with fear and trembling
at nearly every fence, Ave managed to get along and to see hounds.

■ Andrew Roddick

In full war ])aint (by my special request) as a yeomanry
trooper in the Duke of York's Own Loyal Suffolk Hussars,
whose headquarters are at Waltham Abbey. Mr. Roddick is a
familiar figure with the Essex Hounds, and is as fond of making-
young horses and shoving them along to the front as his father,
Andrew Roddick, is of slipping a good greyhound at a strong-
hare. In '98 he steered his own horse to victory over the big
Stondon course in the Farmers' Welter Point-to-Point, and
given luck, it is not the last x'ictory of this description that
he is likelv to win. , . ,

* He was one of the first to volunteer for the front in December, 1899.

TIIK ADMIRAL TO THE RESCUE 273

It is a lovely comitiy, bay the li'ive, all grass, and it seems a thousand pities
that, for all practical purposes, for the past few years it has been lost to the
hunt. Let us hope, under the new, or rather the old, regime of the Arkwright
family, that we shall make more frequent visits to this part of the country,
as I think it is generally admitted that nothing so conduces to losing a
country as not drawing it. I remember the time well when we used to have
capital sport from the Rolls Park coverts, and not unfrequently ran through
Chigwell ; but now that part of the country is nothing more or less than a
rusty bird cage, for it is wired in in all directions.

But what of the run from Beech Hill Park to the Forest ? As we
reached the top of the first grass field we got a capital view of the pack
running down the vale towards Waltham Abbey. To turn over the hedge
with the huntsman, Mr. Roddick, and Major Carter, into the same field
with hounds, seemed quite the most sensible thing, but parallel with them a
long stretch of grass, and no iron rails in front. Right or left-handed, which
would they turn ? The huntsman thought left, for he was coming back into
our meadow as fast as his horse would let him, for at first he whipped
obstinately round at the fence. By all that was unfortunate, hounds were
coming through on the left, and straight in front at the end of the long
meadow was a thick, forbidding-looking fence. Only one, I believe, took it,
as he always takes everything that comes, Mr. E. Caldecott, while the rest
sheered off a hundred yards to the left.

In the meantime the pack, carrying a great head, were going very fast
pn their right. " Yo-onder he goes," shouted Bailey, as he got a view of the
varmint stealing over the grass in the distance, but hounds required no
cheering, but only sitting down to and riding at if you wished to see any-
thing of the fun. Straight on over the rails, and the first three took them
^s they came — Mr. Caldecott, Mr. Price, and the huntsman — but the leaders
all pulled up at Arey Lane. Capt. Wilson was the first to slip in and out.
The Admiral did yeoman and herculean service, removing two locked gates
from their hinges, and we thanked him heartily as we rode through. A
man at the corner of the next fence warned us of wire, which glistened in
the sun in all its native and snaky hideousness. Squeezing through by
a tree, we were able to turn right-handed over the next fence towards the
hounds, who with breast-high scent were running in a bee line through the
two small plantations, Thompson's Spinneys, on the hill.

Here one luckless rider, coming to grief at a trappy fence, went a purler
on to the plough beyond, but he quickly mounted again. Misfortunes
rarely come singly, it appears ; or was it his double we saw later in the day
wandering in the Forest inquiring pathetically for a steed which had un-
shipped him at our last fence, and disappeared in the trees ? N'impovte !
no one was hurt, and a handy line of gates brought us to the hbunds as
they swung down the hill to the left and crossed the road by the cottages on
to the grass beyond.

Up the road you could keep beside the leading dogs, who, coming in
again, turned to the right up the hill into Mr. Melles' covert, Fernhills —
where there was a check of some five or six minutes, allowing a few of the
stragglers to fall into line. We had done the 3 miles to this point in ten
minutes, so no time had been lost. From Fernhills there is a fine view
of the Lea Valley, and it is said parts of six counties can be seen. Bailey,
however, did not call our attention to this, but having hit off the line of his
fox (who had gone out at the top end across the plough) on the grass
beyond, we ran down hill by Springfield, where a flier narrowly missed
landing into the spring of that ilk. Over a few flying fences into the
Forest, across Almshouse and Blackbush Plains, and running to ground at

18

74

LKAVF.S FROM A HUNTING DIARY

Cuckoo Pits thirty minutes from the find, we enjoyed with zest our al-fvesco
lunch, while the staff went to work with great vigour and success to provide
the hounds with theirs. Well ! a Forest fox can be spared, for there are
still plenty of them.

W. E. Melles
on "Jumbo"

J. W. Melles
on " Solomon"

H. Micklem, R.E.
on " Polly"

III the days that Mr. Melles rode hard across the Roothin^s
and indulged in a lot of steeplechasino. and scaled two stone
less than he now does, "Bones" and " Brio-adier " were his
favourite mounts, after which he pinned his affections on a little
dark bay mare " Polly," which is represented in the above
picture. " Polly" was one of the best animals he ever owned,
and always had a leg to spare except on one occasion, when she
tore her shoe off on a stub in a bank. " Solomon " also was
another hunter clever as he was useful : while as for the rider of
"Jumbo," it is very satisfactory to note that he is bein^" trained
up in the way he should go.

THE GERMAN OFFICERS 275

Two gallant strangers — officers, I believe, in the service of a friendly
State — were with us in this run. To one, at least, it was his first experience
of fox-hunting in England. I hope not his last, for like a good sportsman
he went through the qualifying experience of being blooded, remarking that
^^ Foxhunting was very good sport, and Bailey a very pretty fellow." They stuck
to us to the end of the day and went very hard and straight. A regiment
commanded by such as they could be relied upon to give a good account of
itself either in charging the enemy on the open plain or cutting them off
across a country.

That there was a good scent on the grass was fully proved by our next
fox. Going away from Griffin's Wood over the Copped Hall estate, he led
us along merrily up to the Bury Farm plantation on the hill, and then turned
towards the keeper's house, crossing the brook, and so at the same pace up
to Spratts (Hedgerow). Mr. R. Lockwood and the huntsman came up to
it as the pack bustled together after the three leading hounds, who had
jumped the gate into the covert. Not right but left they turned, over the
wheat and down to Mr. Pryor's farm, and raced along through the planta-
tions that border the estate up to the lodge gates, and into the Forest, which
was reached some fifteen minutes from the find. After having essayed
Luffman's and one or two other earths, he managed to get to ground. A
narrow squeak, too, for there was a better scent than usual in the Forest,
and hounds gave him no rest for about five-and-forty minutes.

The Master declared, if necessary, he would draw on till seven to find
another fox ; and he was as good as his word, for it was close upon six p.m.
before the few who remained to the end saw the hounds get away with one
from Tattle Bushes : it turned out to be a vixen, so they were shortly
stopped.

Of the 200 who had assembled in the morning only a dozen, including
the two gallant officers already mentioned — shall it be told ? — shall it be
whispered that five of our own service had left us ? — remained to the finish,
and they were : The Master, Mrs. Bennett, Mrs. W. Sewell, Mr. H. Fowler,
Mr. W. Buckmaster, Mr. G. Buxton, Mr. Benton, Mr. G. Sewell, and Mr.
R. Lockwood. Still, it is more than doubtful whether even these would have
borne the burden and heat of the day so long, had it not been for the free
hospitality they encountered by the way, commencing early at Mr. Felly's,
continued at Mr. Chapman's, Hollyfield Hall, and winding up at Mr.
Charles Bury's. There was absolutely no excuse for falling away, hardly
even for that half-expressed wish of one lady for a cup of refreshing bohea.
The wind blew keen and the moon rose full and bright over a landscape
which never looks better than when riding home in good company, on a
sound horse, and cheered by the reflections of such a happy and eventful
day.

Saturday, March 24th, was certainly more like golfing than hunting
weather, and though your regular stagger may affect to despise so tame a
game as golf, it certainly numbers among its most enthusiastic votaries
many ardent foxhunters. So I confess I was not surprised, but certainly
pleased, to receive a post-card from a friend on the morning in question
saying that, as O. was going stagging, of course the foursome we had
arranged (by-the-bye, we were all fox-hunters) had fallen through.

It was short notice for a man with a limited stud, but the groom said
that the coh umld do it. I notice the cob always has to do it when it comes to
extra days and hard work. Driving to the fixture, some eight or nine
miles distant, I met two of the delinquents, but the fourth — perhaps out of
consideration to our feelings — never turned up. Having mutually con-
atulated ourselves on the turn of affairs, we proceeded to do every

'though the dust flies, scent lies 277

justice to the capital spread which Mr. Lucking, of the Grange Farm,
offered to all comers.

Not a very larger muster ; but Saturday's meets are never so large as
on Tuesdays, for which the best country and the best deer are always
reserved. The Master, his brother, Captain Digby Neave, Mr. Harrispn,
the keen, hard-riding secretary, who has probably seen more stag hunting
than any other man in Essex, Mr. Brindle, who whips-in to Mr. Neave,
Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Pemberton-Barnes, Mr. Craig, IMr. Gibson, Mr.
Marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Upton, and INIr. H. E. Jones, were among those
present.

It was somewhat later than usual before the deer was enlarged in the
meadows near the house. At ten minutes to one Mr. Neave cantered
down the road with his eight-and-a-half couple of well-matched and level
hounds. I have always noticed that he likes to lay them on quickly, very
much like a huntsman who gallops up sharp to a fox covert. Leaving
the grass at once, they ran well over the plough to Brick Kilns, which, to
say the least of it, was encouraging, for in the dry state of the ground,
when as you galloped the dust flew, you could hardly expect to have them
run a yard ; thus Mr. Neave's system comes in well, for he insists upon
his hounds hunting, and they have to use their noses, and not rely upon
view holloas and exceptional scenting days for showing sport. Therefore,
however bad scent may be, you are always sure of a gallop.

Running well through Brick Kilns, we turned sharp left for Man Wood,
just the opposite direction to that the carriages had taken, and this
induced Mr. Lawrence, an old hand too, to hang back a bit. On the
opposite side of IMan Wood we all got together, the stag in the meantime
having taken the lane to Row Wood.

Mr. Jones, Ur. G. Brown, and three or four more who preferred good
going, even though it involved several extra leaps, kept on the left, and
so on over the brook at the bottom, while the remainder of us floundered
along the lane, which, once in, there was no getting out of. The deer,
jumping up in view, near Hatfield town, took us along at a rare pace
a biggish ring by Lancaster Springs back to Row Wood towards Barrington
Hall, where Mr. Borrow, on a good-looking four-year-old, cut in with us,
running up to Takeley at a pace that kept us moving over some very blind
ditches, from one of which Mr. Upton emerged with a very scratched
face.

Pace improved as we turned along the meadows for Wilson Springs,
where, in the brook, our deer had soiled. Jumping up in view of the pack,
they went away a cracker, Mr. Barnes, being on the right side of the brook,
with Mr. Hull, who jumped in at once, getting away with the Master
on capital terms. The next three or four miles it was a regular steeplechase,
Mr. Barnes making the running in point-to-point form, and the light
Roothing ploughs rode like a flower garden. Personally (I know that it is
not orthodox to say so) I like this phase of stag hunting when hounds get a
view, and, if ever you gallop in your life, you have to gallop then. The
pace, however, began to string the hounds out, so Mr. Neave stopped to
get them together again, the stag having run clean out of sight, though the
country was very flat and open. Putting her up in some grass meadows,
we had some very pretty but slow hunting by High Roding Street up to
Garnett's, where, at the end of something over two hours, we came up with
and took our deer.

All sportsmen in Essex, fox hunters as well as stag hunters, were very
glad to learn that Mr. Neave has consented to hunt the hounds next season.
There is no more popular man with farmers in Essex, for they know him to

278

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

be a keen and thorough sportsman, always wilhng and ready to vide any
of their young horses at the local chases. In fact, it is only a week or two back
since he steered the winner home for one of them m the welter class of the
point-to-point races, and farmers also know that when his hounds cross
their land they do little damage, for they come and go like the flash of
an express train, leaving little trace behind; for horses have to jump clean
and big to live with them across the Roothings when the country is deep
and scent is holding.

Jib

Stratford

In the portrait of "The Essex Stag Hounds," page 276,
Mr. Sheffield Neave is depicted on " Tallyho," and Alfred
on "Satanella, " two of Mr. Neave's five good horses,
" Tallyho," a bay 16.2, nearly, if not quite, thoroughbred,
was bought at Tattersalls' from Mr. Stirling vStuart. That
gentleman had purchased him to win the Ladies' Plate at
Rugby, but bolting through a fence he broke Mr. Stuart's
thigh. He tried the same game on with Mr. Neave, but the
ditches gave him such an ugly jar that notwithstanding the
evil prophecies of those who knew him (but evidently didn't
know Mr. Neave), he took to jumping properly.

"STRATFORD 279

" Satanella." a black mare 16.2, Mr. Neave found at Banks',
having been returned as vicious by the Belgian Cavalry.
Never having been hunted, she promptly fell at the first and
many succeeding fences, but in three days she so thoroughly
mastered the business that she became as well known for her
prowess as an enormous jumper as she had been for her kicking
propensities.

" Stratford " (Mr. Sheffield Neave's horse). This horse,
a chestnut gelding, standing 16.2, well up to 14 St., was one of
the five really good hunters Mr. Sheffield Neave confesses to
having owned in his life, and the only one of the five that had
good manners. He was purchased by Mr. Charles Page Wood
from Mr. Barthropp in 1885 ; he was not a horse for a
veterinary to fall in love with, as he was suffering from sub-acute
laminitis, which might easily have developed into acute, and
much time was spent by Mr. Neave in copering him up
between his runs. That he was worth all this attention the
sequel showed. A good-looking horse when on the move, he
was too long in the back to please the eye when standing ; but
what did this matter? He was a perfect mover, marvellous
fencer — bank, brook, or rail — very fast, and could last for ever.
Often has this character been conferred on horses, but nine
hundred and ninety-nine out of a thousand would not have
stood the test that Stratford was put to on February 7th, 18S8,
when he was called upon to carry the Master in the best stag-
run he ever had in his life. It is described in Messrs. Ball and
Gilbey's book ; but if people will remember that the ground
was deep, and that the Master's horse was going all the time,
even at the only check, they will admit that he had had enough
of it at the end, which no one but the Master would have
seen, had the field not at a distance been able to keep their
eye on him, and so get home. The horse came up all right
next season, but on the opening day in the first two fields he
broke a blood vessel, and eventually had to be killed ; on
making a post inortein a large blood clot was found in the left
ventricle of his heart. Fourteen clays had he done in 1885-6,
nineteen in 1886-87, ^^'"^^^ eleven in 1887-88.

A good many will agree with Mr. Neave that unless people
keep a diary they seldom realise how few times in a season a
horse comes out to do a really hard day. Mr. Neave tells me
that on an average about sixteen to eighteen times is as much
as he could get the best horse in the world to do, frost, thorns,
and strains all having to be contended against.

" Leinster," the big bav gelding, standing 16.3, upon which

2 So

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

Captain A. T. Digby Neave is here depicted, came into his
possession as a four-year old, and for seven seasons carried him
in Essex, rarely if ever making a mistake. Got in Kilkenny by
" Knave of Hearts," he became, during- nine years of Captain
Neave's soldiering, quite used to crossing the Irish Channel, as
he made the journey at least seven times. That he was the
best mannered horse and second best hunter Captain Neave
ever had, will be readilv believed.

Captain A. T. Digby Neave on " Leinster "

Eheu, fuoaccs labuntur anni ! Such, at least, must be the
reflections of many to whom the close of the season 1893-94,
with its hopes and disappointments, its trials and triumphs, has
come only too quickly. No season probably in the memory of
living man witnessed more changes, experienced more vicissi-
tudes. Robbed at its very commencement of some of its
brightest, aye, of its best and most respected votaries, ushered

FALSE PROniETS 28 I

In by the utter absence of any sport, no wonder that Its keenest
adherents grew slack ; no wonder that farmers crrunibled to see
hounds without followers, and that there were not wanting those
who went so far as to declare that hunting in the Essex country
was on the wane. But like the dull grey sunrise that proclaims
the approaching triumph of the day, so was the season's gloomy
birth but the harbinger of its ultimate and its unqualified
success. Did time permit, space would not allow that I should
enter into any lengthy dissertation or review of the chief
events of the past season. I must therefore content myself,
after giving a brief account of the last day I was out with these
hounds, the last but one on which they took the field, by merely
jotting down in index fashion the days on which I was fortunate
enough to be out, and upon which memory loves to linger.

You may break, you may shatter the vase, if you will,
But the scent of the roses will cling round it still.

Wednesday, March 28th, was the penultimate day I have alluded to, a
day on which the butterfly-catchers were abroad, for the sun shone out of a
cloudless sky and summer scarce deigned to wait for gentle spring. It was
a day for a picnic, a day for sauntering in the deep coombs and shady dells
of the forest, anything but a day for foxhunting, and many doubtless found
their way to the lawn meet at Birch Hall with no other motive in view.
Straw hats, mufti costumes, were surely pardonable on such a day, or,
'faith, there would have been many sinners.

Deep as the belief of Essex men may be in the woodland craft of
their huntsman Bailey, yet in this wild unexplored forest the neat brown
uniform of Mr. Barclay's chief aide-de-camp, young Will Hurrell, was a
welcome addition to the menage. Born and bred a forest lad, early
instructed in the mysteries of venery by a most capable father, the postman
on his round, the policeman on his beat, are not more famihar with their
paths than he is with every nook and glade of this wide -stretching forest,
his nursery, his home. Every corner has a name, every clump of trees an
appellation, and not a glade or a ride but has its distinguishing marks, and
were he by my side I would tell you in what order we drew through these
sylvan glades, by Debden side, and Luffman's Earths, by Monk Wood,
Wake Valley, and the deep coombs of Woodridden.

He is not; so I must content myself with saying that only half our
number went with us in the open — alas, only to gaze at, not to ride over,
the scene of last Wednesday's exploits, as seen from Poplar Shaw. Half
only could have been with us when the deep-throated hounds opened on
the line of a travelling fox in one of the wildest parts of the forest, and less
than half saw'the great yellow fox steal out of the drain behind Golding's
Hill. Ah, if he had launched out into the open country ! I might have
had a run to chronicle, and Bailey one scalp less at his saddle bow.

For a few brief hot minutes the woods echoed with the deep chorus
of the great dog hounds as keen for blood they raced him from glade to
glade. Then near the reservoir, close to his old haunts, came the smothered
growl, the whoop ; the gaping rustics were satisfied. Poultry keepers will
sleep o' nights, and two at least of Britain's sons were blooded.

282

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

From grave to gay, from lively to severe, from poetry to prose, from fact
to fiction, may be only a step ; but from making a guess where to find
hounds with a second horse in the afternoon, to publicly advertising the
fact that at 3.30 the hounds will draw the Lonely Spinneys, is, I trust,
an unbridgeable abyss : otherwise we might expect to see somethmg hke
this in the precincts of Liverpool Street and the Bank : —

Special edition. A special train will leave at 2.30 for Loughton Shaws, when the Essex
Hounds will run a special fox ; the double journey at single fares, a capital view to be obtained
from the company's line.

Well, 3.30 did find us at Loughton Shaws, and the navvies on the line
saw all that I have to tell you, saw the httle terriers at work (for Loughton
Shaws are thick, thicker than any fox-hound will face), heard their sharp

t^^ ,:^^^^^^^^^j^i^-f^^^h^r^>^^.^

Luffman's Earths, Epping Forest

" y^P) yaP'" ^s they drove their fox out to the opposite covert, and witnessed
our disappointment, as with open country before him this dog fox fell a
victim to his own craven heart.

Starting with the adniission that tlie hounds have been out on 102
hunting days, have been stopped by frost nine days, and have killed thirty-
six brace, and run another twenty brace to ground, I would remark that
the following brief notes, culled from the leaves of a hunting diary, only
represent some of the best days in the Monday and Wednesday coimtry.
Unfortunately, I have no record of the Friday country, and very little,
indeed, of the Saturday, but that the Fridays and Saturdays were
productive of many equally good, if not better, ones can hardly be
controverted.

Owing to the hard state of the ground, six weeks of the time alloted
to cub-hunting slipped away without a run worth speaking of taking place,

THE PITH OF IT 28

the first being on Saturday, October 21st, Sheering-street, 8 a.m. A very
good gallop. W. Sewell got a fall.

Monday, October 30th, — Havering at 10. Great run from Mrs.
Mcintosh's gorse. F. Green, jun., broke his arm.

The month of November, a blank, as far as good runs were concerned.

Wednesday, December 6th. — Hatfield Heath. Good sport. Running
foxes all day, ending up with a quick thing to Poplars in the evening.

Saturday, December 9th. — Bobbingworth ]\Iill. A clinker from Ongar
Park Woods — our steeplechase course — to Rundells, with a kill.

Monday, December nth. — Dagenham. Another clinking good run of
an hour.

Wednesday, December 13th. — Nasing Common. Those who were lucky
enough to see the run from the marshes, behind Holly field Hall, to the
Forest, will never forget it — pasture, pace, point.

Monday, December i8th. — Swallows Cross. A most enjoyable day,
ending in a good gallop from Hylands to Galleywood Common.

Wednesday, December 20th. — Thrushes Bush. "Good wine needs no
bush," so from Harlow Park to Luftman's Earths (50 mins.) speaks for
itself.

Wednesday, December 27th. — Kelvedon Common. A screaming twenty
minutes from Mr. D. Christy's cabbage field to Ongar Park. Gerald
Buxton carried a lead.

Monday, January ist. — Dagenham. One hour and twenty minntes of
the best from Mrs. Mcintosh's, with a kill in the open. The late Master
was out.

Saturday, January 13th. — Fyfield. Great run, after the frost, with the
Forest Hall fox, to and through High Woods. Mr. Price got a severe fall.

Went down into Northamptonshire about this time, so have no further
record until

Monday, January 29th. — Dagenham. A memorable run from Mr.
Pemberton Barnes' covert to Coombe Lodge — a six-mile point — in forty
minutes.

Wednesday, January 31st.— Hatfield Heath. A real good day from the
Down Hall, Brick Kilns and ]\Ian Wood coverts.

Monday, February 5th. — Shonks Mill. A very fast thing with ^Ir.
Christy's fox in the morning; another with Mr. Bosley's in the evening. A
day no one ought to have missed.

Wednesday, February 7th. — Nasing. A teaser from Galley Hills, over
Nasing Common to ground at Parndon.

Wednesday, February 14th. — Thrushes Bush. The plough at its best in
the evening run, with a fox froni Harlow Bury Farm, killing him in the
open beyond Sheering Street.

Frost set in on the 19th ; disappeared suddenly on 24th.

Saturday, February 24th. — White Roothing. The evening gallop of fifty
minutes (with an outlying fox at the back of Hatfield town), better known
as Mr. Collin's run, ranks second to none this season.

Monday, February 26th.— Passingford Bridge. Hounds beat us all in
the morning in a very good and quick thing from Ongar Park, and Bosley's
fox scored again in the gallop (which only ten stayed for) from North
Weald to Moreton Wood.

Wednesday, February 28th. — Little Laver jNIill. No day for feather-bed
sportsmen ; easterly wind, with great driving snowflakes, but undeniable
scent with undeniable sport, commencing with the gallop from Brick Kilns
to Poplars, and finishing up with two fast runs by Matching Park.

Monday, March 5th. — Swallows Cross. One hour and fifty-five

284 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

minutes with a kill from the Menagerie ; ask Mr. Fane about this run— it
was his fox and his country.

iNIonday, IVIarch 12th. — Blackmore. Those in the know scored with
their second horses in the run from Witney to the High Woods.

Saturday, March 17th.— The Kennels. Forty-five minutes on the
grass with a kill sent a big field home in a very contented frame of mind.

Wednesday, March 21st. — A great scent on the grass, not only in
Essex, but in the Midlands. The Pytchley scored two very good runs,
a kill, and to ground ; we did the same.

To have been out only thirty-five times, including cub-hunting, and to have
taken part in over a score of such good days, will be admitted by all as a liigh
percentage of fine sport. The writer only trusts that many others have been
equally fortunate, and that should he be permitted to chronicle the sport
with these hounds another season, he may have as good if not a better
record to show, and he would finally hope that all those who, by dire stress
of circumstances, have been unable to participate in the fun this winter,
will be in our midst in the thick of the fray when another season dawns.

Very early in the cubbing season of 1894, "^^e had a foretaste of the good
things to come in a fifty minutes' burst in the open from Garnett's, when
a gentleman,* who had only recently taken up his residence in the country,
scored all the tricks, and one of our hardest thrusters | came to grief on a
hireling no less than four times.

Wednesday, October loth, 7 a.m., at Latton, was the first appearance
of a good many of us at the covert side this season, including the Master,
Mr. Arkwright, fresh from Scotland, looking bronzed and well. It was
hardly a morning on which to expect any of the fair sex to turn out, as the
rain came down in a real steady downpour, but neither this nor the early
hour deterred Lady Warwick and many other fair sportswomen from
gracing the meet with their presence. Latton Park without cubs may be
looked for when fair ladies have no admirers but not before, so having
routed the cubs, as well as a fair scent would permit, hounds were taken
on to Parndon Woods and Mr. Todhunter's spinney, where there was a
good show. A short spin in the open brought a by no means unsatisfactory
morning to a close, and those who are fond of jumping big blind places
could not complain of lack of opportunity.

Saturday, October 13th, found all who had assembled at Sheering
Street, at 7 a.m., shrouded in mist, including the ]\Iaster, Mr. Arkwright,
and his wife, Lord Rookwood, Mr. R. Bevan, Mr. H. Fowler, Mr. Crocker,
Dr. Grubb, Mr. Chaffey-Collin, Mr. Swire, Mr. N. Gilbey, Messrs. T. and
G. Gilbey, Mr. H. E. Jones, Mr. E. Quare and Miss Quare, Messrs. G.
and W. Sewell, Mr. Lobb, Mr. Lines, and others. Before the curtain of
steamy fog had risen hounds were thrown into the Down Hall coverts,
which were alive with cubs, three going away at once.

Hounds could be heard but not seen, as they crossed the Down Hall
brook, and the field scattered right and left to find a place over, but the
music came floating back before they had crossed, and hounds returned
with a cub towards Matching Tye, but soon were at fault — just as well,
for every minute the mist was disappearing, and by the time we reached
Matching Park it had rolled away before a brilliant sun. For some ten
minutes hounds rang the changes with three cubs, which crossed and
recrossed the rides, while most of us having safely negotiated one, of the

Mr. Newman Gilbey, who has taken Mark Hall,
t Mr. Chaffey-Collin.

THE CHALLENGE

285

worst rides if not quite the worst ride of any Essex covert, waited the
hoUoa that should proclaim the flight of a cub, for the order was to let
hounds go, and a loud challenge had been thrown down that if they did
get away a certain horse that had never seen an Essex ditch before would
be found at the end of the gallop closer to their sterns than the galloping
hack. It was a sporting challenge : the denouenicnt later on ; for at last a
shrill holloa sent us all flying down the covert for a start. Headed at first
the fox broke at last, and we were fairly away in the open towards Down
Hall, as hounds came quickly out of the covert, and disappeared through
the leafy wall that bounded the far side of the first stubble field.

Newman Gilbey

Newman (iilbey always takes his place in the van when
hounds are runnino- ; about ^100 to Z'150 he "ives for his
horses, and generally receives good value for money (horses
that know their business) ; therefore, if ever he offers you a mount,
you may accept it without any qualms, even if there has been
a six weeks' frost, as he keeps his horses in splendid condition.
I have never known them curl up in a run.

286 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

Mr. Sewell hit off a weak place, and hounds swung down the fence, and
then turned to the right for a small plantation, single file through the
corner, and then at the bottom of the next field there was apparently no
way out until Mr. Fowler had pulled up some hurdles in one corner, and
Bailey, tucking his head down, had squeezed the black cob over a blind
ditch through another. Anthony, with the Devon and Somerset Stag-
hounds, has no more numerous and confiding followers than Bailey has
when the leaf is on, so we gladly followed as fast as turn and politeness
would permit through the only available gap in the next fence, and then
turning sharp to the right, through a narrow plantation, rose the grassy
slope to Down Hall, where close to the stables hounds ran handsomely
into their fat cub, one of the first up being the galloping hack,- but where,
oh where, was the bay ? t Many besides his bold rider did not see the
finish of this good burst ; a rattling fall, a cut knee, and lost hat settled his
hash. I am told a hedge as thick as a small plantation proved too much
for another, J and following the wrong man at the wrong place for the rest,
for they came clattering up when not even a tatter of brown was left.

Eight a.m. is a fairly early hour to reach a meet 12 or 15 miles from
your door, but the Essex Hounds stick to old traditions, and their
popularity is confirmed by the number of those who, despising feather
beds, turn out for an early gallop. The King William is always a favourite
meet, better attended perhaps by-and-bye when sharp frosts and autumnal
gales have done their work and stripped the leaves off the hedges and
withered the grass on the banks of the deep ditches which interlace the
country for miles in the well-known Roothings. It certainly requires a
good horse and a good man on his back to ride straight to hounds in leafy
October in any country, but the horse must be bold and clever indeed,
and his rider equally keen and fearless, to see the end of a fifty minutes'
burst across the heart of the Roothings at the present time.

Each year it becomes more difficult, for with wheat going down and
down there is very little ready cash to spend upon trimming up hedges, and
they are growing up to formidable dimensions. I have no intention of
inflicting the details of Wednesday's sport upon you, but would remark,
thanks, I believe, to Mr. John Gingell, who holds the coverts, Lords and
Leaden provided a capital show of cubs — cubs, too, of a good stock,
judging by the way they went for the open country with very little
persuasion, one leading us a dance over a big blind country for some three
or four miles before being lost near Pleshey, Several men credited
themselves with the High Easter brook early in the run, including Mr.
Chaffey-Collin, who had the first cut, Mr. Crocker on his new grey, Major
Carter, Capt. Bruce, Mr. Swire and others. It was a nice gallop, and
would have been voted a good thing in the middle of the season.

Saturday's meet on October 20th at Netteswell Cross was largely
attended, and included the Master, Mr. L. Arkwright, Mr. Todhunter,
Mr. Green, Mr. R. Bevan, Mr. and Mrs. Crocker, Mrs. Neale, Capt. and
Mrs. Bruce, Mr. and Miss Steele, Capt. Wilson, Mr. Harris, Messrs. E.
and F. Ball, Mr. and Mrs. W. Sewell, Mr. G. Sewell, Messrs. T. and G.
Gilbey, Mr. N. Gilbey, Mr. Jones, Mr. Chaffey-Collin, Mr. Lines, Mr.
H. Fowler, Mr. E. Felly, Mr. Swire and Mr. Caldecott.

There was a good scent at first, proved by the way hounds raced a cub
from \\'eir Hatches to Harlow Town and back, but a heavy shower about
the time they got away with a second cub from a small covert near
Parndon Hall did not improve it, so that Bailey must have been more

* Mr. Chaffey-CoUin's. t Mr. H. E. Jones'. t Mr. Swire.

lOIIN SWIRE ON

28'

than pleased when, at the end of a long, slow, hunting run of about an hour
and a half, he handled his fox in Latton Park. A good run for trying
hounds, a good run for conditioning horses, a good run for children on
ponies, but not quite the class of thing for the cut-and-thrust division.
Luckily the Master was always on the spot to check vaulting ambition.
The bay horse, or rather, mare, to which I made previous allusion, in
the hands of her bold and fearless owner has developed into an Essex
hunter of the first class, and has gone up in price accordingly.

John Swire

York '

A o-ood photo, of ci o-ood-lookin_^- man and a o-ood horse
most people will admit ; none will deny it who have seen theni
o-o, that they know how to carve their way across a country.
Mr. Swire keeps his horses at the " Green Man," Harlow,
where, he assures me, he has always been made most
comfortable. The animal upon which he is here shown,
" York," a bay, standing- about 15.2, he purchased from the late

288 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

t

Mr. Tovnbee in 1894, only a few months before that excellent
JLidoe of horseflesh died. ' Mr. Charles Green suggested that
pardng with the horse killed him, and Mr. Swire says that he
could lilmost l^elieve it, for a better and bolder hunter it would
be hard to hnd ; a high recommendation, for Mr. Swire has
some clinkers. " York " also has done park hack for Mr.
Swire for the past two seasons, and very nearly "did for" the
camera when he was taken, as he reared straight up directly he
saw it, and then bolted. He was most difficult to take, and
the shot was instantaneous.

INIonday, Coopersale at 8.30. It is a matter of congratulation to
the Hunt that the well-known covert of Beachetts has fallen into the
hands of such a good sportsman as Mr. Gerald Buxton. With good
luck we are likely to have sport from there, if Monday morning's
experiences go for anything. Mr. Buxton, who, with his sisters, made
his first appearance this season with the hounds, must have been heartily
pleased, for not only did we find some rare straight-necked cubs, which
went away over a very good line of country, but he was one of the
fortunate few who were lucky enough to get away with the hounds when
they drove their first fox out of the deep recesses of the covert and
embarked upon a sea of grass. Passing close to Mr. T. Miller's farm,
they turned over the road, leaving Mr. Jordan's on the right, and ran
fast over the grass meadows past Barbers without touching it, and over the
brook, wdiich nearly brought Bailey down (the rotten bank giving way
with his horse as he landed). On and over the Abridge road, leaving
Garnish Hall on the left, they turned up to the Priory, and crossing the
road, swung down towards the river, but headed by some ploughmen,
the fox kept to the right, through a small covert, and passing close
to Theydon Hall he made his point on to Loughton Shaws and the
Forest.

What all the field were about to get left behind I don't know, but
out of about a hundred who were in the big wood when hounds first spoke
to the line of a fox, it is sad to relate that absolutely only four, besides
Mr. Gerald Buxton and his sister, can say that they saw every yard of
the run, from start to finish, though a good many nicked in when the
cream had been skimmed and the tale had been told near Theydon Hall.
All, however, vowed that they would not be left behind again when we
returned to the Beachetts ; but how rash to make such promises, for
although hounds came away with a fox which went field for field the
identical line his friend had travelled, certainly not more than eight or
nine were aware of the fact, and had it not been for failing scent the
disastrous loss of another good run would have occurred.

^^'ednesday, October 24th, Hatfield Town, will long remain in the
memories of all who stayed for the finish as one of the wettest days
on record ; at about eleven the rain, for which all seemed unprepared, came
down in sheets, penetrating the thickest meltons and pouring mercilessly
into the best fitting boots. Several ladies, including Lady Warwick, Mrs.
Arkwright, Mrs. Neale, Mrs. Bruce, Mrs. Crocker, Miss Jones, and ]Miss
Steele, were caught in this downpour.

No fox was found until we reached Canfield Hart, by which time the
wind had risen considerably, and it was with some difticulty that hounds
could be heard running in covert. A holloa away towards Wilson Springs

A ROUflll MORNING 289

sent all the field <:,^alloping round the wood only to find on arriving that
the fox had turned back. Nearly all plunged into the covert, but were too
late to get away with hounds, who had gone out on the opposite side towards
the Forest with very few followers, Mr. C. F. McKee, who was paying
a visit to his old country, being one of the lucky ones ; by the way he sent
the new purchase^ along it was quite evident that his right hand had not
forgotten its cunning, and that eye and nerve were as good as ever.

The run, which commenced before the rain, might have developed into
something really good had not the fox been headed back towards the Hart,
where he was soon lost. Home now you would have gone had you been a
weather prophet, for how could hounds be expected to do anything with
the fox they afterwards found in the open in the large mustard field at the
back of Hatfield Town ? Hardly enough to warm you up, as they drove
for a few brief minutes in a circle round the scene of the morning's meet,
in pitiless storm of rain and wind. A sigh of relief when the order came for
home, and horses were called upon to hack the 12 or 14 miles to their
stables without a break ; and a hot bath, I ween, never seemed such a
luxurious necessity before.

A capital show of foxes at Easton on Friday, I was told, and also a very
good sprinkling in the Pleshey country on Saturday, but wind and rain
prevented much sport.

' Mr. G. Sew(

19

Trouncer

CHAPTER X.

Tvounccv — Forbidden Gi'oiind — More Vnlpecidc — Passingfovd Bridge — A Success-
ful Cnhbiug Season— Col. Cook His Observations — Parson Fane — Lady
Warwick as a Whip — Matching Green, 1894 — Man Wood blank for the first
time in 11 years — Were they Satisfied? — R. Tilling — Mrs. Mcintosh's Gorse —
The Fox of the Year — The Old Hero Dies — Fasten Lodge — Good Sport —
Empty Stalls — Brook House — Lockjatv—A Sad Fatality — Bohbingivorth Wood
— Daybreak — Cart Shed Wood — Mr. Millbank's Fox Escapes — Nasing
Common — Mr. C. Bnry's Foxes — Nicking In — Foxes' Wood — A Real Clinker
— Sonnet — Really the Briars Concealed Him — High Roothing Springs — Mr.
P. Gold's Bad Luck — Jacob Marriage — A Good Purchase — A Contrast —
The Doctor — Away for the Lavers — The Double Ditch — Parish Councils —
A Happy Village — The Beachetts — Mr. Bosley's Fox — Peterboro' Show—
The Pick of the Kennel — Mr. Benton Stakes his Horse — Sam Fitch — The Grey
Cob — The Evening Gallop — Only Three Left — ' Ware Wheat, Sam.

On the straightest of legs and roundest of feet,
With ribs like a frigate his timbers to meet,
With a fashion and fiing and a form so complete.
That to see him dance over the flags is a treat !

Here, here boy ! Trouncer,

Handsome and good.

G. J. Whyte Melville.

WE have substituted "Trouncer" for WHiyte Melville's
" I)achelor," the "king of the kennel," but the lines are
ipplicable. "Trouncer" who was bred at the Essex
by the W'haddon Chase "Tuner" out of "True-
lass" by the "Grafton Dancer," was quite the pick of the
basket of the Essex Hounds and carried off ist prize for Stallion
Hounds in a class of 13 at the Peterboro' Show in 1894.

Monday, at Passingford Bridge, at 9.30, a fox was found at Curtis Mill
Green. Thrice he essayed to break at the bottom end towards Dudbrook,
and thrice was he headed by the whip, as on no account were hounds to

equally .
kennels

FORBIDDEN flROUND

291

be permitted to run through the Navestock coverts, as they had not been
shot ; and here I would remark that, much as hunting men may regret the
restrictions imposed upon them by owners of coverts, yet they have no real
cause to grumble when the coverts are thrown open to them after they have
been shot through. Let any hunting man inclined to cavil put himself in
the shooter's place, and he will at once fully sympathise with those
in similar circumstances. It is, I think, admitted by all — even by game-
keepers— that in big woods and coverts, pheasants are little disturbed by
hounds running through. It is the small ones where the mischief is done,
and when pheasants, driven out, do not return. These considerations,
however, did not enter into the head of the Curtis Mill Green fo.\, for
slipping past all opposition he went away towards Shonk's Mill, and hounds
came away in pursuit, and there was a strong injunction to stop them
should they approach any forbidden ground.

About a mile from the Green, however, our fox went to ground in a

Passingford Bridge

drain, from which, after some delay, he was evicted, but managed to elude
hounds, which were shortly afterwards whipped off. Several spills
occurred in this short run. Miss Buxton was thrown and dragged, but
fortunately not hurt. Mr. Jones took a toss, and another sportsman's face
presented the appearance of a butcher's shop. Mr. Sworder, however, on
his young one, got over the country as quick as anyone. Mr. Waltham
was in his usual place, while Mr. Miller and his son might both have been
riding old and staid hunters instead of precocious young ones. The rest
of the morning was spent in a fruitless endeavour to find a fox in Sir
Charles Smith's coverts, winding up, as a forlorn hope, at Shalesmore,
where early in the season some dastardly and cowardly ruffian succeeded
in poisoning a fine litter of cubs. A man who secretly poisons foxes is
quite capable of stabbing you in the back in the dark. Of such an one
let all men beware : —

" The motions of his spirit are dull as night.
And his affections dark as Erelms."

292 LKAVICS ll'OM A IK'NTINC DIARV

Home .'iftcr Shalcsiiiorc, not, lunvcvor, witliouL lirsl accepting Mr.
Sworder's kind hospitality.

On Wednesday, October jist.in log and mist, after a ceaseless down-
ptnir of clfjse ui)(jn twenty-four hours, we met at Nasing. In common with
a g(jo(l many more r(;gistering a vow not to lose sight of the hounds for a
second in thi; big woods at Galley Hills, they were running a fox from end
to end before we fully woke uj) to the fact that an iiii|)assal)le gulf
separated us from the pack, for the rides wcmc; up to your hocks, and not a
man who was in the; middle ol the covert wli(;n hounds broke ever caught
sight of them again.

ICasterby, with lusty shouts (jf " (iet away to him! Get away forrard ! "
and vigorous cracks of his whip, led a forlorn hope on the right, for when
the open country was reached nothing but a few scattered horsemen could
be seen sinking away in thedistan(:(^ ICven the huntsman had a hard and
stern chase before lie could catch hounds. Coming out at the Nasing end
by themselves, luckily they did not escape the keen eye of the Master, Mr,
Aikwright, wlio, with the few near liim, including Mr. and Mrs. W.
Sewell, set to work to ride in their wakt;. Crossing below the old turnpike
they turn(;(l sharp to the left, up the hill, j^ast Mr. J>ury's, and crossing the
narrow lane at the back of the house, swung down for Hollyfield Hall, by
which time the remnant (under twenty) of those who were destined to see
anything of this nice gallop on the grass managed to cut in, while the
remaining sixty or eighty were scattered far and wide.

Capt. and Mrs. Jiruce, Capt. Wilson, Mr. S. Fitch, Mr. K'alj)li lUny,
Mr. and Miss Peel, Mr. Howard l"\)wler, Mr. Chaffey-Collin, Mr. Newman
Gilbey, were there, as leaving Hollyfield Hall on the left hounds swept
swiftly and silently down the: hill. Skimming along with undeniable scent
oxer the marshes, they tell me that nothing but timber jumpers could live
with them, and that Mrs. Sewell on her chestnut led all the way, and that
the pace was too good to stop for lost hats or lost shoes. Twenty minutes
of the best before the burst was over, and a cast back in the direction of
Mr. jiury's brouglit us all once more within touch of hounds and Mr.
i:5ury's freely oMered hospitality. I'^ew, 1 think, passed his house without
accepting it. Mr. Sam Fitch's face was a study— of a regular fog-
dispelling hue. 1 caught sight of it long before I saw the hounds, and
r(;(iuire(l 110 further proof of what a duster they had had. " Why weren't
you there ? Not a yard of plough ! Lovely timber ! A screaming scent !
A select circle to see how the bitches drove along ! Nothing better this
season ! " "Oh, rub it in ; you didn't kill him ! " and buoyed up with the
vain hope of imdiiig another lox, we went on to 'i'allle Ikishes and Koydon
I'ark.

This brought the cubbing season to a close. Taking it altogether, it
has been a most successful one, for success in this case must not be gauged
by the number of cui)s whose masks have gone to swell the triumphs of the
huntsman's skill, but by the way the survivors have been hunted, and the
young lioimds upon whom so uuich of our future sport depends have done
their work. Those who have been out in the early mornings can answer
for the thoroughly eflicient manner in whicli all the younger members of
the vulpine {n\)(i have been routed, and the keen way in which the new
entry have settled to their task. So that were times better, and could the
gloom of agricultural depression be dispersed, enabling our chief and best
frienils, the farmers, to join in the sport which they so dearly love, then,
indeed, we should have had double, aye treble satisfaction in anticipating
the rise of tiie curtain when the play commenced at Matching Green.

(OI.OM I, COOK 203

A volume mi^lit easily Ix; vvriUcii abcnil MaU:liinf,^ (jiccn, and llic
famous meets and coverts with which its name is associated in llic hcails
and memories of all ICssex sportsnu;n, for since the days of Col. ("ooK it
has always held its own, and if \vr. do not see the hifj; runs wlii( li Iw a\<is
so fref]uently took pLuc in liis lime from Man Wood, llir u .ii.il Ime
beinj,' across to J)unmow lli^di Wood, then Loid Maynard s, yet we
have sport of a character which maintains the; rcpulalion ICss(;x has always
enjoyed for heinf; one of the best rural countri('S.

Writing in 1826, ("ol. Cook, in his observations on fox lumlin[<, says : -

" Tlie countiy is cliicfly under plougli, l)ut well drained, and il rides ii^iit in cDnipirisoii
with other ploujjhed countries; the ditches are rather wide, liui' noi' m.iND (liie i;i|)il:ds in
which these words appear are mine), and the scent after Christmas is invariajjly (^ood."

All these remarks are etjually applicable to-day, with the exceptitjn of
the one 1 have emphasised, for perhaps no triu^r indication (jf the {^'radiial
decline in af,aicultural prosperity exists than these dit* lies, for ea( h year
they are f,'njwing more choked with vej^'etation, and are bc( ominj^^ as hard
to define as the banks of an oveiilowing stream.

(Jf the foxes, Col. Cook says (in those days they were all stid) bred) : -

" I IjeHeve tliere never was an instance of an old Xoothin^; fox having; lui-n kiil(<l wiili a
hunting scent ; if ymi do n.<l get away close at him, at the very IjcsI pace, lie ii(V('r will he
caught, and if you come lo a check with a hunting scent it is twenty in one ln' jjcals you."

Here a^^ain we can cry ditto to the Colonel, for if foxes ;ire n(;t so stout
as in the days gone by, yet favoured by the blind ditches, of which they
take every advantage, running up and down them, they cfirlainly take
quite as much killing, and a pack of hoimds that can kill an ahcrntjon
Roothing fox in the present day might be trtisted to give a very good
account of themselves in any other country, for they must be steady,
staunch, and true, with noses as keen as mountain air.

Could Col. Cook have been with us this day he wfjuld have vot(;(l it
a gay and stirring scene, but 1 am very mticli mistaken if he would iicjt
have pined for the smaller fields of the days gone by. What a bmnijer
gathering! Where could they all have come from, lor in my :,liort lime
how many old and familiar faces have disappean;(l lr(;m the ranks, but
how true it is that no sooner does one man fall out than another steps in
to take his place. 'J'here are, however, certain ga|)s which can never be
adequately filled by any new-comer, the last being- alas, that I should
have to record it

Parson l*'aiH-, ///c fdlher of /he 1 1 mil, ,-ilmoM oik- (.f llir-
last survivals ol the ntcc ol iiiiiitiii^ p;ir',oii', kind, (oiirlcoiis
and considerate, a s]>orlsinan every iix li ol liim, ncvcr
ne^leclini:^ duty for f)leasure, a favourite witii ><>uii;4 and old,
ricli and poor :

III-- was a man, take him for ail in all,
We shall not look upon his like again.

I cannot pretend to give you a full list of those who were present to
meet our joint Masters— Mr. E. S. Jiowlby and Mr. Loftus Arkwright -
though possibly, if the suggestion of a writer in the i'idd of non-sub-
scribers having to buy a 5s. badge for their day's sport, ever comes to be
adopted, it may become feasible. i>ady Warwick drove a large party
over from JCaston (the distance Ijeing covered in a remarkably short time)
with a hired team, which she had never handled before, but even if they
had been as bad as iJick Vicker's Oswestry team, " three blind 'mis and
a bolter," with her i)erfect hands she would have brou'^dit Ihein up lo the

294 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

meet in time. Lady Rookwood and Lady Gilbey with her daughter Mrs.
Routledge, drove to the meet, while among the mounted throng I noted
the Masters of the Essex and Suffolk and the Essex Stag Hounds, Lord
Rookwood, our Secretary (Mr. R. Y. Bevan) and our late Secretary, Mr.
R. Lockwood ; Mr. Avila, Messrs. E. and F. Ball, Mrs. Bennett, Mr. W.
H. P. l>arnes, Mr. Basham, Mr. Benton, Mr. Baddeley, Mr. J. C. Borwick,
Mr. A. Bowlby, Mr. Ralph Bury, Capt. and Mrs. Bruce, Mr. Borrow, no
J-3uxtons ! the Misses Blyth (2), Mr. R. Caldwell, Messrs. Christy (2), Mr. E.
Caldecott, Major and Mrs. Carter, Mr. Carr, Messrs. Charrington (2), Mr.
and Mrs. Cockett, Mr. C. Chaffey-CoUin, Mr. and Mrs. Weston Crocker,
Rev. L. Capel-Cure, Mr. Capel-Cure, Miss Colvin, Mr. C. Doxat, Mr. G.
H. Dawson and Miss Maud Dawson, Mr. E. and Miss Docwra, Mr.
Foster, Mr. H. Fowler, Mr. Newman Gilbey, Miss Gilbey, Mr. Guy Gilbey,
Dr. Grubb, Mr. Green (Parndon) and brother, Mr. Goffe, Messrs. J. and
D. Gingell, Mr. Howard, Mr. George Hart, Mr. J. Harris, Mr. T. H.
Harrison, Mr. and Mrs. R. Hill, Mr. Horner and Son, Mr. G. Harris, Mr.
Heinemann, Mr. H. E. Jones, Miss Jones, Mr. Leatham, Mr. Littler, jun.,
Mr. F. Loyd, Mr. G. Lobb, Mr. R. C. Lyall, Mr. B. Lines and Miss
Lines, Mr. H. J. Miller, and his two boys, Mrs. Mcintosh, Mr. Chisenhale
l\Iarsh, Mr. Meyer, Mr. W. Morris, Miss Morgan, Mrs. Neill, Mr. New,
Miss Oliver, Mr. Patchett, O.C, no Pellys ! Mr. and Mrs. Hine, Mr. H.
J. Price, Mr. Poole, Mr. E. Quare, Miss Ouare, Major Ricardo, Mr.
Simonds, Mr. H. Sworder, Mrr G. Sewell,'^Mr. R. Smith, Mr. A. R.
Steele and brother, Mr. A. Suart, Mr. and Mrs. Swire, Mr. G. Sheppard,
Rev. L. Scott, Mr. J. Todhunter, Mr. Tweed, Miss Tait, Mr. Usborne and
Son, Mr. Tyndale White, jun., Mr. Wombwell, Mr. Willis, while of others
on wheels the following names occur to me : Mr. and Mrs. W. Alger, Mrs.
Balloch, INIr. G. Brown, Mr. Lucking, Mrs. Patchett and her niece, Mrs.
Quare and party, Mr. Littler, sen., Mr. Glyn, Mrs. Rowland, Mrs. Ark-
wright, Mrs. N. Gilbey, Miss Gold, Dr. Druitt, Miss Wilson, Miss Green,
Miss Webster, Mr. A. Poole, Misses Young, Mr. and Mrs. Brumskill, Mrs.
Chalmers, Mr. Kirby, Miss Bambridge and Mr. J. Furze.

Of the day's sport itself very little can be said : it certainly did not reach
the average of a Matching Green day — lack of scent rather than scarcity
of foxes readily accounting for this, for with the exception of Man Wood,
n'lnch K'as drawn blank for the first time for eleven years, all the other coverts.
Brick-kilns, Down Hall, and Matching Park, responded to the call made
upon them, the most lively item in the day's programme being with a cub
— forgive the word — from the last-named covert, who was killed close to
Matching Hall. There were numerous casualities during the day, one of
the most serious being caused by a second horseman, whose horse having
got out of his hands, cannoned into Mr. Borrow ; knocking him and his
mount all of a heap into a ditch, cutting his face badly. Several ladies
were thrown ; and if when hounds ran for three consecutive fields, loose
horses were at a discount, active young ploughboys were at a heavy
premium.

The shades of night were fast falling ere we started for a ride home in
the dark, satisfied or dissatisfied mortals, entirely depending upon individual
temperament and circumstances. The Masters had no cause for dissatis-
faction that the opening day was over. The huntsman, in spite of a coat
which no renovator will ever restore to its pristine hue, was, I venture to
say, satisfied. Those who made their first acquaintance with Roothing
ditches were satisfied to have escaped such undesirable lodgings for the
night. Those, and they are not a few, who count Matching Green as one

WERE THEV SATISFIED

295

of, perhaps, the only three or four chances they get of seeing a pack of
hounds, had surely no cause for grumbling, for they were with them all
day ! Those, and they are, perhaps, fewer, who make a point of revisiting
the old country and notching another mark in Time's rapid flight, were
they satisfied ? Ladies all, were they satisfied ? Those topsawyers who
missed if only one of the five chances (one from TSrick-kilns, two from
Down Hall, two from Matching Park) of getting a start, when with a
better scent and an older fox a big run might have been brought off, could
they be satisfied ? But why ask any more questions ? Why hazard any
more impressions ? The new horn, the new coat, the new boots, the new
saddle bars, the new pocket syphonias, doubtless played an important part
in the retrospect of Matching Green of 1894.

Richard Tilling on "Star"

Mr. Tilling may be fortunate enough to secure as good, but
he will never possess a better hunter than his compact little
horse, " Star," and Mr. Tilling has a wide choice, for the firm

2q6 leaves from a hunting diary

of which he is a member, Tilhng Bros., Peckham, own some
five thousand horses. Hunting one day a week pretty
regularly throughout the season, he is a good example of the
busy London man, to whom hunting is such a benefit. Mr.
Tilling always looks the picture of rosy health. No distance,
no weather ever deters either him or Mr. Samuel Fitch ; they
generally hack or drive on together, and it would be a very
extraordinary thing if they ever came home without having
picked the kernel out of the best day's sport the Essex can
show. Mr. Tilling is a very liberal supporter of all claims
tliat invariably fall on every hunt outside the Master's sphere,
and that he is one of the most popular members of the
r^ssex Hunt all who know him will admit.

I am very glad that I am not compelled to turn out so many leaves per
week, or verilj' four such days as Wednesday, November 7th, when we met
at Swallows X would probably yield four blank ones. But would this be
the case ? I don't know, for even out of the worst day's fox-hunting some-
thing can be gained, something learnt, some consolation extracted, for now,
as I am penning these lines at 6.30 p.m. on the day in question, I con-
gratulate myself that the rain and wind, which are threatening to dash the
windows in, held off until the warm fireside was reached. I am afraid
the hunt servants will get wet jackets. More's the pity, as they drew on
late, for a rapidly thinning field in their endeavour to show sport. Horse-
frith Park at 4.10 p.m. on a November afternoon would have satisfied our
late Master, I think.

Home in company with a man ■•'■ who only gets his one day a week, and
would not have exchanged even to-day for a gallop with stag — (N.B. : He
took a toss after 4 p.m. You don't often get a chance as late as this with
venison) — set me at least an example of resignation. It has been a wild,
stormy day, but this alone should hardly have accounted for such a large
tract of country being drawn without a whimper after the first catastrophe in
the morning at Fitzwalters. The usual thing, all coffee-housing (a golfer t
got hold of me), and the hounds away down wind. Not even a tail hound
for Easlerby to rate, as we flew round the corner of the second wood, but
plenty of fences to show a bold front over, if you like a gallop in the dark
— not for me.

Give me the Queen's highway, if I can't see hounds and have no clue
to them. Was it fortunate or unfortunate, do you think, that the fox
slipped into a hole in less than five minutes ? Ask Ray, late huntsman to
the Essex Union ; he'll never get such a chance of dishing an Essex field
again. Back through the no longer timber-stopped gap came the huntsman
with a comparatively jovial and lively following, for hounds were recovered ;
the day was young. Shenfield, Thoby, Blackmore, ancient strongholds,
were they not before us ?

But 1 can't pass that gap ; it has left far too vivid an impression.
" Don't go through the wood," said my pal, as we stood in the ploughed
field and gazed over the blind ditch down the narrow ride that bisects iMtz-
walters, " can't you see the post and rails at the end ? " Yes, but possibly

Mr. R. S. Tilling. + Mr. A. C. Oldham.

TIIK l'(^\ Ol' TIIK VKAR 297

we can turn them. The idea of breaking, let alone jumping, was not on the
tapis. But it was a veritable cid-de-sac ; no going to the right, no turning to
the left of the ride, for the undergrowth was thick and the ditch much too
blind, and by the time we reached the end our retreat was cut off, for the
ride was full of confiding followers.

Will no one have a cut at them ? was freely asked. A fair four-foot
they stood, with ditch beyond, but looked like breaking, when Air. Caldecott,
with a " Here goes; I never rode the beggar before," to our dismaj' cleared
them handsomely. He was only just in time, for Miss Jones had made up
her mind to have them, and, quietly collecting her horse, she landed him
over with a yard and a half to spare, giving a lesson in horsemanship to
my craven heart that I shall never forget, and shall always be proud to
remember.

There were now lusty calls for a welter, and Mr. Price, accepting the
challenge almost before it was offered, launched his blood chesnut, but the
rails were a trifle too high even for that good performer, and dropping his
hind legs on the top bar, amidst hearty blessings and wide-echoed con-
gratulations, smashed it to matchwood. Who finished off the remaining
two feet must be left to the Archaeological Society to discover. I can only
affirm it had gone when we came back. If not re-erected we shan't count
the time misspent, having learnt a very useful way through this and many
other coverts that came under survey during this long and dragging day :
but all this is forgotten, all buried in the sweet remembrance of one of the
most stivring gallops I have ever had with hounds.

Let me jot it down this Monday ev^ening' while memory
runs hot within me, and ere its colours fade away. Methinks
the JO all told, mostly mackintoshed and covert-coated in-
dividuals, had little notion of what was In store for them as the
hounds were waved into the gorse at Havering-atte- Bowser,
which has become one of the most famed coverts of the hunt,
the scene of nearly all our best sport last year. W^hat a debt
of gratitude we all owe to its most kind and hospitable
chdtelaiu, for while I write the fox of the year has gone out
on a journey he'll never take again, and in hot haste we charged
dowm the grass ride past the gorse. The kick methought
would soon be out of the chesnut in front at the pace hounds
were going. Away down hill to the spinney near the brook,
over the slippery black bridge, Henry John leading,* hounds
holding their own with ease, as horses plunged through a deep
root field, and crossed some more holding ground to the Forest.
A stout strand of roped wire lined it for some quarter of a mile
to our front. Hounds were running to the right, so we galloped
back 200 yards for the iron gate in the wire fence. Locked,
by all that's exasperating! It wouldn't come off its hinges.
Mr. Christy had a key — how it seemed to stick in the lock,
which yielded at last, and with a " Yonder they oo, up the hill
towards Stapleford Abbots," we charged in line over the

* H. J. Miller.

298 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

fence that runs up to the Forest. Mr. Sworder cominq- down
narrowly escaped beino- jumped on.

Not' crossino- the road, hounds turned sharp to the right,
running at a great pace, straight for the osier bed at Bourne
Bridge! Here our disasters began. The huntsman's horse,
making no attempt to clear the brook, which was full to the
brim, fell back, and Messrs. Foster and Avila and two or three
more were soon in the same plight. Hounds were rapidly
disappearing through the next fence, which not a man or horse
could tackle. The major's t chesnut. luckily for him, obsti-
natelv refused. The majority coasted along it, and at the first

Mrs. Mcintosh' Gorse with Hainault Forest in the distance

opportunity turned right-handed through a gate, not realising
that hounds had come back where the fence joined a narrow-
belt ot trees. A lucky few, there were only seven, Messrs.
\\\ and G. Sewell, Mr. Pemberton-Barnes, Mr. Brindle, Major
Carter, Col. Lockwood, and Miss Morgan, went straight on,
and just caught a glimpse of hounds as they tiashed through
a fence in the direction of the old mill. Leaving it on the left,
the pack drove on over the small enclosures, and crossing the
road, ran on as hard as ever over Pyrgo Park, just touching

t Major Carter.

THE OLD HERO DIES 299

Bower House, and then bearinj^ down the hill, reached Fox-
borough Wood, where the huntsman, Master, and many more
of us cauQfht them ; for what with iron fencino-, locked Pfates,
and some unjumpable rails, those on the right had been caught
like rats in a trap, while man after man of the rearward con-
tingent rode to the holloa of a fresh fox over the park and rode
never to see Jiounds again in this grand run.

Foxborough Wood was left behind ; a single hound running-
ahead of the pack to the four cross roads, where Bailey got
hounds together, and they flew over the very cramped but well
grassed Dagenham Vale. How keenly they ran. Did we
ever know hounds go better in a storm of rain, but wasn't there
just a touch of east in the wind ? The old line — it must have
been the old fox, the hero of so many fights. Now up hill he
turned to Hatters W^ood, the shortest way out (if your horse
had It in him, and hadn't been going at large in a brook) with
the Master, the Major, Miss Morgan, and some half-dozen
more, over the sunken post and rails. If not? — through the
gates on the left, and you could nick hounds as they raced
round the park before crossing the brook near the double-gated
bridge. Thank you, my Knight of the Velvet Cap. J for so
deftly opening them. On, still on ; no summer condition could
live with them, through Duck Wood and away to South \A^eald,
where in Vicarage Wood hounds got up to their fox. What
a crash of music ; death in every note ! Could he leave the
covert alive ?

" Ha ! yet he flies, nor yields

To black despair. But one loose more, and all
His wiles are vain. Hark ! thro' yon village now
The rattling clamour rings. The barns, the cots
And leafless elms return the joyous sound.
Thro' ev'ry home-stall, and thro' ev'ry yard.
His midnight walks, panting, forlorn, he flies."

Weald village was left behind, Rochetts touched and passed
ere we left the road, then over several banks, to splash through
a ford, and breasting the hill near Dagenham gravel pits, once
more swung down to the brook, to view the fox up the root field
beyond, with the leading hounds racing to catch and roll him
over in the open fifteen yards from the fence. Few faced the
brook at the end, for its brown waters swirled viciously between
its steep and muddy banks. Many did not get within sight of
it, but two ladies at least got over successfully, Miss Morgan
and Miss Buxton. One hour and a quarter — hounds must have

X Mr. Harry Sworder.

300 T.EA\KS FROM A HUNTING DIARY

covered fifteen miles of country, the farthest points touched
half that distance. Only one other covert was disturbed during-
the day. Pyrgo Wood, and it provided as good a hunting run
of 40 minutes as one could wish to see. Away over the park
in a straight line for Col. Lockwood's coverts, skirting Big
\\^:)od, and just touching Cranes, they turned sharp to the
right and reached Curtis' Mill Green before hounds were
whipped off No one asked for any more ; nobody wanted it.
None, however, who, homeward bound passed Tawney Hall,
refused the hospitality of one who, in spite of a young horse
and two rattling- falls, saw as much as anyone else of the great
run, if he did not see more.

Ah ! if we could always choose the right day ! What pleasant reading
would the most prosaic diary afford ; no blank days to remember, no
twisting, ringing runs to record. Take Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, last
week. Who went out on Wednesday to Fyfield, when the very elements
seemed to combine to destroy all chances of sport, and reached home,
without reflecting that it was a day wasted, a day thrown away ? Yet
I know one man* who enjoyed himself, in spite of being drenched to the
skin and foot-sore and weary from a twenty-mile walk ; for a sight of
the scenes in which in the years gone by he had so often participated
yielded a pleasure known only to those Vv'hose lines are cast in the close
atmosphere of crowded towns.

Friday, " Great Easton," was a day fit for the gods — a day which
saw the reel of sport freely unwind, and its golden threads worked into
the warp and woof of three of the choicest patterns, such as only the
deft fingering of the huntsman and the lady pack of the Essex Hounds
could possibly have accomplished. What say you ? Two runs of thirty-five
minutes each as hard as hounds could race, winding up with one at a
similar pace with a kill in the open. " Ah ! where is the heart wishing
more ? "

WHiat a lottery ! Wednesday, Friday, Saturday — and the middle one,
for those who ha\e tasted the sweets of life, and have got over the first
l)lush of youth in the field of sport, the only one worth lecording.

Saturday, November 17th, Harlow. Sweet mingles with bitter, and
bitter with sweet ; but alas ! the empty stall shall tell a tale of all bitter to
one who makes a friend of his horse — the partner in our sport who gives
everything and asks nothing in return. Do we all — do any of us — treat our
horses as they deserve ? But Saturday, at any rate, was a day of sunshine
above, a day of mud and water beneath, but a day on which the pent-up
exuberance of a Saturday field (to my thinking, worse than a Pytchley
Wednesday) could not expend itself with a home-running fox. No !
though the line, after he had quitted Mark Hall and its precincts, and
had left Barnsleys behind, was lengthened out into an oblong mile, with
a dozen at the most, who rode the inside circle at its head.

In Leicestershire the first fence, more often than not will decide your
place in a run. It rarely so happens in Essex ; but the first fence from
Barnsleys, in this hot sliarp scurry, proved the exception, settling most of
those who had not drawn rein, after leaving Mark Hall, before rounding the
wood. The sun glinted fiercely through the only weak spot in the fence,

* Rev. G. Ward Saunders.

•5 s

w*^ o

I I

CO

i02

LEAVES FROM A HUNTINCi DIARY

as the Master landed Diana over it, in spite of the overhanging boughs of a
tree ri^ht at the tail of the hounds ; but svhat Diana can romp over, even in
her old-age, another horse must extend himself to cover. No wonder, then,
that the next man came down. , • i , ^i

The way was blocked, and Mr. Sheppard's lead out into the lane on the
left was the only thing offered, and it answered very well for the first
six fields, as hounds drove parallel with it, but they were bearing sightly,
almost imperceptibly to the right all the time ; and wide was the gap
between the left-hand gallopers and those who had come away from the
middle of Barnsleys, or better still, made pivots of themselves as hounds,
running at a great pace— for it was all grass, and they were close at their
fox— swung round them to the right, by Kitchen Hall (famed for supplying
the Abbots of olden times), and regained Barnsleys. Fifty minutes by

^4,

Brook House

the clock, and a pad apiece to two pedestrians, and the brush if he had cared
to claim it, to Mr. Guy Lobb, for I swear he was the first man in at
the death.

A dozen men will tell you that this was a rare good gallop, and so it
was, from Barnsleys to Harlow Common and back at a pace that would, I
fancy, have almost satisfied " Q " of the Quorn ; but who comprised that
happy band I cannot tell you ; I was much too far behind to note, but I
can honestly affirm that I never saw a huge field (there were quite 200 out)
so completely spread-eagled in such a short time. Second horses, cigars,
coverts many, foxes few, the day rapidly waning, before we were all
galvanised into action by the mysterious fox of Pinnacles, who one minute
was viewed almost in the jaws of the pack, the next had vanished into thin
air. So home in the rising fog, via Weir Hatches, at 4.30 p.m.

Monday, November igth, the venue was at Brook House, a very
suitable name for a trysting-place just then ; but it would hardly ha\c

LOCKJAW 303

been available three days before, for the surrounding country was under
water, and you might have punted from Hohbs Cross to the meet. There
were serious doubts as to whether the ford en route to the coverts would be
available, and it was only on the understanding that Mr. Sworder would
play the pioneer that hounds were taken that way.

They found at once in Col. Lockwood's coverts a leash at least that
kept hounds busy for an hour or more before one paid the penalty of his
timidity. Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits, and so have home-
dwelling foxes ; but he was a sensible old dog fox who went straight
through the gorse for the Forest, and left some of his progeny to settle
accounts with the hounds. Thus early in the day a good run was nipped
in the bud. But ill is the wind that blows no one any good; so the
carriage folk revelled in the fun that went on around them, of which they
managed to see a good deal more than the riders.

Havering gorse ; another quick find, a sharp burst up to the Forest, a
ring round it, back again somewhat slower, patient liunting in the gorse,
out of the gorse, back again, worry and whoop ! while we eat our sand-
wiches, and then home, altogether a capital cub-hunting day. All heard
with great regret that the chesnut mare which carried Jack so brilliantly
in Monday's run has succumbed to lockjaw, the result of the loss of half a shoe :
real bad luck this — for man and masters.

Tuesday, November 20th.— Two hours with Mr. Barclay's Harriers, at
Maries Farm, by the kind invitation of Mr. Lewis Phillips. Not a yard of
scent with a brace of hares found in one of Mr. Boram's fallows — certainly
not enough to warrant one in following the Master over hog-backed stiles.
Quite a treat, however, to watch the masterly way in which Mrs. Rowland
took the young grey across country never honoured with sight of hounds or
press of side-saddle before — the mare took to leaping like a duck to water.
Mr. Boram seemed very happ}^ too, on the Master's 300-guinea chesnut,
and Messrs. Parham, Rickett, Willis, Hart, Sewell, Dent, G. Buxton,
Rev. Jones (no one else out) bent on enjoying themselves. I reluctantly
left hounds, but horses are not cast-iron, and the grey cob voted it pretty
close work three days running. So, home in time for a hot luncheon, with
a shrewd suspicion that there will not be a yard of scent to-morrow.
Tempus monstrahit.

Wednesday, November 21st. — Prognostications about scent all wrong
after all, but a complete change in atmospheric conditions, none of
that blue mist, with a cold flashy wind and a falling glass, but a bright sun,
Favonian breeze, and a rising barometer, all pointing the other way,
recalling, as we drove to the meet, George Herbert's well known lines : —

" Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so Vmght,
The bridal of the earth and sky — "

Very bright ; but I have not yet come across the man or woman who cares
to have a bright sun in their eyes in a quick thing across our Roothings ;
nor have I ever heard any one say that it interferes with scent. Jim
Cockayne, the huntsman to the Old Surrey, who had come out to have a
look at his former country, talking of sunny days, reminded me of a good
run we once had from Belgium Springs in a bright sun, when eleven came
down at the first fence. I remember it well ; also the Parson's gate out

of the next field. A new one now hangs in its place. But what of

to-day, my friend ; tell us something about that ; where hounds went ? and
what they did ? — get on to the line, don't stand babbling ; skip Hyde Hall
springs, and the abortive try for an outlying fox en route to the Forest, but
don't call a fox a hare again, when he slips away from the small Avood just
outside it.

304 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

Very quickly threading its outskirts for some half-a-dozen fields the
fox set his head for Barrington Hall, and foiled in this attempt, swung
back to the right over a very heavy country, intersected with some par-
ticularly grassy ditches straight in the face of the sun. No one down, I
think. Twas well in the ruck, but all the rear contingent shoving for the
same gaps. No ! half a minute ! The Parson taking his own line on the
chesnut, I can't say for how long, and Mr. Furze on the old roan mare*
picking himself off his head; she never used to fall, but, weight for age,
three stone extra is a heavy impost — this en passant.

Horses swerved out from the traction engine at the bottom of the big
field, at least all those who had funked the brook where hounds had
crossed. A nice judicious little check on the Heath road, and then
another turn to the left, and a capital view of a fox through an open gate-
way making for the mustard field, and hounds tearing away by themselves
on the right, and not going after that fox after all, as many of the riders
did, but sticking to their hunted one and leading us over some very
interesting brooklets — the huntsman's horse skipping them with ease,
Capt. Bruce's jumping short every time in his wake ; so to the Heath, and
a kill in the farmyard.

No ! yo-ondcy he goes, with that peculiar curl of his brush which only a
good fox, and a hunted one, has ; back out of the road, up the steep bank
with Mr. Sedgwick, away down the meadows toward Barrington. Again
they settled to run with a will, crossing the road at the back of Hatfield
town, up a steep bank into the stubble field beyond. They tore along
without a check until reaching a big newly ploughed field near Lancaster
springs, they faltered for a moment in the hedgerow just beyond a handy
fold. Jack and some thirty more couldn't resist it, and were shut out from
the rest of the gallop. Not so Bailey, Capt. Bruce, Mr. Cooper, Messrs.
Horner (father and son), Mr. G. Sewell, and many more, who kept hounds
in view as they ran parallel with the brook, crossing it just below the
wooded heights of Down Hall. They ran on without a whmiper, for they
were running to kill if the fox could not gain the big earths.

Nothing but the sound turf which fringes these hanging woods for half
a mile enabled the leaders to keep hounds in view, while the woods soon
echoed with the thunder of a hundred hoofs as horses were urged on at
their topmost speed ; then shriller than any pibroch rang the whoop. Not,
my tender-hearted friends, over the mangled corpse of a good fox, but
over the open earths in which he had found a sanctuary, having beaten
liounds, fair and square, in this rattling forty-five minutes.

Mr. Swire had the misfortune to lose a very valuable horse just at the
end of the run — a broken blood-vessel, I believe, the cause. I don't think
they found again. Leaving early, in company with several other horsemen
after the first gallop, a careless, happy group, we little thought that we
had exchanged our last greetings, said a final farewell to one of our
cheeriest comrades. f It seems too sad to relate, too hard to tell, that
one who had endeared himself to all with whom he was brought in
contact should on the ver}' threshold of life, when all seemed bright before
him, be snatched so suddenly, so fearfully from our midst. The old story :
a small fence, a riderless horse : a helpless figure on the cold brown earth,
silent friends proffering help, no pain, but God help the man with a broken
back. Struck down on Friday, he lingered to mid-day on Saturday,
conscious almost to the last.

• Formerly the property of the author. t Mr. C. Meyer.

A SAD FATALITY

?o.s

Monday came round, bringing us altogether at Bobbingworth windmill,
and the sad event of last Friday : " It happened with Mr. Barclay's
Harriers," was mentioned with bated breath. It seemed to cast a cloud
over everyone, as dull and heavy as the grey sky above, while a penetrating
east wind, pregnant with coming snow, had a further depressing effect,
which not even the soul-stirring run that was so shortly to be enacted
could dispel. " Truly, in the midst of life we are in death."

Five-ancl-forty minutes ! how nuich that makes hfe
enjoyable may be condensed into that short period of time.
What trouble — what expense — will one undergo to have the
chance of spendinq- those brief moments alongside a good
pack of hounds ! Tell me if you know a prettier covert for

Bobbingworth Wood

a find than Bobbingworth Wood, as it stands out clear and
distinct against the winter sky : crowning the summit of a
gende hill, encircled by old pastures, which to the west slope
gradually down to the little Cripsey brook. Tell me if you
know a happier, though non-hunting man, than Mr. Millbank,
whose covert it is, as he is the first to catch sight of the old
dog-fox going away before hounds were scarce cheered in.
Answer me ! where would you have been if he hadn't given
us honest rails instead of wire ?— as your horse Hung the

306 LEAVES FRO^T A HUNTING DIARY

first fence behind him, and landed over the drop into the
grass meadow beyond.

But through the open gateway into the next one, as
hounds turn over the bank up the hill to the left of a small
clump of trees, the furrows lie the right way, and the Master's
grey sluthers into the road at the right place for the gate
beyond. Clear now of the crowd, carriage and foot folk, we
ought to be in for a run. Up by the hedge side to Dewley
Wood, left-handed through the bridle-gate, and you are clear
of it as quick as hounds. There is another bridle-gate to the
left, but the pace is too good, and the huntsman's lead over
the ditch-guarded fence under the tree is freely accepted. Past
Pevril's Farm, we cross the line — luckily the railway gates are
open. A slight check, and hounds are on again, in and out
of the lane, fence after fence. Miss Morgan's horse does not
often refuse, but he quickly follows Sir Evelyn Wood's lead
over the rail. Who wouldn't follow a V.C. ? Sharp to the
left over two more banks, another scramble into a lane,
through the bottom of Greensted Wood, out at once over the
boggy brook, with Major Carter and Mr. Pemberton-Barnes
to the right, into the road and out on the stubble beyond,
hounds carrying as good a head as on the grass, they drive
along for Mr. Christy's cabbage field,

'Ware wire ! 'Ware wire ! And the leaders are already
turning away from the fence running up to Kettlebury Springs
— with the exception of Mr. Barnes, who unknowingly jumps
it, while Mr. Cowee shoots by on his little blood bay, with
" Here you are, here's a hole to the left." Never a more
welcome one. It saves at least half a mile, and opens out
splendid galloping ground, as hounds race parallel with the
springs ; Captain Bruce's black rapidly overhauling them on
the right ; a man at the end of the springs has headed the fox,
and it requires the horn to bring the bitch pack back, for they
are dreadfully jealous, and they have been coming a rare pace.
Twenty minutes to here ; the fox has only run the covert for
a hundred yards before they are out again on the right.
Picking it up most beautifully, they race down the side of the
bean field, bearing away for Marden Ash. We clatter past
Mr. Jones's house ; every groom is out on the qui vivc. A
slight check on the road ; Bailey holds them down it to the
right, and nearly all the local contingent set off at once for
the ford. Fiitting off the line in the meadows that run down
to the river, they cross it near the mill -a greasy bridge over
it, but no apparent outlet until Mr. Mugglestone good-

MR. MILLBANKS FOX ESCAPES

507

naturedly removes the iron hurdle — a work of time, for which
Mr. Caldecott will not wait, and quite in his old form (he is
the quickest man out of a difficulty, I know of). '* Daybreak"
has landed him over a boggy hole with a scramble, followed
by Mrs. Bennett.

All grass again for the next mile up to My less Lodge and
on to the Menagerie. Captain Wilson's little grey and Mr.
Barnes fanning along in front, up to the right of the wood,
so to the road to jump out at once, for hounds are running on
hard to Poles Wood, and bearing to the right, reach Beacon
Hill. The huntsman narrowly escapes a broken leg from the

Cart Shed Wood

kick of a colt (he is quite disabled for a minute from the pain)
at a gateway into the road. Then in the covert beyond,
forty-five minutes from the find, they have him dead beat —
bad luck for the huntsman, good luck for the fox. Hounds
get on to a fresh one. who rings the changes on these woods
for some half-hour, while men and horses shiver in the icy
blast after their fast gallop. Later on we were warmed into
life with a woodland hunt from the Beachetts.

Out of respect for the comrade whom we had so recently lost,
Wednesday's meet at Nasing on November 28th was postponed until the

^o8

T.EAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

following day, with the result that there was a much smaller attendance at
what certainly used to be a very popular tryst, attracting many from oyer
the border ; but its ancient glory has departed, for we rarely get the big
runs so common in days gone by, when the owner of Galley Hills lived at
Monkhams.- Thanks, however, to the staunch support of one of the strongest
pillars of the hunt, Mr. Charles Bury, we are sure of a find. His son, I am
glad to say, is following in the footsteps of his sire, and is a very keen
sportsman ; so much so that his father, who has, in common with most of
us, a partiality for jugged hare, tells me that he has not been able to taste
his favourite dish once this season, as all the hares are now kept for
the harriers, and that his son would not allow a pheasant to be shot until the
coverts had first been drawn for fox. Yes, there are three foxes there;
they were all seen on Thursday, and at present they laugh at Bailey and
the Essex Hounds.

Nasing Common

Do you know what it is to leave home late on the chance of
finding" hounds? Do you know that some will tell you that
it is unorthodox — equally unsportsmanlike ? But if stolen
waters are sweet, so is the pleasure and excitement enhanced —
provided you disturb no coverts — should you have the luck
to nick in for an afternoon run, perchance after a busy morning
in town. But the meet must lie handy at your door, every

* Mr. Colvin is back again at Monkhams, and was it thirty or thirty-five cubs.
Wood you tell me were found there the first morning's cubbing in 1899 ?— Ed.

Capt.

NICKING IN 309

yard of the country familiar, or you will probably be clone to a
turn, and your disappointment and chagrin baffle description.

Surely that was the roar of the foundry dinner bell,* as,
the busy town being- left behind, the hard road was exchanged
for velvety turf, and a jog of an hour, by bridle path and gate,
should bring us in touch of at least some of the vedettes, or
some of the camp followers of the Hunt. Twenty minutes
have gone by, field after field left behind ; not a sign. Even
far away, as seen through the dim and hazy atmosphere, the
cattle and horses are quietly grazing. Hardly a sound falls on
the ear, all alert for the faintest echo of the distant chase.
Another ten minutes, the gates click back with an audible
bang ; the young ploughman is appealed to in vain. Hark !
what's that ? Your heart stands still for a second ; then in go
the spurs as the piercing scream is re-echoed again and again,
and you are galloping for bare life to the front. You can hear
nothing while you are in such haste. Pull up when you have
reached the road. "They're running! they're running! Go
hark ! " Too late. The music comes floating back, fainter
and fainter, like the distant echo of tinkling bells, and you may
gallop your heart out ere you catch them, as they disappear
up the hill from Obelisk Wood, if the fox is a bold one and
the scent is good. A moment : they are turning back, by all
that's fortunate, and coming straight down the brookside for
you, and flash after flash of scarlet is seen through the parallel
fences. You have got them now ; your own fault if you lose
them. That man with the plough is waving his hand to the
right, over a rugged bank at the top.

Mr. Peel turns at once, but not even on the grass can hounds go any
pace. Leaving Cobbin End lane behind (it cost me twopence to get into it,
and, I believe, Mr. Swire the same, for there was a deuce of a drop), we
held on over the grass up to Ball Hill. No occasion to jump more than
two fences, and we were at Spratt's Hedgerow at 2 p.m., seeking for another
fox, which in the Rookery, Orange Wood, Parndon, Pinnacles, &c., was
sought for in vain ; but it was a bad scenting day. The morning gallop I
hear was distinctly good, with one of Mr. Charles Bury's foxes, much the same
hne as before, breaking from Galley Hills and running past his house, where
they probably changed, for scent, I am told, became very much worse.
The fun was lively while it lasted, one fence early in the run accounting for
a ladyt who had secured a very good place, together with a yellow-
legginged sportsman on a bay. The Master did not come off scathless, and
the Parson's coat will take some cleaning. I am indebted to a friend for the
following spirited account of an extraordinarily good day in the Friday
country — one of the many that have fallen to their share this season : —

* Messrs. Wni. Cottis & Sons' foundry. f Mrs. W. Sewell.

3IO lp:aves from a hunting diary

" On Friday, November 30lh, about fifty at Thaxted met the dozen who, with Bailey and
hounds, trained at Dunmow. Thaxted plantation was drawn blank, and we then rode a
bigg sh half circle to Avesey Wood, the Master wishing to get the field well to the further
side to prevent the fox breaking towards Bigods and the eastern coverts, but alas ! twenty
or so more knowing ones had made a short cut utterly preventing this arrangement, thereupon
it was wisely decided not to draw. So we trotted straight off to Lubberhedges, where we
found a brace, but could do very little. We again found at White House Springs, crossed
the road, passed Lerels Green, and through Hoxted Wood, where Bailey cast beyond and
hit the line off, but all in vain, and our fox was too far ahead.

"We then drew Newpasted blank, which brought us to 2. 15, and our train left Dunmow at
4.40. (Here Macadam remarks that TRAIN is the bugbear of your Friday country, and will
always keep it select), but the Master gave the word FoxES Wood I from where we had our run,
a regular clinker. The fox luckily broke, pointing for White House Springs, and took a good
time through the Salings. Hounds up to this running best pace for fifteen minutes. We
then swung right-handed, which allowed four or five of us who had a baddish start to cut off a
big corner. Of these I noticed Messrs. H. W. Gil bey and H. E. Jones. The former did
us (as it happened) a good turn, as, viewing our fox, which was pointing for Lubberhedges,
he rode for all he was worth (I must own in front of hounds), halloaing them on. This
turned the fox left-handed fur a mile or so, and from here about five couples of hounds
practically coursed him for another ten minutes as hard as ever I saw hounds run, and not
a single check.

"The fox was not done yet, as it took Bailey and hounds another thirty-five minutes' work
round and round covert before he gave up his brush. I noticed a delightful piece of hound
work in the early part of this run. The bitches running hard along the top of a ploughed field,
overshot the line ; but that good bitch Sonnet never left it by so much as an inch, and put us
straight without any loss of time."

It formed quite the chief topic of conversation, I can assure you, at
White Roothing, where a very briUiant and very representative gathering
of the clans had assembled on Saturday, December ist — no more orderly
field in England than the Essex, none more anxious to obey a very popular
field-inaster. Witness the first two coverts drawn — Row Wood — everyone
at the bottom corner. The further wood, Gammas Hall Springs, drawn,
and huntsman and hounds well on their way to Poplars before the Master
turned back with his field to the road to overtake them. The next covert,
a sinall shaw near Poplars, the whole field drew up in the long, narrow
meadow that commands a view of both, but only the tops of the trees of the
former. Not a man moves from his place as hounds, huntsman, staff,
disappear over the rise of the seed field into the covert ; certainly, if you
don't like the rush for the ford, you have a good five minutes for selecting
your place in the fence. Several of us on the right could hear the music of
the hounds, the twang of the horn.

Not a man moved from his place, but, brave as the Spartan boy who
allowed a fox to eat out his heart, waited for the Master to drop the flag.
It came at last, but not before the hitntsman had coine back and waved his
cap for us to come on. Like a pent-up flood vie burst the barriers ; those
on the headland who had slipped through the ford called out "'Ware
seeds! " while all rode desperately to catch hounds. Luckily not a yard of
scent at first, and with the sun on our backs we soon overtook them, and
held them in hand at a canter for the first fifteen minutes.

We had to put on the steam a little more as we returned with the sun
in our eyes, and as we set out on the first ring we were going quite half
pressure, and horses were beginning to fall. A brute of a fence at the side
of a wood brought down the Master and a good many more, and those who
got over only did it by the skin of their teeth. I wouldn't have had a cut
at it for a fiver. Luckily hounds turned to the right in the wood, and a
couple of fences brought us out level with them as they were away in
the open saus masters, for Mr. Bowlby was down on his grey, and Mr.
Arkwright's horse was going the pace by himself. Thirty-five minutes,
and half pressure was increased to three-quarter, and the valves were

REALLY ! TIIK 15RIA1

CONCEALED IIIM

opened to their full extent in another ten, as we swept round in a big circle
for the final fifteen minutes of this sunny gallop, running to ground at New
Hall, fifty-five minutes from the find.

I am not going to tell you who had the best of it, for I don't know,
but I could name a dozen men, including Mr. Marriage, and half-a-dozen
ladies, including Miss Blyth, who were never shaken off at one of the
numerous turns. I could tell you how old George Dawson (this isn't
personal, is it ?) on his young grey cob saw just a leetle more of the thick
of the fun than most of us. How a certain black horse" acknowledged to
his first fall in two years ; how cheerfully Mr. Brindle sang out " All
right;" but he wasn't under his grey in the ditch at the time, do y' know !
How gaily anothev horse cleayed a man in a ditch, but really the briars concealed him.
How another man got into a farmyard and couldn't get out again ! How

''■Si0i^^^<i^

t-' ^'//A

High Roothing Springs

if you went steady at your fences you couldn't live with the hounds, and if
you went fast you had the huntsman's nerve. How beautifully hounds
hunted ! How you could have covered the dogs with a sheet ; not all the
time, mind you. How a rabbit was only looked at as he jumped up in
the middle of the pack ; and, finally, that I was really blood-thirsty enough
to hope that they would kill the fox, for he certainly knew a most awfully
blind but limited country, and wouldn't run road a yard.

I didn't get down, but I came to the conclusion that I had been so
precious near it so many times that I would let well alone, missing thereby
a very good gallop from High Roothing Springs by Canfield Thrift to the
Mount, and over the line, eventually running to ground at the Mount.

* Mr. Guy Gilbey's.

312 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

Altogether a nice, straight run, I am told, but unfortunately accompanied
with very bad luck, Mr. Philip Gold losing a valuable horse from a broken
back. So far the season has been very disastrous for horses. I know of
five who have succumbed.

The fastest weight-carrier in Essex, says Mr. Marriage,
who heard of him from a friend in '95. and immediately set off
for the northern borders of Essex to buy him. He was to have
hunted him. but heavy snow coming" on he had to content

Jacob Marriage on Eliasin II.

himselt with a gallop in the snow. Regretting that he could
not jump the horse, the farmer, the breeder of the animal, took
Mr. Marriage into two large yards parted by a gate. " There,"
he said, " take him over that gate,"* and over the gate went
Mr. M., backwards and forwards, with two feet to spare each
time. No wonder that he bought the horse then and there,

''■' Most of us would have said, " Take him yourself" — a strange horse, a
five-barred gate, and a snowy morning. Bravo, Mr. Marriage ! — Ed.

A CONTRAST 313

and that he lias hccii looking- out for some more h"kc him ever
since.

Mr. Marriage lias hunted over 20 years with tlie Kssex
Hounds, and rides as hard now as he used to ritk- in the days
when he never saw a wife and family on the other side of a
Roothing ditch.

So he is " a rum 'un to follow, a bad 'un to beat."

Only two days have lately come under my notice, and perhaps no two
could have presented a greater contrast, a statement which, I fancy, the
bare recital of what took place will fully corroborate. Monday, a day of
sunshine, with an absence of foxes. Wednesday, a typical day for good
sport in Essex — a drizzling mist, easterly wind, plenty of foxes, and the
maximum of divarshun. Different countries, too. Monday, the unfashion-
able one of banks, woods, and undulating stretches of hill and dale (I like
it best). Wednesday the ultra-fashionable flat, open, and monotonous in
the type of fences encountered. Let me, however, jot down in fuller detail
that which I have already anticipated.

Monday, December 3rd, was, I believe, the first visit of hounds this
season to the Kelvedon and Navestock district ; certainly the first since
hunting proper commenced, partly owing to Mr. Fane's death, and partly
attributable to shooting arrangements.

Never was bright sun more welcome on hunting day ; for hour after
hour were we called upon to ride the country, searching, but searching in
vain for a fox, hoping against hope for a find. Park Wood, Waterworks
Springs, Church Wood, Poles Wood, Menagerie, Cook's Wood, and all
the small woods adjoining, also those surrounding Kelvedon Hall, but not
a sign, not a trace of a fox, and hope at last yielded to despair, as single
file we threaded the narrow covert on the margin of the Navestock Lake
without feeling the least uneasy at being . separated from Bailey and the
hounds, who were then drawing a part of the covert some distance away
on our right.

At the end of the narrow ride was a locked gate, which defied the
united efforts of three of our most muscular stalwarts, when all at once the
music of hounds running fell on our ears. Bad as it had been not to have
found a fox before 2.45 p.m., it was maddening to he cooped up like this when
they had found at last. One final despairing effort and the gate was down.
Another minute and it would have been too late, for we had to gallop to
catch hounds as they struck over the road into the Horse Shoe Wood
at Rose Hall— everyone, mad, keen and sticking like glue to the hounds,
went in and out of that wood with them, Mr. Price on the left, his own
selection, being the quickest away from its entanglement and the delay
caused by someone falling at the place (of course the easiest one) which
the majority had picked out. At a good pace up to the Navestock-road :
just short of the Heath, they turned for a field to the left, and then made
for the small spnngs which run down to the Bentley Mill road, going as
fast through them as horses could gallop in the furrows of the parallel
field. The Master, huntsman, and Captain Wilson were the first three
into the road over an awkward jump by the side of the bridge ; across it
and clear of the opposite plantations they ran very smartly over the grass
by Bois Hall ; not a moment to dwell for a gate, straight in and out of the
road a dozen were over together, Miss Morgan, Mr. Tyndale White, Major
Carter, Capt. W'ilson, Mr. Giles, I could note. Hounds flew down the hill

14

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

and up to Cook's Wood, and two fields beyond marked him to ground — a
real, spafhling fifteen iiiiniites: a real treat to see Mr. Tyndale White cutting the
work out just in his old form ; a real consolation to know that Major Carter
recovered his hat. Ten minutes more, as Mr. Price remarked, would have
made it perfection, as the fifteen had been so good.

Now for \\'ednesday, December 5th. Even my friend, the Parson,
lamented leaving the second waistcoat at home ere we had driven three
miles into the mist out of the eight to be faced, but it was no use lamenting,
and when his mount was shortly overtaken half-an-hour behind time on the
road, owing to his breaking loose and cutting capers on someone's front
lawn, the seat of the cart was readily exchanged for the pig-skin, and the
well-balanced sixteen stone brought the capers to an end, and the old grey
to the meet at 11 o'clock to the tick.

R. T. Grubb on ' ■ Ardilaun '

"What's in a name .-^ " A good deal, thought Dr. Grubb
when he purchased " Brown Stout " by " Double X " from l\Ir.
Thomas Carr, of Waltham Abbey, and decided that so
aristocratic a looking horse was worthy of a more aristocratic
name. 'Twas no great stretch for fancy's flight, especially as
the Doctor hails from the Emerald Isle, from Brown Stout to

THK DOCTOR 315

Guinness's Stout, nor from Guinness's Stout to the title of
Ardilaun, one of those possessed by the family who brew the
most noted stout in the world. No Arab sheik was ever
more devoted to his Arab steed than Dr. Grubb to his
''Ardilaun." A day on his back is worth a king's ransom. Full,
as the Doctor describes him, of the poetry of motion, he is an
undeniable hunter. You can count on one hand those who
have hunted longer with the E.H. than the Doctor and not
find one that loves the sport more. So much so that he will

tell you

'Tis better to hunt in the fields for the health unbought
Than fee the doctor for the nauseous draught.

I have seen bigger and I have seen smaller meets at Sheering Street,
but never such an unexpected, never a nicer draw for a fox. By lane
towards Down Hall, and by field to Heathen Wood ; crack of whip in the
rough fields beyond ; so by friendly gaps to Moor Hall and its tenantless
elder groves. Very little undergrowth there for a fox. Single file over the
Harlow road to the snug little osiers near the line ; expectation high, dis-
appointment great, in the Harlow Bury cabbages.

The Doctor,* off duty for an hour, nicks in, looking uncom-
monly pleased, and by a masterly movement Thrushes Bush
was attacked from the rear ; no foot people about, no one
to disturb this warm covert ; we ought to have found. We
reached the old corner for a start in twos and threes, and
no one was left in the ditch by the road, and we went through
another five minutes of futile excitement ere, with the execution
of a right-about turn in the direction of Matching Park,
conviction dawned upon us that we should find at last, for
it had never failed us this season: but for the first time that
day faces grew long as minute after minute went by and halt
the covert was drawn. Was there a scent in covert? Not
much, I think, for the big bold fox that crossed the ride right
under our feet went leisurely out of the covert, and the
hounds could scarce own to his track.

Three abreast we rode down the wood to the " holloa
away," and we spread out like a fan as we cleared it to a
fair, even, and honourable start, as with heads up and sterns
down the dogs were away for the Lavers. Two small fences,
and the huntsman, Master and Capt. Bruce chose the low gate,
and Mr. E. Ball flew the fence— four feet higher, ten feet
wider, the chesnut would have cleared it in his free, rocketing
bound. A moment's halt to see hounds race round the big
piece of water, and turn sharp to the right, through the

* Dr. Grubb.

3i6

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

railed fence, down the meadows for tlie Leather Bottle Springs,
The right hand contingent came at it first. The rails were
a fair jump without the wide ditch, but the bay mare cleared
the lot. Her rider, f how^ever, unluckily caught his foot against
one of the posts, lost his stirrup, and with it his place in the
\an. The rails crackled and splintered as the next comers
went at them, and the huntsman was over on the left and
skimming the next fence by the small shaw before anyone else.
Up the headland, good sound going, and the ploughman had
turned the fox. Only one field was he baulked, and the right-
hand and forward course was the one.

'^:-:^^-^^f^:^^^^Tr-^4^^k

Envilles

In and out of the road, and High Laver Hall on the right
was left behind. Through the thorn fence and down to the
brook rode the van. The Master, huntsman and the Captain's
grey % were over together, and jum])ed into the road beyond
as Major Carter left it. Straight for Moreton Park, hounds
checked for a moment in a big rough field, and then crossed
the road. The Major first out again (I fancy he can't help
himself on that bay), but forward's the motto of all good men,
and all good foxes. Two more fields and some of us came to

t Mr. W. Scwell.

% Captain Brace.

THE nOUHLK DITCH I'.V MAN WOOD 31/

a Stopper, but jack, squeezing himself up like a well -trussed
fowl, showed how it might be done in twice without breaking
your head or a knee-cap, and we had Norwood on our right,
and hounds going straight through both the coverts of
Envilles.

Crossing the road near Rookvvood Hall, twenty-five
minutes from the start, hounds went into Brick Kilns with
a chorus ; and first in the van was the cumiing young man *
(I called him old last time, but I hate personalities) that rode
on the young grey mare, every yard of I)rick Kilns, every
yard of Man Wood. Never stopping for a second, but hunting
out every inch of his line, hounds pushed him out from
the latter, and into the laiic by tjic double ditch. The hunts-
man knew it. and had it. Air. Charrington didn't, but took
it, and went into the opposite ditch ; and Captains P)ruce and
Tufnell, with a few others, got over with varying success- -
while some, shall I relate it ? —

For a place they liked better they hastened to seek,
But the place' they liked better they sought for in vain ;

And they honestly owned that, had hounds gone the pace,
They scarce would have seen them on that day again.

Down the muddy lane or over the brook if you liked,
with Captain Tufnell. Hounds drove steadily on for Row
Wood, the plough riding well and the fences presenting no
difficulties ; through the wood and out to Cammas Hall
Springs they forced their beaten fox, but he managed to
struggle back to Row Wood, where this good run of seventy
minutes was practically over, for with no scent in the covert
they couldn't dislodge him. Nearly all but the two horsemen
had had enough, and not more than twenty stayed for the
evening gallop from Down Hall with a twisting fox to Man
Wood and back ; the old line losing none of its charm in
the repetition of a good hunting run.

Notes upon Parish Councils would be very appropriate just now.
The air is full of nothing else. Oh ! what a tale I could unfold of nomina-
tion papers rejected, of candidates elected by beardless youths, anticipating
with a vengeance universal suffrage, when even the infant muling and
puking in the nurse's arms shall have a vote ; but the chairman's nod is
infallible.

But many a hunting man must be pining for the sweet simplicity, the
real rusticity, the calm repose of villages like Creslow, a few miles from
Aylesbury (is it not in the celebrated Vale ?), where there is only a single
elector on the register.

This is Mr. W. R. Rowland, landowner and farmer, who, having duly
called the meeting at his own fireside, nominated himself chairman of the

Georgie Dawson.

3^^

I,EA\ES FROM A TIUNTING DIARY

parish meeting, and also rural district councillor for the parish. Unfor-
tunately he had necessarily no seconder, so that the nominations are invalid.
The only way out of the difficulty seems to be an appeal to the Local
Government Board.

If foxes are as plentiful at Creslow as those we came across on
Wednesday, December 12th, when we met at Thornwood Common, what
an Elysium it must be ; for with foxes galore in Gaynes Park, Ongar
Park, and the Beachetts, we were running from daylight till dark. A very
sporting day, an equally tiring one for men, horses, and hounds. Tiie first
item, thirty minutes as hard as we could go through the woods without a
check. I never saw a much hotter or steamier crowd at the end of a
gallop. I can't say, however, that they were all bubbling over with joy.

The Beachetts

Next item, a good bold fox away over the grass vale below Beachetts
for Barbers (we picked him up by-and-bye), and we thought we were in for
a treat, but hounds were back with another, and in vain the huntsman
blew his horn, for they were streaming through the woods right at his
brush, running him into a drain at Gaynes Park — I believe the squire was
the only one with them, and the whole field, including the huntsman and
staff, would have been completely dished had they gone out in half-a-dozen
possible directions — Shalesmore, Knightsland, Bobbingworth, Rough
Talleys, &c.

But everything comes to the man who waits ; so the hounds came back
to us by the time we had finished our sandwiches. At Barbers we got on
to the first fox, and ran him by the Rectory to Brook House, and over the
Park to the Beachetts, where we commenced another woodland hunt, which
terminated somewhat abruptly at the Gaynes Park gravel pits.

THE PICK OF THE KENNEL

3T9

Not much to chronicle at present, but quite time to get on your second
horse if you had one, and time to go home if you hadn't, for we had been
galloping more or less for two hours and a-half. Not more than fifty, I should
say, at the outside were with us, when at 3 p.m. hounds came away from
Weald Coppice on the back of a rattling good fox (Mr. IJosley's old friend,
I feel sure). No conjecture necessary about the scent, as they drove over
the grass towards Canes, and swung to the left over the clover, and struck
over the road — the line, I remember, of an old point to point, which Mr. E.
Ball won, I have forgotten how many years ago. " No skirting ! " was
shouted, as one of our smartest men" in a quick thing, or a long run, turned
sharp down the road at right angles to the line hounds were taking for the

H. Easterby J. Bailey

And the Hounds, Trouncer, Tyrant, Trimbush.

J. Turner
Shown at Peterborough

a I'liptosmph by A. Salvin Bo

Little Weald Brook. The huntsman, riding wide of his beauties, with the
Master, Miss Morgan, and Mr. Price, each taking their own line, were over
it first.

Beyond the church the fox was headed, and turning sharp to the left,
we drove over the stubble for a few fields before swinging back to the right,

Mr. Pemberton-Barnes

320 LEAVES FROM A HUNTINC DIARY

over a delifi^htful country which we rarely cross. A momentary check in a
ploughed field, and one of our best sportsmen '' was in terrible plight with
a staked horse — I am afraid, a hopeless case.

What a run of bad luck we are having with our horses ! Mr. ChafTey-
Collin losing a valuable one last Wednesday, the result of a fall. Wh)'
don't all hunting men insure their hunters with the companyf whose
managing director is one of the oldest and keenest followers of our
hounds ? They will be well treated, and it adds 50 per. cent, to your
confidence crossing a blind country. I speak from experience.

Samuel Fitch on "The Grey Cobb"

Crossing the lane we turned to the left, through the Talbot Wood.
Take my advice, and never coast that wood to the left if you can avoid
it, for you will need an uncommonly clever and free horse to do it, and
a pilot as good as Jack on the black. Turning to the right, over the
Ongar road, they ran on over the big rough fields in the direction of Blake
Hall, and then turned back to the right by Ongar Park Farm, and crossing
the Ongar line opposite the Fort, entered the woods near the keeper's
lodge, where the huntsman slipped us all. and most of us rode for Easterby

* Mr. Benton,
t The Horse, Carriage and General Insurance Company, Ltd.

WARE wheat! SAM -^2 1

(I wish his figure wasn't so hke Bailey's) ; it was really too disappointing
as we emerged from the woods near Toot Hill and discovered our mistake.
He had a good following as he turned into the fields by the side of
the woods. I fancy that they encountered some funny fences, and I know
that those who trotted and cantered down the road reached the hounds

quickest as they came out over it and crossed the open for Knightsland as

pretty a bit of hunting as you could wish to see, if you saw it ; I didn't, but
I saw Jack's horse come down at the brook, leaving me on the wrong
side with a blown cob. I saw a little further on a well-known* pink,
who rides a well-known grey, very busy pulling a rail out of the fence
on the further side of one of the bends of this tortuous brook, and further
down, just in time, a brown-coated sportsman squeezing through the
bushes, where a clever horse could scramble in and out of the brook.

While further away on the left, in line of the regular ford, came a
rearward contingent who had been left behind in the woods ; while further
away on the right I know of some who never went near the brook at
all, but, like Sam Fitch, stuck to the I'oad. It was the bit of wheat leading
down to it that frightened him. I'll remember that, Sam. Leaving
Knightsland behind, it was a pretty, if rather provoking, sight to see
hounds a quarter of a mile ahead with only half-a-dozen near them, but, as
they turned to the left, through some small spinneys before entering the
Beachetts, we cut off a corner and nicked them. We had been running an
hour, and most of us in the woods cried "a go ! " Running on through
Gaynes Park, only three — I am told young Miller was one of them — saw
hounds whipped off in Ongar Park Woods.

Samuel Fitch comes of a good sportino- stock of farmers,
and is a very popular member of the hunting field, and a very
hard riding one to boot. In the forty years he has followed
the Essex Hounds he has seen as much sport as most, for no
matter what horse he was on, unless led astray, he always
took a very forward position ; and when he rode his favourite
black horse, in 1879 and 1880, no one could beat Master Sam
over a stiff country. He has a son. Master Bernard, who
for a dare-devil young rider takes the cake — five-barred gates
in cold blood on any horse when and where you like. He
has missed his vocation going into the ironmongery business.

* Mr. R. Y. Bevan.
21

Gaynes Park

CHAPTER XI.

Gayiics Park — The Romford Vale — Mr. Frank Ball to tlie Rescue — Gamecock —
Boiuer Wood — Badger Digging — IF. H. Pcmbcrton-Barnes — Clayhnvy Wood
— Easter Monday, '96 — The Wire- Haired Terrier — Barking Side — White-
chapel — Norton Heath — What Sport ? — A Good Run in a Gale of Wind —
Braunston Gorse — The Charm of the Midlands — Back Again — Lords Wood —
In Spite of Fog — Ball Hill Woods — The Army and Navy — Cheating the
Frost — Nearly Too Late — Sir Charles Smith's Coverts — Short but Sii'eet—
Another Vieii> of the Beachetts — Fox Hunting Statistics — The Advantages of
the Game — A Conditioning Day — Little Laver Mill — Willingale Spain and
Willingale Doe—Capt. C. D. Bruce—Roy— Capt. G. M. Tufnell—E.
Tufnell — A Trappy Double — Sleigh Bells—Havering Park — -Edward Barclay
— Grey stoke — Lucky Fridays — M. Tosctti — Tlic Martyr.

DO you like a damp, misty morning- for hunting, with a
warm southerly wind ?

Do vou like a hearty welcome
meet ^

Do you like a small field, forty al
women ?

Do you like to witness that increasing- years
locks are not synonymous with failing nerves?

Do you like a screaming forty minutes on the grass, over
bank, ditch, and rail, to the piping notes of the lady pack of
the Essex Hounds ?

Do you like to go home with hounds at 2 p.m., when a
generous horse has had enough, and before the glow of a
vivid gallop has had time to grow dull ?

All this, and more, you might have had on the mid Eriday
of the month of December, in the year of grace, 1894, if your
lucky star was in the ascendant.

when you arrive at the
told, keen men and fair
and silvery

MR. FRANK BALL TO THE RESCUE 323

No occasion to dilate on the preliminary performance of a
hunting run over a rough country after a fine but cunning- fox
from Dagenham Wood ; but a case of necessity to hurry back
over the two slippery bridges, and up the hill by the side of
Beech Wood, as Jack, on the right, had viewed him away,
Left-handed you started with hounds on easy terms ; right-
handed you had to ride to catch them, for ere you started the
whip's grey was already jumping into the wood, and if you
had missed the spot you would have missed the run ; for by
the time you had cleared the covert hounds were a field to the
good and over the road, and flying down the grass lane
beyond for the Romford Vale, and horses were being sent at
the banks in steeplechase form.

A lucky turn to the left just short of Gidea Hall, for those
who had got away badly, another turn to the left, over three
upstanding fences — never go for a gate Jack when they
are running like that. A wide stretch of open country before
us, all grass, sloping gently down hill, and rising again where
a high bullfinch cut the horizon. The huntsman was the first
to pierce it, and Mr. Caldecott left his hat in the thorns ; down
hill again, and over the drop to the left. Miss Oliver unluckily
came down, and she had to scramble up the next hairy bank
on foot in pursuit of her dun and the hounds, who were at
fault for a moment, near the Grange Farm.

But moments are precious in a. run like this, and I am
afraid she never caught hounds again, though Mr. Frank Ball
caught her cob : over the Gallow road they ran on like smoke,
and only those who were as close to them as the Master,
huntsman, Messrs. Tyndale White, father and son, Mr. Price,
or Mr. Horner, sen., could possibly see them, for the mist
grew denser as the run went on, and the steam f 1^0 ni the horses
hung in the fences, as the game of follow-my-leader began to
be played in a very intricate country. About a mile of this
to a wood below Dagenham, Mr. White, sen., going to the
right with a large following, while Mr. Horner and a few
more of us stuck to the son and the huntsman, as they dropped
over the small brook into the corner of the wood, and squeezed
out through the trees. Two more fields, all up hill, and we
were in Dagenham covert with the sunk rails on our left. If
you didn't turn over them at once with the huntsman, young-
Mr. White and the Master, you were out of the hunt, and if
you didn't follow Jack pretty sharp, as he rode to the music
of the hounds (for you could not see a field in front of you),
you would have arrived at Rochetts a little too late to see.

|24

LEAVES EROM A HUNTIxXG DL\RY

what happened, but you mi^ht have learnt later on that
hounds had crossed the Dagenham brook, where neither man
nor horse could follow, and had disappeared from sight long
before the bridge was reached, but in these brief unattended
minutes they could scarcely have eaten their fox. l)ut if not,
what became of him ? Eh! Mr. W.H.P.B. ?

This horse, purchased in November, 1886, carried his
owner, Mr. W. H. Pemberton-Barnes (present Master of

' Gamecock "

the Newmarket and Thurlow Hounds), for nine seasons, and
for six of these he came out regularly twice a week with
fox and stag ; an extraordinary stayer, no day was ever too
long for him. In 1892, when the ground was particularly
heavy, h(^ ran second to Mr. G. Sewell's " Duchess." in the
welter point-to-point at Epping, beating Mr. Chaffey-Collins's
good bay, " Cedric." He lies buried in the Bower Wood, fit
resting place for so game an animal, since you may search the
country through ere you find a covert round which linger more
sporting traditions ; for ha\'e there not been fox and badger
earths in this sandy wood for fifty years, at least — probably jfor
centuries ? There has, I believe, been a litter of cubs in this
wood every year for twenty-five years, with the exception of

320 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DtARY

94-95. In 1895 a vixen fox and a litter of badgers were in
the same earth. A neighbouring shooting tenant wrote to Mr.
Pemberton- Barnes saying that he had heard that there was a
Htter of badgers in Bower Wood, and that he (Mr. Barnes)
would not move them for fear of disturbing the foxes in the
same earth, but as the badofers were doino- him a trreat deal
of damage, digging out rabbit nests, if Mr. Barnes would not
dig the badgers he could not expect him to keep or tolerate
the foxes, &c., &c. Mr. Barnes, therefore, had to dig them,
and a pretty tough job it was, for his eight men were hard
at it one day from daylight till dark, and 8.30 still found them
hard at work in the sand with lanterns. Eight feet below the
surface they secured three young ones, but had to leave the
old sow and one young one behind, for the sides were cracking
in, and by light of lantern, even for the prize they were seeking,
the risk was not worth the candle. The old badger got away,
the young one was smothered. A fortnight afterwards another
badger came into the next best fox earth some 10 yards away ;
him they dug and secured ; he proved to be an old boar weigh-
ing 2 6lbs. So both these two best honeycombed earths were
destroyed. In April, 1896, another badger came into the earth
that had last been dug in the previous year, but he was not
left long in peace, for on May 6th, 1896, they dug and got him,
a 241b. one-year-old boar, with very fine coat. Four days after
the owner of the adjoining property sent word that he had
a litter of foxes on his estate and wanted them moved. At
Mr. Barnes's request they were allowed to remain a few days
longer, and when smoked out they came into the earth out of
which the last badger had been dug only twelve days previously.
So that in 1896 there was another litter in the famous covert.
The Bower Wood.

To close the account of the Bower W'ood without oivino-
some short sketch of Mr. W. H. Pemberton-Barnes, who has
taken so much trouble with it in the interests of fox hunting,
would be to leave it incomplete. I feared that I should be
unable to give a portrait of him, as Mr. Barnes said that he had
not been photographed for twenty years, and did not intend
to be, not being good or nice enough. Mr. Barnes, however,
must permit me to say he is too modest, for he is as good-
looking as he is a thorough sportsman, and not many have been
associated with a more sporting event than the one here
recorded. The expression of my regret at this omission was
actually in type, but Mr. Barnes having since relented I have
secured a photograph of him ; he is now Master of the Essex

\V. U. I'KMHERTOX-HAKXKS

Stag Hounds, havino- taken the Mastership upon Mr. Sheffield
Nease's resignation at the end of the season 1898-99.

For years and years there have been good fox earths in
Claybury Wood, near Woodford Bridge. The Essex Hounds

W. H. Pemberton- Barnes

sometimes drew it, and where Chiybury Asylum now stands
Mr. Vigne's Harriers killed a fox, April 7th, 1891. Although
the Asvlum had ousted the foxes from that wood. the\- still

325 lp:aves from a hunting diary

hung about the Httle coverts below held by Dr. Sewell, the
attraction being the refuse from the London slaughter
houses brought down and thrown on the manure heaps.
During the last two years on several occasions Mr. Barnes'
drag hounds have hunted these foxes, once running to
Havering, where, although the fox was only just in front of
them dead beat, Mr. Barnes whipped off

Hearing that they were still there on Easter Monday,
1896, he took 4 couple of hounds, 2 couple of seasoned
hounds he had just bought from the Essex, and 2 couple of
his old hounds that Mrs. Pemberton-Barnes kept back for
her own pets when the rest were sold, and a wire-haired
terrier, and went to try and find one. After drawing all Dr.
Sewell's coverts and adjoining hedges blank, he was just on
the point of returning home when up jumped a whacking
great dog fox off Mr. Lamb's fallow, half-a-niile from
Wanstead Park and 8 miles from Whitechapel. Mr. Barnes
had his small pack on his tracks like a shot, and for twenty
minutes they stuck to him like glue until they reached the
boarded fence at Claybury, under which, by the scratching and
whining of hounds, there appeared to be little doubt that
he had escaped. Now came the turning point in this hunt,
for had Mr. Barnes set off immediately, having to make a
wide dMour to get round the fence, the fox would probably
have escaped ; but like a prudent general he determined to
make all his oround orood. Makino- nothino- of it, he was
movmg off, and was already some 100 yards away, when the
wire-haired terrier'^ found and bolted him from a drain close
to the place the hounds had marked under the fence. From
this point he had no respite, for the pace quickening (scent
throughout had been very good, rye and wheats were all well
up), they ran into and killed him at Great Gearies, Barking Side,
torty-three minutes from the find, a big old clog fox. Among
the fortunate few who were present on this eventful Easter
Monday in 1896, to see perhaps the last really wild fox that
was legitimately hunted and killed by hounds within 8 miles of
Whitechapel, we find, Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Pemberton-Barnes,
Miss E. Alorgan, Messrs. Ingram (2), Lambs {2), J. Hatton,
and J. Fardell.

How fast Hounds seem to run when you are not with
them is no less true than the varying accounts you hear from
different individuals of a day's hunting ; and to these accounts

'•' Bravo, " wire-haired ! " — Ed.

WMAT SPORT

329

alone am I indebted for any details of the sport of the past
week. F'irst intimation of the rainy Monday at Norton Heath,
" A solitary horseman riding back throuo-h the gas-lit town at
5 p.m." " Hounds had run right to the other side of Chelms-
ford." " Second horse not to be found, still out looking for
him." Second intimation, the 5.30 p.m. train for London ;
seeing a friend off en I'outc for Russia. The General,* deep in
despatches, looked up as the carriage door swung open, and his
eagle eye brightened up, as in answer to our eager inquiry,
"What sport?" "A very good 25 minutes." A glance at the

Norton Heath

adjoining carriage ; encore deux chasseurs'.' 'I his may not be
correct French, but it expresses my meaning. A tap at the
window, and the answer came readily to his lips, " The nicest
Gallop of the Year." The train steamed out. and the night
looked blacker than ever as we dragged back up the hill and
thought of what we had missed ; but bright shone the fire, and
merry looked the pink-clad one whom we ne.xt encountered,
deep in the enjoyment of well poached eggs and buttered toast ;
and if the mud was on his coat, the truth was in his heart,
when he said, " Yes, nice gallop ; nothing extraordinary, you

Sir Evelyn Wood, V.C.

330 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING UIARV

know, from \\ illingale Spain to Roxwell boundary, but you
ought to have been out."

Wednesday, December igth, Tyler's Cross. Egotistically summarised,
" Duty before pleasure, or virtue rewarded " — for I had to miss a favourite
meet, but as events turned out, a very bad day. The only redeeming feature
— fortunately sufficient in itself to make up for many bad ones — the return
to our midst, and to the sport which he so dearly loves, of our late Master,
Mr. Charles E. Green. May he never have to relinquish it again is the
sincere wish of us all ! But what did he think — how could he have felt
when a youth, not even a member of the Hunt, told him in Parndon Woods
to make room for the huntsman ? Perhaps nothing more than pity supreme
at ridicule so sublime.

Saturday at Hatfield Town, December 22nd. — What of this in a gale of
wind ? Everything good as far as I could glean on Monday from the privi-
leged few who saw it, among them being Mr. A. Waters and Mr. G. Sewell.
{Sic !) About 2 p.m. they found him in High Roothing Springs, and one
hour and ten minutes afterwards pulled him down in Screen's Park, the
line being by Dobbs Wood, through Lord's towards Good Easter on to
Screens — real good hunting, with lots of pace.

This was a g-ood deal better than fell to m\- share with the
Pytchley, with whom I threw in my lot that day ; though,
considering the gale that was blowing, they did a good deal
better than might have been expected, killing their fox in the
open at the end of 25 minutes from Badby Wood. The
\Vheatsheaf, Daventry, wasn't two miles from the meet, but
it might as well have been six lor the two other Essex men*
who drove into the yard inquiring for their horses as I slipped
into the saddle and started for Badby Wood, reaching it just in
time to hear the musical cry of the Pytchley bitches, as, borne
on the gale, and echoed from tree to tree, coming closer and
closer, the volume of increasing sound burst like the roar of a
cataract on my ears as the bitches tore past after their fox, and
swung out to the left. " This way," called a man,t whom I
knew well and could trust ; but the fox was headed, and we
turned back through the wood and left it to a very bad start,
as we could see a straggling line of sportsmen drawn out for
a mile to our front ; but the hounds were turning for a planta-
tion on the crown of the hill to the right, otherwise we might
as well have stayed where we were as to try to catch that
Heeting pack. But down the side of the triangle we rode for
the hounds ; through many a gate, over many a fence, and we
caught them on the hill ; lost them again near the end of the
gallop for a few brief minutes as we followed Goodall round
Staverton W^ood, instead of going through it with Brooksby,
Messrs. Loder and Muntz. But a mile down the grass-

* Mr. Walter Buckmaster and Mr. Rex Caldwell. i Mr. Darby.

m/i:'IA

Mc^\

^^

-^n

>^1'

^SX~N

o3- LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

bordered road they had come to a check and the fox doubled
back down the side of the hedge, and I wondered whether an
Essex scream astonished the Pytchley nerves — one twist over
the road and he was done.

Later on, as the gale increased in violence, we reached
Hraunston Gorse (a favourite covert of Lord Spencer's, who
was in command) ; a covert I am not likely to forget, as the
last time I was there, nigh twelve months ago, I had the
misfortune to kill a valuable horse a few minutes after we had
started, and I caught myself wondering w^hether I should do it
again.

There were the two weak places in the old fence if you
didn't care for the gate. There was the long, narrow meadow
by the side of the gorse, the scene of many a rush for Shuck-
burgh. They tell me that the gate at the bottom has been
widened.

To keep ourselves warm, as the keen blast swept round the
gorse in bitter fury, we all kept trotting out and coming back to
the line, which the Earl would let no one pass, like starters for
a race, as for twenty minutes from point to point of this thick
gorse the bitches drove their fox ; but he would not face the
open, and the day was spun out in one or two fruitless draws,
the field gradually slacking off, leaving few indeed to see
hounds blown out of the last covert. Five miles at least of the
ten home lay by field, bridle path, and lane. This is certainly
one of the charms of the Midlands, the ride to and from covert
over these wide-stretching pastures.

What a treat to be out again with one's own pack on Monday at Nasing
Common ; even if the day's sport was not up to the accustomed Christmas
Eve bill of fare. After having been jostled and jammed at every gateway
as we rode from covert to covert on Saturday in the fashionable shires,
where each one is for himself, some of the ladies being worse than the men,
what a comfort to get through a gate in peace and in good time, and with
good grace. Perhaps, however, rough l^oreas upset everyone. It certainly
made it a most difficult matter to open or hold a gate.

How nice to know everyone, recognise every face. Surely this is one or
the charms of hunting from home. I haven't much of a yarn to tell of
Monday. It was plucky of the masters (both were out) to let the hounds
go into Nasing Coppice, as a thick shroud of mist settled down on a com-
paratively small field on the Monday to which, for the third and last time,
I am going to allude. How many rode left-handed into the fog with Mr.
Arkwright, Capts. Wilson and Bruce, as a fox broke for Harolds Park, I
can't say, nor yet how many went to the right and could not find us again
in the fog until all was over ; but I can vouch that we had to ride right on
the backs of hounds to have the slightest chance of not losing them, and
consequently that they were hustled all the way to Deer Park, and they
didn"t get away from us as they made for Galley Hills, and running through
it crossed the lane for Monkhams.

THE ARMY AND NAVY

33.

The fog, however, was too thick for the huntsman ; he would not hft
hounds over the hill into the vale beyond — a vale of wire, it might in the
fog have proved a vale of tears. In the green ride near Deer Park we
laughed and chattered like a lot of starlings, waiting for the fog to lift,
scarcely expecting it, but it did ; but there was little life in the forward
movement, for there was small hope of finding in the Copped Hall country.

In Ball Hill there are pheasants, and as it happened there was even
a fox, and he was away like a shot for Nasing Coppice. On the road
between the two coverts we wondered who the pink was who charged
the rails, followed by a black. As it ought to be, as it was, and always
will be, in this merry little isle of England — the army and the navy,''^ but
the navy was the first, and the admiral showed the way into the road and
out over it to the right of the wood.

Ball Hill Woods

To the left hounds were tailing out over the half-dozen grass fields to
the coppice, and one at least of the hedges had been lopped and trimmed
in time, if the bushes were not all cleared away down by the side of Nasing
Coppice, and five couple of hounds were away over the common. With
the five couple we had the huntsman, and I would sooner go with one
couple and the huntsman than fifteen without him. So we plugged on over
the common, crossed the Nasing Farm, and entered Parndon Woods by
Mr. Burchell's ; splashed our way through these boggy rides, to lose our
fox, who undoubtedly went for Latton, and at 3.30 p.m. we rode home on an
evening which ought to have seen a great gallop, for there was an undeni-
able scent, a rising glass, and a nip of frost in the air. To all Essex men,
whenever they go out in a strange country —

Capt. Bruce and E. Pelly.

334 LEAVES FROM A HUNTINC; DI/VRV

" I wish them good speed, a good line and a lead,
With the luck of each fence, where it's low :
\ot the last of the troop, niay they hear the ' Who-Whoop,'
Well pleased as they heard 'Tally-Ho.' "

How We Did the Frost out of a Day.

With the ebb of Hfe the circulation of the Old Year fairly
froze in his veins, and the New was born in frost and snow,
fairly puttino- a stop to hunting or any thoughts of it, and
we resigned ourselves contentedly for a fierce, sharp, crisp,
three weeks' frost, which the farmers were, or ought to have
been, pining for — vide " Rural Notes " in Field.

On the night of Friday, January 4th, it w^as Lombard-
street to a china orange that there would be no hunting on
the morrow in our part of the country, and valetless men went
to bed without thoughts of airing the white breeches or dusting
the tops, for the streets were clad with iced snow and the
pathways were given over to the sliders.

But a change came o'er the spirit of our dream as the grey
misty dawn crept in with splash of rain, and the grass yielded
to the prod of a stick, and the headland of the plough to the
heel of a shooting boot by the time we had broken our fast ;
but still the roads looked dangerously slippery as they glistened
under their snow coating. It didn't take long to send round to
some neighbouring stables — Egg Hall, Theydon Place, Hart-
land Road, but their owners had fled to town. Ah ! how we
missed the telephonic communication from Theydon Grove to
the Kennels,* but the telegraph office was not far off, and the
replv came back within the half-hour. "Will meet at 11.30"
Hurrah!

How I should have jumped for joy ten years ago ; now,
however, I took it more soberly, but with news of the heavy
snow-fall in Berlin and on the Continent generally, none the
less earnestly. Nor did I hesitate for a second which horse to
take ; of course, the pick of the basket, f for he is as quick on
his legs as a cat. You want something pretty quick on slippery
roads. My choice is limited, but the mare has long, slippery,
sluthering action, which does not inspire confidence on ice-
glazed paths. Mufti and a covert coat seemed good enough,
for the north-east wind was laden with sleet. Tivo miles to
the meet — it took me twenty-five mimites ; and, in company with
two other mufti-clad| sportsmen whom I overtook gingerly
skirtinof the road where the o-rass offered the securest foothold

* Mr. C. E. Green when Master of the E. H. had a telephone erected from his house to the
Kennels, and now in '99 it is up again.

t " Berserker." % Messrs. Tilling and Fitch.

NEARLY TOO LATE 335

as it ran throuo-h the Lower Forest ; we reached the tryst just
five minutes too late, for we could see the pink coats on the
point of entering- the big woods of Gaynes Park. No hurry, we
thought ; not so the horse. He didn't know he was out for a
hunt at first, couldn't make the snow out, but now he began to
bore and pull to get to the front.

Skirting the deep lane which runs between the woods, we
expected to come across hounds in the covert ; but they had
gone on, leaving the woodlands behind, to draw Beachetts, a
covert lying some mile beyond, and had plunged into it before
we could get there, and only a whip and three or four horsemen
were doing sentinel duty where the roads branch off.

For those who know these woods, and the run of the foxes
— lessons gained by early cubbing experiences— //z^7t is a short
cut, and if zve had n't taken it ivc should still have arrived Jive
minutes too late in the side ride, in which at its topmost point,
where it commands the best view of the deep recesses of the
covert, the Master, Mr. Chaffey-Collin, and Mr. Howard
Fowler, were already grouped on the alert. Hounds found the
moment we arrived, and in less than a minute a ringing " View
halloa " from the south side proclaimed they were away.

What mattered the snow and the frost now, as we Hew
down the road and branched off down one of the side rides
just in time to see Easterby capping them on. How one
bungled and fumbled at the little hand-gate, dropping the
reins altogether in eager impatience to open it. Clear of
the wood, hounds ran parallel to the road on the left and
crossed into Hill Hall Park, but in less than five minutes
the excitement of a good start and the prospect of a good
run had come to an end — not, however, before the huntsman
as representing the staff, and Mr. Sworder the field, had
demonstrated that the frost was not quite out of the banks.

But there was little left on the plough, still less on the turf,
and the slow hunting run by Shalesmore to Suttons afforded,
at all events, the opportunity of taking stock of those who had
either the hardihood, good luck, or temerity to cheat the frost
out of a day. Who were they ? PVom the Harlow side : the
Master, Mr. Loftus Arkwright, Capt. Bruce, Mr. Fowler,
Mr. Steele, Mr. Swire, Mr Barclay, M.H., Mrs. Barclav,
Mr. C. Collin, Mr. Lyall, Mr. Hart, jun., Mr. E. Pelly, Mr. N.
Gilbey, Mr. Crocker. F'rom Abridge : Col. Lockwood, Mr.
D. Cunliffe-Smith, Mrs. Bennett, Mr. Avila, Mr. Sworder,
Mr. J. Miller, Miss G. Waters. From Ongar : Mr. Price,
Mr. Hull, jun. PVoni Loughton : Mr. C. ¥,. Cireen. Captain

336

LEAVES FROM A HUNTINCx DIARV

Wilson, Mr. Horner, Mr. Heinemann, Mr. Tilling; and later
on, but too late for the run, the three Miss Buxtons. I really
don't think there was anyone else — under forty, if yoii II count
thcni. Just the number we are always sighino- for, but not the
number we really want, or we should migrate to Devonshire.

Depend upon it, hunting folk are very gregarious, and a
regular field of forty would offer too little contrast, too little
shade and colour, too little variety. The cut-and-thrust brigade
would have no fun cutting down, nor being hung up by, their
best pals every day. The ddmtichds of coffee- housing would
grow wearisomely monotonous in their chatter to their small
circle, and the heavy gap-riding, or happy back-seat contingent.

>^y

'f

Sir Charles Smith's Coverts

would find no gaps to ride through — no clue to lead them on
to the end of a straight gallop. No, the happy medium is
300 subscribers, and forty of them out occasionally and 100
to 120 regularly. No grumbling at the small field to-day.
Where were the rest of our Three Hundred ? Saving them-
selves for Monday and W^ednesday ! Vain hope ; for as I
write the snow is blotting out the first, and looks like erasing
the rest of the hunting days of the week.

I suppose we had covered seven or eight miles of country
by the time we arrived at Sir Charles Smith's coverts, and

SHORT, BUT SWEET 2>o7

horses had fairly got their second wind before being called upon
to play their part in a stirring three-mile point in 15 minutes.
Berwick Wood after Knightsland was the sequence, and it
offered scant shelter from the smart snow shower which the
biting north-east wind swept over us. Fortunately of short
duration, it had spent itself ere P)ailey had thrown his hounds
into the twin wood in the hollow, jack had galloped on to
the further end, reaching it just in time to view a real varmint
away.

Hounds swarnied out together, and settled to the line with
rapturous chorus. Running the next covert on the right, they
had cleared the wood quicker than jack on the grey could
gallop through, though onl\- impeded 1)\" two small hand-gates,
and were a field away before the last of us had swung the
bridle gate on the outside of the wood — one fence out of
plough into plough, where a mould-covered tree-stump offered
firm landing. With hounds well away on our right driving
along in the direction of Greensted, they suddenly swung right
across our bows over an awkward bottom (some drainers at
work had evidently turned our fox). With only one feasible
place, the advantage of a small field fully asserted itself; one
after another, no one funked jimiping through the boughs on
the landing side into another ploughed field. Galloping up it,
we struck the road, out of which the Master had already jumped
before we could open the gate of ingress.

Leaving Berwick Farm on our left, hounds stretched along-
over some billowy grass, converging to a corner where the
fence ran thick and blind. It would take a rum 'un to stop
Mr. Collin's bay ; and with the ease of a girl taking her
skipping lesson he left it behind, as the huntsman and Captain
Bruce struggled through on the right, and turning sharp right-
handed over another ditch-faced bank into a ])loughed field
down which the Master, Captain Wilson, Mr. Swire, Mr
Barclay, the Admiral, and Mr. Price were making all the {)lay
they could (for hounds were going a rare bat). Another road,
I believe a gate into it, but can't remember; but I just caught
sight of I\ir. Swire jumping out at once. Did he corner
himself? I fancy not! But while the huntsman and half-
a-dozen more of us were fumbling with that gate out ot the
road, the hounds were stealing away over the grass towards
Little Tawney Hall. A rustic^had viewed our fox, and though
hounds didn't require his assistance, we did at the gate into the
lane, for the bars were broken, and he would persist in trying
to open it the wrong way.

22

338

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

Sharp out of the lane, over the briar-covered ditch, and
skirting- some small spinneys, we launched out over the
big grass fields that, intersected with timber-mended fences,
stretch down past Colman's Farm, hounds going a splitting-
pace, and reaching Beachetts, near the Hill Hall brickfields,
Ijefore the foremost skirmishers had risen the hill, Mr. Chaffey-
Collin giving a lead in over some low rails where hounds
entered. Racing on through the entire length of the wood, we
had nothing but their music to guide us. Unfortunately headed

The Beachetts

near the Gaynes Park end, our fox doubled back ; and putting
up a brace of fresh ones, the pack divided. We spent another
half-hour in the woods in fruitless pursuit without grumbling,
for the gallop from Berwick Wood had warmed us up, and
zue had stolen a march on the frost. Mr. Fowler came down
— where, I don't know, for there was no time to look about you,
otherwise a certain young lady * would not have confessed that
on her polo mustang she couldn't get near them. No ! it was
a cracker. Don't accuse me of spinning it out, for you haven't
had my statistics yet, and if this frost continues they are bound
to come.

* Miss G. Waters.

THE ADVANTAGES OF THE GAME 339

The Statistics.

Eleven million pounds capital invested in hunting, and six-and-a-half
millions spent annually in pursuing it, sounds incredible, but by quoting
freely from a very able article on our national sport, written by Mr. Harry
R. Sargent, which appeared in the Sportsman of December 8th last, I shall
have very little difficulty in bringing these facts home to the minds of those
most acquainted with the expenses of hunting and its unrivalled powers as
a circulating medium of the coin of the realm.

In the annual table of packs of hounds kept in Great Britain, which was
given in the Field of October 20th, we learn that there are no less than 364,
which includes stag, fox hounds, and harriers (it is worth noting that this
is an increase upon all previous years), and that the number of couples of
hounds which go to make up these packs is no less than 10,267, and that
between them they meet some 928 times per week. Now, the cost of
hunting a country, which includes keep of hounds and of the Masters' and
hunt servants' horses, saddlery and livery, also poultry and damage fund,
has been found to work out, one country with another, at £6=)0 per day for
fox hounds, £550 for stag, and £^200 for harriers.

Thus, a four-day-a-week pack like the Essex would cost ^2,600 annually.
As a matter of fact, it costs a good deal more, but there are others which
cost less, so we will be content with this average, and also for the sake of
easier calculation take the number of packs as 360, and couples of hounds
at 10,250. We will further assume that each hunt averages 100 men, who
keep three horses apiece, and that the same horses are worth at least ^80
each, costing 15s. a head per week to keep, and 15 per cent, on the original
outlay to replace, and further in explanation of the figures of the capital
account (the cost of renewal has been already dealt with), that each hunt
averages out ten horses, worth ^50 each, for the use of the staff, and not
less than ^35 worth of saddlery, horse clothing and stable furniture, and
;^io worth of livery, not forgetting that the ordinary man who follows
hounds cannot hunt without clothes— (by-the-bye, Mr. Sargent in his inte-
resting figures says nothing about the ladies who hunt ; he ought to have
clapped on another million under this head) — and that a ;^30 wardrobe
costing ;^io a year to keep up, and £25 worth of saddlery, with a 5 per cent,
depreciation, are figures well within the mark, and that even in these
impecunious times hounds are worth not less than ^Tsoo a pack (the Essex
would be cheap at ^2,000). 'We shall, without taking breath, arrive at the
following figures : —

Number In veiled Yearly Cost

Private Stables :

Hunters 108,000 at 4^80 ... /,'8,640,ooo ... ^4,212,000

Renewal of ditto at 15

percent -• .. — ••• .^1,296,000

Clothes and saddlery... — .. ;^i,96o,ooo ... Z540,ooo
Hunt Establishments:

Packs of hounds ... 360 ... ;{;iSo,ooo)

Servants' horses ... 3,600 at ^50 ... ;^i8o,ooo ^450,000

Clothes and saddlery... — ... .^i9>8oo)

360 packs ... 111,600 hunters ... ;^io,979>8oo .. ;^6,498,ooo

These figures are not at all overdone, but very possibly give rise to the
question on the part of many— Why spend so much money on sport ? Let
these, however, reflect upon the numerous channels through which this
money circulates. Commencing with the farmer, who breeds and sells
horses for the purpose, finding also a ready market for his best oats, hay
and straw ; of hay I -would remark that hunting men will have thc^ best. What
they dont like, and that ivhich so often makes them resort to the middleman, thus

340 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

robbing the farmer of a profit which ought to be his, and his alone, are the half-dozen
trusses, tops and bottoms, perhaps a streaky one or two included in the load, for whicli
tJiey pay top price, and which trusses the hay merchant eliminates.

Keeping, as the majority of hunting men, who have to buy liay, do, no
stock, or cart horses, they have absolutely no use for dusty, coarse, or
mouldy hay : it has to be thrown away. Therefore, let those farmers
whom it concerns take the friendly hint of one who knows. By all means
charge hunting-men tip-top prices for their hay, but let it be tip-top stuff,
keeping all the inferior trusses for the consumption of their own stock.

In the figures which have been given, the army of paid servants, grooms,
coachmen, &c., except those allowed to the different hunting establish-
ments, have not been dealt with. Let us not lose sight, however, of the
sum total of their weekly wages, which they spend in the neighbourhood,
conferring great benefits upon numbers of small tradesmen. Where can
the saddler, blacksmith, and coach-builder, find a better friend than the
hunting man, while more indirectly affected are the grocer, butcher, and
baker who supply the big house, which with hunting abolished would
probably be tenantless.

Collectors of poor rates, very often farmers or their connections, quickly
realise the difference of country houses without tenants and country houses
with them. But perhaps the modern Collectivist objects to the whole
thing, and says : " Nothing but waste ; if this money was not spent upon
hunting it would be spent upon something else more useful." Not at all !
The very foundation of an Englishman's character is love of sport, and if
he could not obtain it at home he would soon go elsewhere (we live in a
free land at present, thank God), Asia, Africa or America.

We have dealt with the money side of the question ; there arises another
of not less importance in connection with the hunting field, and that is the
splendid training ground it affords for our cavalry officers. We have the
authority of the great Duke for this, bringing out as it does the qualities
so essential for what has well been termed the eyes of the army — prompti-
tude, self-reliance, judgment and nerve.

Is not hunting, too, the life of the countryside during the long winter
months, as popular with peasant as with peer '? The ploughman and the
hedger all enjoy the fun of the gay scene, a.nd pick up many a shilling for small
services rendered in the field. It is the one bright spot of colour and life in
the dull dreary routine of rural existence, away from crowded towns and
their countless attractions, when days are short and nights are long, and
it will be a long time before a pastime so deeply rooted in the hearts and
affections of the country folk will be allowed to die out, though we may
live to see the day when it will be carried out under different conditions.

We have been frost-bound since I last wrote, but on Saturday,
January 12th, a bitter blast set in from the S.E. Although the thermo-
meter marked 7 degrees of frost at the time, even those who cared least
about skating thought that a change was coming. All awoke up on Sunday
to find the snow piled up in fantastic drifts and the ground still frozen. By
midday a cold thaw set in. Hunting was, however, impossible on Monday,
and the harriers could not take the country on Tuesday ; but on Wednesday
there was nothing to prevent hunting, though I was unable to be present
myself, owing to the sad loss of a faithful and valued servant.^

On Sunday, January 13th, a great coat was a burden ; on Monday it was
a necessity, unless you kept the machinery in constant motion by violent
exercise— horse or other. On Sunday sweet-scented wallflowers were not

' Thumas Butcher.

A CONDITIONING DAY

141

ashamed to look at you ; on Tuesday they were hidden under six inches of
snow. We might have known that it was coming on Monday, for it was a
rheum-laden wind that blew all day with steady persistence from the N.E.
I told you hounds would hunt on Wednesday, the i6th, at Little
Laver. In our country they managed it, though the roads were in a very
bad state, slippery as glass in places ; but in the Midlands— in fact, in most
parts of the country — hounds were unable to take the open before Thurs-
day. Those, therefore, who were out on Wednesday at Little Laver Mill
had lost no time in getting to work again. From all accounts, they had a
very useful day ; just the sort of day, in fact, you want after a long frost,
when the ground is in a heavy and rotten condition. Good steady hunting
runs in the Brick Kilns, Down Hall, and Takeley country, afforded some
capital sport. The huntsman during the day met with what at first
appeared a very serious fall over some binders, as he could not move his

tP^

4'.. '^^^■

rf^ V

fif^in/ ^k ' >

Y

Little Laver Mill

neck for some time ; and though, when once more mounted (I don't mean
his neck), it must have pained him considerably, he would persist in going
on. On Friday, however, when they met at Radwinter he forgot all about
it, riding at the tail of his favourite dog-pack for one hour and forty-five
minutes, in one of the best and most brilliant runs they have had this
season. There was a rare scent all day, and hounds eventually had to be
whipped off when running full cry, to enable the staff to catch their train
back to Harlow. Unfortunately, very few were out to share this good
thing with Captain Bruce.

The mystery of scent once more illustrated : Wednesday, fair ; Friday,
perfect ; Saturday, bad— at least, all those who were at Willingale on the
last-mentioned day concur in saying that this was the cause of a very
indifferent day's sport— the only item of note being a voluntary cut by a

CAPTAIN C. I). r.RUCE

34:

certain hard-riding gentleman. We had much better fun on the day in
question with Mr. Barclay's Harriers. In the full flush of good sport you
would hardly have written down Monday, the 2ist, as a good day, but it
was certainly not devoid of interest, and having to be worked out in half
a gale of wind, which blew with searching keenness from the N.E.,
was certainly as good as one had a right to expect. Quite an average
attendance at the rendezvous, Passingford Bridge, from which we obtained
a capital view of the rivcv Roden in full flood stretching!; southward for miles
in an endless chain of small lakes, the result of the heavy downpour of
Saturday night, forming a barrier which no fox was likely to attempt to
cross.

Captain C. D. Bruce

Captain C. D. Bruce, of the Duke of Wellinoton's Regi-
ment, is what he looks in this portrait of him taken at Gilston,
Park by Mr. Arthur Bowlby. A keen all-round sportsman,
polo, shooting, golf, cricket, hockey on the ice, he can turn his
hand to any of them. Between the flags and across country he
soon established a reputation which he maintained during his
four or five years' residence in the Essex country, where he had

344

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

any amount of hunting, his good seat, fine hands and iron nerve
bringing his services into much request by many a purchaser of
a new horse fresh to the country — a huntsman might have
voted him too keen if he hadnt been a soldier. When I last
heard of Captain Bruce he had obtained his majority and was
starting a pack of foxhounds in China

Mrs. C. D. Bruce on "Roy"

The Bishop's Hall coverts were drawn blank — the first time this season,
causing as much, if not more, disappointment to the Colonel and his keeper
West as to anyone else. We found at once, however, as we always do,
in Mrs. Mcintosh's gorse, a leash ! at least, a brace going away for the
Forest. There appeared to be a capital scent at first, and it was quite as
much as horses could do to live with hounds, over the heavy-ploughed
fields that lead up to Hogg Hill. These— and going one at a time over a
fordable place in the inevitable brook, which Bailey discovered (for none, I
think, followed I\Ir. Tufnell, who fairly flew it from bank to bank) — tailed
the field out considerably. In ten minutes we were within a field of Mr. F.
Green's house, and turned back towards the Forest, the fox being in view —
in and out of a scratchy plantation ; they entered the Forest, where for

CAPT. G. M. TUFNELL

545

several hundred yards its boundary fence is strenji^thened by wire rope
(only two attempted the obstacle, Mr. Caldecott and Mr. Sinionds), which
they did by treading the wire down, and turning their horses over in front
of them. The result ! both horses got away — one was recovered after a
short chase ; the other galloped to Abridge, and was eventually lodgetl in
Col. Lockwood's stables. It says volumes for Mr. Caldecott's stamina
and condition that after footing it to Abridge he was able to rejoin us before
the day was over and to take his accustomed place at the head of affairs.

Captain G. M. Tufnell on "The Pig

Captain G. M. Tufnell, of the Essex Rei^inient, is ci son of
John Jolliffe l\ifnell, of Langleys, and brother to Teddie Tuf-
nell, whose portrait is given on the next page. Ca[)tain Tufnell
looks v^'hat he undoubtedly is, a thoroug-h workman (for did
we ever know a Tufnell that couldn't ride, and ride straight ?), as
he sits easily on his good hunter " The Pig"," a bay gelding,
standing- 16.1, by "Wild Oats," dam b\- "Woodman."
Although "The Pig" was placed third in the Roothing
Steeplechase Plate at the Harlow Races in '96, it is not as a

346

LEAVES FROM A HUNTINC, DIARY

chaser but as a hunter we like to recall him, for no bolder horse
was ever steered over a country. He never turned his head
away from a brook, and if he couldn't qet over in one way he
would in another : of the truth of which statement he gave us
ample proof by the method he tackled a wide one in the
Shenfield countr\- in '96, and no one attempted to follow.

Edward M. Tufnell

Teddie Tufnell — how well he used to go on his grey, " The
Colonel ! " We heave a sigh that no portrait of this gallant
horse can adorn these pages. Never hunted by anyone before
he was 12, he carried Mr. E. Tufnell brilliantly at the tail of
the hounds, fox or stag, it mattered not, and in five seasons
only gave him one fall. Mr. Tufnell recalls that one of the
best runs he ever saw with the late Mr. Henry Petre was from
Hieh Easter to Parndon ; * and the best with the fox from

It sounds good enough. — Ed.

THE C.REY COMES DOWN

347

Lord's to Mill Green, The horse had a lot of pace and was
the best fencer Mr. Tufnell ever sat on.

The rest of the field, instead of attempting this apparently short, but
disastrously long cut, rode leftwards for a gate, and rode for the dead
certainty of being with hounds should they strike the grass country, which,
beyond the Forest, stretches away to Bishop's Hall. A few more cunning,
or more lucky, turned back to the right without entering the Forest,
crediting the fox with a natural love of his home in the gorse, and saved
their horses vastly by the manceuvre ; for we could not extricate ourselves
from the Forest in time to get away with them ; but we should have walked
instead of galloping to the gorse had we anticipated the refrigerating 30
minutes that would be occupied in bringing the fox to book in this thick
covert. Whew ! how the wind whistled and cut around that gorse ! How
blue and cold every one looked before the mort was sounded ! Mr. Brown,
V.S., was about the only man I saw whose circulation seemed equal to the
occasion, and he was cheerful enough to enliven the proceedings by some
Xi'onderful stovics of hi ind foxes.

Mrs. MTntosh, with her usual liberal forethought, had provided some-
thing much more substantial to fortify us against the cold, and there was a
great run on refreshments dispensed from the hospitable mansion, which we
passed m route for Mr. W, H. Pemberton- Barnes' covert. Bower Wood — as
pretty and quick a find as you could want, sir — with great scent over the
first few fields and park to the four cross-roads. On the grass beyond in
the Romford Vale they ran fitfully, but at times prettily, and if there was
lots of jumping, there was little incentive in the way of pace to accelerate
it. In the course of an hour's hunting we came across what looked very
much like a rabbit coursing party, and about the same time a very trappy
fence in the shape of two ditches and bank combined, yclept a double. No
better nor cleverer hunter to be found than Capt. Wilson's little grey mare;
but trying to clear the lot she landed with her fore feet in the further ditch,
and, turning a complete somersault, gave her owner an imperial crowner
and a prize-fighter's eye.

Mr. Cowee followed suit, but, on the principle that actuated Mr. Sorrell
in allowing the tail of his nag to grow in long and flowing grace, the bulk
of us turned away. Oh ! yes, we turned away — George Sewell, the great
Roly Bevan, and any amount more— but those that jumped that double
went home happier for the doughty deed. It wasn't the first either that
luck threw in their way. Back to Bower Wood : back to the laurels of
Bower House, back to hear the wail of the horn blowing the last hound
out of covert, and back, as I write this, to what looks like the land of
eternal ice and snow, for the froSt is upon us once more, and nature has
donned again her winter furs. Jingle your sleigh bells as you drive to the
Colonel's to-night."

A perfect night for sleighing that Tuesday when I
penned my last diary notes. The roads were frozen hard
under their recent snow covering, and very little effort of
imagination was required to realise the usual picturesque
scenes of winter life in Quebec or Montreal. Not a sound
fell on the ear except the merry tinkle of the sleigh bells
and the rhythmic ring of the pony's hoofs. Not a breath of

Col. Lockwood's hunt dinner.

-CTNx

Ml

. .J5#m4

-^X'^"^"^

%^- ^

^ III mi^l c^*^[t:Lse3

- ■-- ■ s»

EDWARD liARCLAV ^.^

a.r murmured throuoh the leafless branches of the trees
which like ghosts touc-recl oaunt and grim above the hedo-es'
vvh.ch only partially covered with snow gax'e clear dark lh.es
to steer by, as the s le.gh glided swiftly and noiselesslv alono-
under a winter sky literally ablaze with stars. Nearino- ou7
destination ue could see the flashing lights of other vehicles

Edward Barclay-
hear the heavy panting of the horses as they laboured through
the snow up the long ascent. Three degrees of frost on the
return journey, the wind coming up in gentle puffs betokened
a change, but it brought no release before Friday.

Writing about his best hunter, " Greystoke," when sending
me his portrait in April, 1896, Mr. Edward Barclay savs'1

350

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

" He was bred, I believe, at Greystoke in Lancashire, and I
purchased him at Tattersalls' at the sale of the late Mr.
Devvhurst's horses ; not fetchino- his reserve of lOO guineas. I
bought him in the yard from the Executors for ^75. He
was then 8 years old, and showed a good deal of temper both
in and out of the stable, but this he soon got over, and is
now a most comfortable horse to hunt hounds off. Over any
country he is a perfect mount, and has carried me with equal
satisfaction over the flying fences of the Bicester, Grafton
and Pytchley countries, as over the terribly blind big ditch

Edward Barclay on "Greystoke

and bank country of mine in Suffolk* in October and
November. Simply perfect over timber, he is equally good
over iron railings and iron-wheeled sheep hurdles ; over timber
he has never triven me a fall, and in Suffolk in the autumn.

* Mr. Barclay at that time hunted both in Suffolk and Essex with his
Harriers.

MR. BARCLAYS HARRIERS 35 1

over the gates, more often than not, is the best way out of the
fields. I consider him a perfect weight-carrier up to between i6
and 17 stone ; showing plenty of quality, he can gallop as well
as jump, and is a first-rate hack. He has carried me for five
seasons, and, until the present one, when I lamed him in early
autumn in the blind Suffolk country, I have never had him
laid up from hunting."

Mr. Barclay winds up his exceedingly interesting account
of this valuable horse by saying that, "although he is now 13
years old, I don't see wdiy he is not good for another ten
seasons, for he is one of those hard horses you cannot really tire
out, and is a rare doer." All of which we hejirtily echo, and
hope that when he has carried Mr. Barclay another ten seasons
that he will meet with another of his stamp that will serve him
as well.

Friday seems to be the lucky day in our country this season. Is it because
no hunt breakfasts are arranged Easton way as we have known them to be,
and postponed time after time on account of the frost ? But on Friday,
Januar}' 25th, if the roads were shppery with a morning rime, and the snow
still lingered in the hedgerows, the country was very rideable, and Mr.
Barclay scored a <^veat run with his harriers. They met at Warlies at 10.30,
and an hour later I rode out with one of my boys on the chance of finding
them ; nor were we disappointed, for after a very pleasant field ride of three
or four miles on grass, from which every \-estige of frost had disappeared
(no jumping, and every gate shut behind us) we heard the horn some
minutes before we caught sight of the hounds, which, after affording us a
momentary glimpse of them near Shatter Bushes, vanished from sight, over
the brow of the hill in the direction of Galley Hill Green.

A solitary horseman, doing sentinel duty by the side of the fence,
through which the hounds and their followers had recently passed, pointed
out the spot where a hare, probably the hunted one, had just come through
the fence. To jump the fence and clap forward over the hill was the work
of a moment. The Master was not long in responding to the signal of an
uplifted hat, and hounds picking up the line carried it forward into the
spinney below Shatter Bushes. One after another we filed over the gap ;
some jumped big, some jumped small, some scrambled through, some sat
tight, more sat loose, none sat l:)etter than the boy on the chesnut pony :
not my youngster however, for from his coign of vantage, the right side of
the fence, he felt free to criticise. He was a little hard on his old father (I
shan't tip him, he returns to school next week), whom he lumped down as
the worst of the lot, and made some very unfavourable comparisons between
the way the ladies sat and the men, coming to the conclusion that it must
be easier to ride a horse side-saddle fashion.

Of course, he did not know what graceful and accomplished exponents of
the art of riding in the persons of the Miss Buxtons (there were only five
out) he was comparing so unfavourably with his own sex. The hounds in
the meantime hanging about covert afforded an excellent opportunity for
discussing the morning's sport, which, by universal consent, was admitted
to have been of the most meagre description, there appearing to be abso-
lutely no scent. This, in the state of the atmosphere, I could not account

152

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

for — on the t^rass, too ! with a north-east wind. I would have wagered a
new hat that they could run, but, accepting the opinion of the majority that
bouquet de hevve was entirely wanting, and that it was anything but a
morning for pottering about, we turned homewards, but had scarce gone
three fields when the music of hounds, really running, struck on our ears.
It is a strain I can never resist ; so, turning back at once, we had the good
luck to view them coming along in full cry towards us. Leaving Shatter
Bushes behind without touching it, they soon placed a narrow brook

Mr. Tosetti on "The Martyr"

between themselves and the field. The Master was the first over, the rest
followed one at a time, and Mr. Single came down, losing his horse, and the
run at the same time. I quite sympathised with him as he toiled along
uphill over a stiff ploughed field after the hounds, and would have caught
his horse for him if I hadn't had my boy with me, and hounds were not
running so well. Ah ! Miss Buxton's groom had him, and hounds and
pursuers were slipping away over the hill and down a very muddy and
narrow lane in the direction of Nasing Coppice.

THE MARTYR 353

A slight clieck, and some low rails made us pull up and take stock of
those who got over and those who didn't. Of course the Master and four
out of the five Miss Buxtons, Mr. Drummond Smith, Mr. Philip Lee, Mr.
Tosetti, Mr. Hoare, Mr. Pelly (not one of our three), on an animal that
required a lot of persuasion ; but Mr. Edmund Pelly on his carriage horse
(foolish man, saving his good hunter for the morrow's frost) couldn't manage
it, and the fence beyond caused a good deal of difference of opinion between
young Hurrell and his mount. How it terminated I cannot say, for
I was too intent on watching the hounds, which were being cast forward
down the hill.

Mr. Tosetti, when sending- me the photo^niph (p. 352) in
answer to my request for one of himself and his horse to add to
my collection, wrote as follows :—

" The horse is likely to prove of more interest to your
readers than the rider, for he was successfully steered across
country by the former popular Master of the Essex Hunt, Mr.
C. E. Green, of whom I bought him when he gave up the
mastership. ' The Martyr ' has ever since done me yeoman
service, and in spite of my unfortunate weight and the long-
days he has to carry nie through, he has always cheerfully
responded to the call made upon his extraordinary powers of
endurance. I consider him a reniarkable horse, and he only
wants a better man than myself on the top of him. My first
hunting experience in Essex began with dear old Mr. Vigne's
hounds, and ever since the Harriers have been to me a great
attraction, and to closely watch their hunting is my delight."

Mr. Tosetti is too modest about his own prowess ; he does
not override hounds, but he does ride straight up to them, as
straight as either of his sons, who play for the Essex 2nd XL,
can clrive a loose ball to the boundary. He is a type of fox
and harrier follower dear to a master's heart, and they sinii him
up in the one word " Sportsman."

Hitting it off, they commenced running at a great pace in the direction
of Spratt's Hedgerow. Follow them, or pilot the youngster back, which
was it to be ? (They were running towards home.) Fathers and mothers
of famihes will be thankful to learn that paternal affection, seasoned with a
little prudence, won the day. Back down the lane, in which one of the
Miss Buxtons would not have been riding so leisurely homewards had she
known what was going on: Mr. Dent would have been hurrying a bit faster,
and the Admiral would have rammed the spurs into his brougham nag,
even if he had rammed them in for a fall, rather than be out of the dance that
was being waltzed to the tune of " The field 1 left behind me " (new song !
by ?)

" Hark, forward ! hark, forward, away !
They mean it, they mean it to-day ;

Away like a bird in the heart of the breeze,

Away for the Hne of the whispering trees.

Away for the open, and go as you please,

Hark, forward ! hark, forward, away I

riiiLLi'Ol

23

354 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

But going as you please in our (mine and the boy's) case meant making all
the tracks we could down the Cobbin End-lane, and turning in at the first
bridle gate to reach the fields just in time to see the hounds sweeping
along in front, and rising the crest of the last hill before coming down to
the Cobbin Brook below the keeper's house. Luckily bridged at the right
spot, and the right man to open the gate through the opening, we could
still, although not near the hounds, keep them in view by riding the inside
circle. My word, they were going !

" The Master in front on the grey
Flies on like a boy at his play ;
He counts the good pack speeding over the plain,
And grins as he looks for a skirter in vain.
He says to the whip, ' They are at it again.'
' Hark, forward ! Hark, forward, away ! ' "

PuiLi. POTTS Williams.

The good little Welsh pony gallantly responded to her youthful rider's
enthusiasm, but the pace was beginning to tell on her, and she no longer
bored at the bit, yet managed to keep galloping till within a few fields of
the end, when she was reduced to a trot. Right down the meadows beyond
the keeper's house hounds raced along without the semblance of a check,
and never touching a covert until they reached the park below Copped
Hall, where the Master, rather than disturb the covert, whipped them off
short of the Warren.

Home by 1.30, with the satisfaction of having seen a good deal of fun
in two hours, but mentally resolved that Young Hopeful must look after
himself next time, or the coachman must come out too.

Thomas Bosley in Wealdhall Coppii

CHAPTER XII.

T. Bosley — Weald Hall Coppice — Frozen Out — The Fox and his Enemies — Bandy
at Elsenham — Essex v. Puckevidge Hunt — E. Ethelston — The Break up of
the Great Frost of '95 — The Ice Carnival — Really good going, Sir ! — W. Sims
Horner — A Root Ditch — Poles Wood— One, Two, Three, over they come —
Jugged Hare at Sewald's Hall — The Influenza Cure — Bosley s Fox — In or
Over is Mr. Lobh's Motto — Fourteen all told — The old Guard — Pyrgo Wood —
Riding away from Hounds — Leonard Pelly — The usual blank at Forest Hall —
No Commoner, surely ! — Splash of Rain — Brick Kilns again - Full cry from
Man Wood — Essex for ever — Diana to the front — Moor Hall — 4. C. Oldham —
A Good Finish.

THE diary of a frozen-out foxhunter, uninteresting as it may be, is all I
have to offer for the week ending February 9th. Can anything be
more aggravating to the hunting enthusiast than to see, day after
day, almost week after week, slipping by in the cold clutches of the frost
demon, and the prospect of relief from his tyranny as remote as the cer-
tainty that February, the very best of all the hunting months, is being
irrevocably lost. Tcnipus fugit, and. in the rush and press of business, or_ in
the giddy pursuit of other amusements, we almost forget about hunting
altogether, unless reminded by a glimpse of hounds and their pink-clad
custodians at exercise down the country lanes from which all familiar
landmarks have been effectually erased by the snow.

Then the flood of memory comes rushing back, giving rise to many
thoughts, many suggestions, most of them pleasant, but some the reverse.
There can be nothing agreeable about barbed wire, which has the ugly
knack of twisting itself into the retrospect of hunting incidents, with as
much ease, and far more persistence, than it can be maintained in a fence.
Have you— have any of us— done anything at all to mitigate this growing
abomination in the interval of our enforced idleness? Have you flagged a
yard of it out ? Have you been successful in getting a yard of it taken
down ? If so, you will ride with a clearer conscience and a greater zest
when the frost disappears.

356 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

Have you kept yourself fit without tlie aid of skates? If so, will you
tell me how you have done it ? Will you agree with me that the effort to
look them out becomes greater with advancing years, and the disinclination
to put them on more marked ; that it is fatal to give up this, dancing, and
other frivolities, if you would not lose all the elasticity, all the freshness of
youth at one fell swoop. Will you tell me if there is any single recreation —
golf not excepted — that preserves its freshness and pleasures so long as
the pursuit of the fox ; and which, if you are spared to old age, will not
cause you to repeat the words of the immortal Whyte Melville —

" I have lived my life — I am nearly done —
I have played the game all round ;
But I freely admit that the best of my fun,
I owe it to horse and hound."

Horse and hound ! What a theme for dissertation ! Of the horse, our
noble partner, I have already written in former Leaves. What are you
doing with yours to keep them fit ? What will they be like when you get
to work again ? Lucky if they come out sound ; still more fortimate if
they remain so for the rest of the season ; but they'll not if you push them
along immediately after the frost in a severe run. With the disappearance
of our last frost we had slow hunting runs, and got to work gradually ; but
it could easily have been different, and some of us, at least, might have
profited by the hints that lately appeared in the Field under the heading
of " Accidents in the Hunting Field." But is it an accident to ride a horse
out and bring on its acute accompanying symptoms, to my thinking only
indicative of sheer cruelty on the part of the rider ? The wide opened
nostrils, laboured breathing, the legs held apart like so many props, the
flank heaving violently, and an utter disinclination or ability to move.
One consolation to be drawn that only a generous horse with a heartless
rider will arrive at this stage. The cow-hearted horse will curl up long
before he has had enough, and fall into a walk of his own sweet will, and
stable arrived, will lick up every grain of corn in his manger.

Hounds. How much we owe to them ! How little the majority of us
know about them. Further, how little we often trust them ; or surely we
should not be so ready to halloa and shout immediately a fox shows himself
in front of hounds, without giving them the chance of deciding for them-
selves whether it is their hunted one or not.

Never halloa a fox when hounds are running is a maxim that cannot
be too often repeated. To start with, they are much too occupied with
their own sweet music, as they throw their tongues on a ravishing scent,
to hear us, and can certainly tell much better than we can whether it is
the himted fox or not. In support of this contention let me give two
brief illustrations. When our own huntsman Bailey, previous to Lord
Rookwood securing his invaluable services, was acting as first whip to
the Duke of Buccleuch's Hounds, he was one day suddenly called upon
(the huntsman being crippled by lumbago) to carry the horn. How well
he acquitted himself the sequel will show. Towards the end of what
had been a very good run, and when hounds were not more than a field
or two at the outside behind their quarry crossing a field of turnips, a
fresh fox jumped up right in front of them. What did Bailey do ? Did
he halloa and shout and cap them on ? Not he. What did he think ?
I'll tell you in his own words, sir :

" I thought that it was all over, as I knew that I couldn't stop them. Well, they coursed
this fox in view right up to the boundary fence of the field, but to my surprise not a single
Hound (huntsmen always write Hounds with a capital II — I am not surprised at it) went
through that fence. The whole of them swung themselves round like a flock of pigeons, got

THE FOX AND HIS ENEMIES 357

on to the line of their hunted fox, and in ten minutes' time I had the great satisfaction of
seeing them roll him over in the middle of a road."

My second illustration is of more recent date. The scene, INIrs.
M'Intosh's gorse. " I remember the day well. Our hunted fox, pushed
out of the gorse, had made his way back to it, putting up several fresh
ones, one of which came over the bottom end of the ride, just in front of
hounds, the hunted one in the meantime having crossed the ride at the
top. Hounds never owned to the line of the fresh one, but racing up the
side, went at the hunted fox and very soon killed him."

So much for horse and hounds, so little, in fact ; what about the fox ? Is
he degenerating ? I think not, but he certainly has more numerous
enemies, though, I trust, none so bad as in Col. Cook's time. The Colonel
was once invited by a person who, he more than suspected, was in the
habit of killing all foxes that came anywhere near his coverts, to pay him
a visit when the ground was well covered with snow, so that he could
observe their tracks into his preserves.

He thereupon reminded him of the story in .Esop's Fables, of the answer given by the fox
to the lion, when he endeavoured to entice him into his den — " Vou will," said the lion, " run
no risk ; observe the tracks of many of your species into my den." "Very true," answered
Reynard ; " I see the marks of those that entered, but where can you point out to me a
single trace of ONE returning?" He was well assured that if a fox once wandered into his
pretended friend's preserves, he would never come out again alive.

But it is not from his natural or his open enemies that a fox has so
much to fear as from the numerous poachers who are after other game
with their snares. Only recently a beautiful vixen was found dead in a
wood near me, caught in a snare set for a rabbit. Twenty other snares
were taken up in that wood. What chance had she ? What chance has
any fox when he once begins to wander afield, if he enters a v/ood unpre-
served ; it is generally full of gins, and so you never find them in such
coverts, though many a fox comes to an untimely end, and few there are
that come to any age. No wonder, then, that we so seldom see the
historic runs which used to delight our forefathers. Look in the mouth of
a fox hilled to-day. Where are the ivorn-doivn tushes as black as if they had been
chewing tobacco ? You'll not find them ; but those are the sort to show
sport. Mr. Bosley has one. May scent be good, hounds fresh, and
horses fit when next we find him ; and may we all be there to hear Bailey's
triumphant whoop, for it will be a big run, and a grand one, if ever that
comes to pass.

*' And with my skates fast bound.
Skimmed the half-frozen sound,
That the poor whimpering hound
Trembled to walk on."

—Longfellow.

Nothing like two strings to your bow, and if one cannot write about
hunting one can about skating, but this week Mr. Humphreys, of Brent-
wood, kindly furnishes me with a third string, in a letter upon "The
future of fox-hunting." Mr Humphreys thinks that it is customary for
English country gentlemen of the present day to spend the greater part
of their leisure time in hunting during the winter months. Alas ! How
many at the present time cannot afford to hunt at all. Those, however,
who can still manage to do so rarely if ever hunt more than two days
a week. They recognise with the advance of civilisation that they have
other and many more important duties to perform. Quarter sessions,
county, district and parish councils, together with magisterial duties and
the management of their estates, keep them fully occupied, and if they
hunt it is from the same motives that actuate most of us, search of
health and recreation.

358 LEAVKS FROM A IIUNTINC DIAUY

AU work and no play is good for no one, and ninety per cent, of our
population have probably their own pet amusements. Hunting, shooting,
fishing, cricket, football, golf, bicycling, stamp-collecting, these all beat
bull-lxiiting and cock-fighting. Perhaps when we reach the Millennium,
they in turn will have given way to something more elevating and more
refined. The lion will he down with the lamb, cats will give up catching
mice, and hawks and magpies will turn vegetarians.

Of course a Master of Hounds is on a different footing, and it is his
duty and not alwavs his pleasure, that takes him out three or four days

Tresham and Guy Gilbey

Iron, a /■l,oiOi;>a/>h by Mrs. Tirshnin Clth-y

a week when his pack takes the field, but in doing so he is serving the
interests of the many. But the many go out when they will and for their
own delectation. Nevertheless, I think that it is more than doubtful
whether they would look upon Yeomanry drill, with its strict regulations
and fixed hours, as a satisfactory, though I grant that it would be a more
patriotic, substitute. Mr. Humplueys, however, may rest assured, if ever a
foreign foe should threaten the shores of our dear old country, that every
Hunt in the United Kingdom would send its <iuota for the defence of our
shores.

BANDY AT KLSKNIIAM

359

To resume my regular theme, which now appears to be skating instead
of hunting (we have not yet attempted to try and kill a fox in the snow
after the manner of Mr. Ashton and Mr. Bathurst). Let me give an
account of the great bandy match between two teams composed of
members of the Essex and Puckeridge Hunts, which came off on Saturday,
February i6, at Elsenham, the beautiful country seat of Sir Walter
Gilbey ; and further tell how at the same place and upon the same day
six Essex ladies met six representatives of the Puckeridge Hunt in one of
the most exciting hockey matches on the ice that it has ever been my lot to
witness.

No more charming place within the confines either of Essex or Herts
could be found for the exhilarating pastime of skating than the beautiful
lake some nine acres in extent lying in the grounds of Elsenham Hall. No
pains had been spared to ensure the ice being in capital order, every vestige
of snow had been swept off, and all the cracks carefully filled up — it must
have involved a good deal of work. Sir Walter and the late Lady Gilbey,
however, it is needless to add, never considered trouble and expense when
the comfort and pleasure of their guests and friends were concerned. A hot
luncheon for at least sixty was served in a marquee on the ice, and two huge
coke fires gave a cheery look to the wintry scene of bare trees and snow-
clad fields.

It was settled that the ladies' match should be played first, and shortly
after 2 p.m. they took up their respective positions. The Essex, who were
captained by Mrs. W". Sewell, were fortunate in winning the toss, and
decided to play with the wind, which blew with a good deal of force down
the lake. To make matters fair, however, it was arranged that with each
goal made ends should be changed. A word as to the costume of the fair
skaters. The Essex were distinguished by their black straw hats with
red bands, and white worsted gloves, while their opponents wore white
satin scarves.

Starting off from the centre with the usual bully, the Essex, aided by
the wind, soon carried the ball down to their adversaries' quarters, and a
well-directed shot by Miss Dora Prance taking effect, ends were at once
changed, and the Essex, instead of being the aggressors were the attacked,
and had all their work cut out defending their goal. Miss Tait, who was
playing back, in her eagerness to prevent the Puckeridge scoring picked up
the cork and threw it, a privilege only allowed to the goalkeeper ; a free
hit, however, was not claimed, and the game went merrily on. Miss
Gertrude Prance, playing very hard, carried the ball some way up the
ground against the wind, but Miss Emily Gilbey getting hold of it ran
down with a rush ; however, Miss Meggs, the Essex goalkeeper, stood her
ground, and amidst shouts of applause prevented her scoring, and saved a
goal, but only for a time, for Miss May Spencer was not to be denied, and
after a rapid run she shot the ball through the posts, thus equalising
matters. Give and take was now the order of the day until Miss Ida
Blyth, getting well away, ran the length of the ground before being caught
by Miss Gertrude Prance, who, coming right away past all her adversaries,
secured a brilliant goal.

The home team were now thoroughly roused, and Miss Ida Blyth, again
getting away with the sphere, carried it down. Miss Ethel Spencer scoring
the second point for her side. It was two goals all, and very nearly the
call of time, for the second period of the three twenty minutes arranged
for play, when Mrs. Sewell, who was playing very keenly, managed to
score. Commencing the last period, it became pretty evident that which-
ever side could get a goal against the wind would win, for all the points

BANDY ESSEX TIUNT V. PUCKERIDGE HUNT 36 I

hitherto had been made down wind. The Essex forwards, Misses G. and
D. Prance, phiyed up very hard, but were equally hard pressed, Miss
Emily Gilbey and Miss Dora Prance coming down a regular cropper, but
nothing deterred, they were soon at it again as hard as ever, and Miss
Emily Gilbey, playing most brilliantly, hit the third goal for her side.
Miss Ida Blyth very nearly scored after a fine run, but was stopped by
Miss Dora Prance and her sister Gertrude, who, more like a bird on the
wing than a young lady on skates, went through all her opponents, and
being backed up by Mrs. W. Sewell, the fourth goal was added to the
score.

Play now became intensely exciting, as, if the Essex could only hold
their own for five minutes longer, they would win. With the wind against
them we knew that they would have very hard work to do it, especially as
the hard and fast play was beginning to tell upon them ; but they pluckily
fought it out, and although Miss Emily Gilbey made a great bid to avert
defeat, luck was against her, and amidst breathless excitement time was
called, leaving the Essex Hunt winners by four goals to three.

No sooner was their match over than the Hunt teams rushed into the
arena, both sides eager for the fray. The Puckeridge were fortunate
enough to win the toss, and elected to play down wind, and in less than
five minutes scored their first goal. Who made it I cannot say, although
goal keeping at the time, for the cork flew past me like a bullet from a gun.
Changing ends the Essex soon equalised matters, and then began one of
the most stubborn fights I have ever participated in. Men kept falling
in all directions in their eagerness to save or score a point, and for twenty
minutes the Essex goal-keeper, Mr. W^oodward, had a hottish time of it,
as shot after shot was sent at the posts, and for something like thirty-five
minutes neither side could score a point, when at last Mr. Gerald Gold,
amidst the hearty plaudits of the many onlookers, drove the ball home.

Two goals to one, and another twenty minutes to play with the wind,
the Essex ought to have secured a tie. Mr. Evans made some very good
attempts, but was always collared by the backs. I think the Puckeridge
put on four backs when playing up wind and dispensed with a goal keeper
when they had it behind them. At least three times in the last twenty
minutes (the wind had fallen somewhat), Messrs. F. Bailey, G. Gold, and
R. Barrow ran the cork right up the ground and had a shot for a goal but
failed. How many they would have made had it not been for the almost
superhuman exertions of Mr. Walter Bnckumstcr, the ivell-known clashing polo
hack, it is hard to say, but crippled as he was, not being able to use his
right hand at all, the fastest Puckeridge forward, Mr. Gerald Gold, could
never get away from him, and, more than once, shoulder to shoulder and skate
to skate, they n'cnt down on the ice locked in a close embrace.

Mr. Audley Blyth, who was also playing back, saved many a goal.
Mr. Burrows, who played as sub for Essex, did yeoman service, and Mr.
R. Caldwell was ubiquitous, and played a very good game, but their
combined efforts did not prevent the Puckeridge winning by two goals to
one. It is worthy of note that not a single point ivas made by either team against
the ivind. For the winners, where all played so well, it is difficult to single
out any individual player, but apart from the red w.\istcoat one could not
fail to notice the brilliant forward play of Mr. Gerald Gold. I never saw
a man shuffle across the ice at such a pace or so recklessly. He was most ably
backed up by Mr. Barrow, who, combining weight with pace, carried all
before him when he got on the swing. The back play on the Puckeridge
side was perfect all round, particularly Mr. Tresham Gilbey's. The com-
bination of the whole team was excellent, and there could be little doubt
that the best side won.

l62

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

Essex Hunt.

Mrs. W. Sewell (capt.)

Miss Meggs

Miss Hattie Tait

Miss Prance

Miss D. Prance

Miss G. Prance
Members of the Essex Hunt : M
Evans, Messrs. W. and G. Sewel
Mr. R. Caldwell, Mr. Audley Blyth, Mr. H
(sub.). Members of Puckeridge Hunt : Mr

PUCKERIDGE HUN'T.

Miss Emily Gilbey (capt.)

Miss Ida Blyth

Miss G. Blyth

Miss May Spencer

Miss Ethel Spencer

Mrs. Tresham Gilbey.

H. B. Yerburgh (capt.), Mr. P. M.

Mr. W. Buckmaster, Mr. Woodward,

Blyth, and Mr. Burrows

Guy Gilbey (capt.), Mr.

Tresham Gilbey, Mr. H. W. Gilbey, Messrs. P. G. and C. Gold, Mr. H.
Gee, Mr. F. Bailey, Mr. Sanderson, and Mr. R. Barrow. Ten on each
side. Eight is perhaps a better number for individual play, but when it
came to taking their turn against a strong wind no one found any fault with
the number.

Edmund Ethelston

Writing to me in August, '96, Mr. Ethelston feelingly
remarked, " No one looks forward with more pleasure than I
do for the appearance of your book. It will form a permanent
memorial to me of the happiest days of my life, and of many
familiar scenes and faces that I shall not see again."

THE ISKKAK IJl' OF TIIK (iRKAT FROST Ol' '95 363

I trust that he is not the only one who will find these
ljaL;('s serve as links with a hapj:)y past : a past which certainly to
men like Mr. luhelston. who can use a brush with so much
skill, is ne\er likely to be obliterated. The three illustrations
of a "Meet at the Green ^lan, klarlow," "A Fast Forty
Minutes with the hLssex Hounds" (pa^e 183), and "A Halt for
Refreshments" (pa^e 225) are taken from photographs of his
paintings, which, subject to his copyright in them, he has kindly
placed at my disposal. " 'Twas in the early Eighties " I recall
Mr. Ethelston as a keen rider to hounds, when I remember,
he had the misfortune to break the back of a favourite mare
in a brook with treacherous banks near Maries Wood.

If ever you want to settle a frost, never mind how long
established, get up an Ice Carnival, advertise it well before-
hand, evoke out of \'our fertile brain the most varied and
fantastic costumes for yourself and fellow- revellers, engage your
band (not forgetting the commissariat), and if, when the event-
ful evening arrives, you can hear the ring of skates, the hearty
laugh and merry jest of the masqueraders, instead of the swish
of slushy snow and the muttered lamentations of disappointed
Sybarites, you may then, and not before, doubt the efficacy of
the frost cure. " let: in grand condition." What a mockery!
what a delusion ! But they tell me that this placard, which
stared you unblushingly in the face on your way to court
rheumatism, influenza, and catarrh upon the rapidly melting-
surface, was printed overnight at a time when the ice, from a
skater's point of view, was a perfect dream, not a crack nor a
wrinkle, but hard and smooth as plate glass.

Would it had been so when the local representatives of the
Essex Hunt met in the lists the doughty champions of bandy
fame in Epping, on the last day when hockey was possible in
the great frost of 95. Ice that looked like a huge sheet of
green ground glass, and hard as marble, yielded to every stroke
of the skate more easily than the crust of a wedding cake to a
sharp knife ; and it might truly have been compared to toiling
over the most sticky ploughs of Essex in comparison with
skimming o'er the well-drained and yielding pastures of the
Merry Midlands. But a match is a match for a' that, and that
which was fair for one was fair for another, so I would not
deprive the winning team of a single leaf of their laurel crown,
and own that the representatives of the Hunt were squarely and
fairly beaten. Mingling with the sigh of regret that our hardy
riders could not hold their own came the sweet feeling of satis-
facti(Mi that at last, late but not too late for a few brief weeks'

364 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

enjoyment of the spirit of the chase, the frost was breaking up.
How grudgingly, how slowly you will bear me out when I state
that not before Saturday, February 23rd, could hounds take
the field, and hunting, though still dangerous, became possible.

They tell me that a field of some thirty enthusiasts went out on
Saturday at High Roding Street, and that most of them fell. This does
not surprise me, but I confess to feeling somewhat astonished that even
Bailey and the Essex Hounds managed to kill a fox under such adverse
conditions in a preliminary run of twenty minutes, and to score another
gallop of fifty minutes before the day was over, for the banks were still as
hard as iron, and though a horse's hoof might penetrate for an inch or an
inch and a half in the middle of the fields before reaching the bone in the
ground, this would not avail them much when it came to jumping.

Hunting on Saturday, to put it plainly, was tempting Providence and
courting grief and disaster to man and horse. Even on Monday, February
25th, when they met at Passingford Bridge, it was by no means safe. A
frost of six weeks, which has penetrated 18 inches into the ground, does not
vanish in a half-hearted thaw of four days ; consequently there were very
few who attempted to ride to hounds — that there were any, greatly surprised
me, more especially as those who did risk their own necks and their horses'
tendons (it was very good going for hounds) must, perhaps with one excep-
tion, have seen the shady side of five-and-thirty. I am only speaking about
the six foremost men— you shall have their names directly — who really rode
the run ; but before mentioning them let me first give you, as far as a bad
memory and worse powers of observation will permit, the names of those
who, following the fortunes of the Essex Hounds, still survive the unpre-
cedented climatic ordeal to which they have been recently exposed.

Ladies first: Mrs. Bennett, the three Miss Buxtons, Miss Morgan and
her niece. Miss Jones, and on foot Misses G. and D. Prance. The men :
one of our masters only, Mr. Arkwright on his grey ; then alphabetically,
if you have no objection, straight from the subscription list : Mr. Baddeley,
Mr. Basham, Mr. Bevan, Mr. Caldecott, Major Carter, Mr. Christy, Mr.
Collin, ^Ir. Cook, Mr. Giles (he took a toss in the open), Mr. Gregory,
Messrs. Horner (father and son), Mr. Ketts, jun., Mr. P. S. Lee, Mr. R.
Lock wood (he also took a toss somewhere, vide a very dirty coat), Mr.
Michell, Mr. Morris, Mr. Nicholson, Mr. Patchett, Mr. L. Pelly, Mr.
Pemberton-Barnes, Mr. Price, Capt. Ricardo, Messrs. W. and G. Sewell,
Mr. Single, Sir C. Smith (on foot), Mr. D. Smith, Mr. Tufnell, Capt.
Wilson. Of farmers only a few, worse luck : Mr. Avila, Mr. Baker, Mr.
Mugleston, Mr. Saward, Mr. Sworder ; a small field, all told.

This, however, could hardly have astonished any one outside Claybury,
for I boldly assert that the country was not fit to ride over. I knew this
before I started for the meet, and resolved not to jump a fence, and to this
resolution I rigidly adhered. Others there were who came with the same
intentions, but directly hounds found, all their good resolves were scattered
to the winds, and a good many more rode to the meet with an open mind,
but found, after jumping a few fences, that it was not good enough, and for
the rest of the clay stuck to the macadam and their cigarettes.

If one proof more overwhelming than any other was needed of the
doubtful policy of riding to hounds on Monday last, was it not furnished
in the absence of our frost-loving welter, ■' who used to revel in such days,

* Mr. C. E. Green.

REALLY GOOD COINC. ! ! !

365

bringing, as they did, small fields and very often rattling runs ? Fortunately
for the prudent and the timid, given a moderate knowledge of the country,
a certain intuition of the run of a fox, most, if not all, the fun of the fair
could be seen on the occasion in question from the hard high road without
going out of a walk or a trot, certainly without jumping a fence.

Lest, however, any one should remark, " Why not always stick to the
road and leave the fences alone ? " without in any way wishing to decry
road riding, which has its advantages, I must honestly confess that even
with the ulterior object in view of conditioning a fat horse, one day of it

W. Sims Horner

goes a long way, and h'iU last a healthy Bviton fov a year. Commencing with
Curtis Mill Green, the bottom end of which was in capital skating con-
dition, a fox very soon broke away in the Havering direction, and then
swung round beyond the iron railings across Albyns Park, nearly up to the
Osiers, and so back to the Green, where I was waiting for them, perhaps
ten minutes being passed in the process. There was quite enough jumping
to satisfy all who were not of the same kidney as Mr. W. H. P. Barnes,
who, having jumped about thirty fences, and only slipped badly once, voted
it really good going.

Mr. Sims Horner (like the favourite hunter which carried
him for ten seasons) has hunted lon^'er than ttic majority.

366 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

He has a vivid recollection of seeing the late IMrs. Arkwrit^ht,
before she was married, being pulled out of a Roothing-
ditch by Tom Mashiter, and also of coming to grief himself
through his horse planting his fore feet in one of the root
ditches which made the Roothing country so formidable in
days of old. We have known Mr. Horner for twenty
years, and have always admired him as one of the best
sportsmen and most fearless riders we have ever come across.
He has not been so famous for giving high prices for his
hunters as he has been for making them go, and we have
seen him on a frosty day, with hounds running strong and
fast, jumping fences that positively made our blood curdle
and caused the undaunted Roly to dismount and lead over.

What a contrast between the usual rush for a start at the top right-hand
corner and the leisurely way we all made for it as the fox, setting his mask
in the direction of Navestock Heath, left it behind for good. Three or four
ploughed fields and a line of gates brought us out on the Navestock Road,
which the hounds had already crossed, and into which, from an orchard,
our active secretary* was endeavouring to coax his horse to jump, relieved
from his secretarial weight. It was a goodish drop, and the horse didn't
like it ; still less did he relish Mr. Horner's flagellation from behind ; so
over he came at last, and some half-dozen of us at least stayed to assist
his owner up. In the state of the conntyy this excuse for being left behind was
worth at least a dozen lost shoes. In the meantime Mr. Horner (not the young
one, mind you), without dismounting, manfully jumped into the road, his
horse slipping a yard-and-a-half on the ice-bound turf.

The only gap out of the road was literally full of those who wished to
launch out in the frozen fields beyond ; not for me, trotting quietly on
towards the Heath. I had a capital view of hounds. They were running
in splendid form, carrying a beautiful head, as they swept over Mr. Frank
Pratt's farm, and bore back for the road, Capt. Wilson s grey lying close
alongside, and jumping into the road with the leading hounds as they crossed it.

Just at this point Mr. Caldecott, who had been sailing along in the van,
had the misfortune to lame a very valuable horse. Luckily he had another
out. Turning over the narrow lane that runs down to Shonks Mill, in a
few minutes hounds came pouring over the road that unites the Heath
with Navestock Hall. It was while waiting for them to cross that we had
the pleasure of witnessing a fine piece of horsemanship on the part of
Major Carter, as he landed his horse over a precipitous bank, eight feet
high, into the middle of the road ; the softest place, as he subsequentl}'
remarked to me, that he could possibly have picked out. Quite right. The
Master, however, and those immediately behind him, would not tackle it,
but cruised down the fence until they came to a gate.

Turning up the Bentley Mill road, hounds came streaming across it,
and treated us to some very pretty music as they worked their way
through the Bois Hall coverts. Mr. R. Lockwood, sailing away on the
right, rather overshot them (you can see a lot from a back seat) ; not so
Bailey, who detected a few couple of hounds away by themselves on the
right at once. Crossing over the brook by a bridge, it really looked as if
I should have to jump a fence at last or lose sight of the chase altogether.

* Mr. Roland Bevan.

I\ Sl'lTK OF THE FROST, SIR 367

It was only a small ditch, but Colonel Fane's horse seemed to prefer the
bottom of it to the further side. It was amusin<2^ certainly to watch the
amount of hesitation and craning that went on after this one refusal.

Turning off in the opposite direction I had the satisfaction in a few
minutes of seeing hounds coming right back on to Kelvedon Common,
where there was a slight check. Noting one hound running under a hedge
by himself, it was very gratifying to see tlie body of the pack pick up the
line as Bailey cast them right down to the spot, and away they went over
the road towards Poles Wood. That road affords me the opportunity of
givmg the names of those who had been really riding to hounds all through
the run, names that I have given over and over again in the past — names
that I hope to give over and over again in the future.

Poles Wood

Never have I had a fairer opportunity of judging, for though I was
more or less on the road all the time, I never lost sight of the chase for
more than a minute until it -was practically all over in the Kelvedon
coverts. The pioneers had to come over some rails into the road, and a
nasty jump it was, even without the drop. Mr. R. Lockwood was the
first to negotiate them jumping off; his horse popped over like a bird.
Mr. Barnes followed suit, displaying much more agility than his quad.
The Master and Major Carter tackled them without dismounting. If to
these names I add those of Major Wilson and Mr, Caldecott, you will then
know who skimmed the cream, and who rode in the front line all the time.
By the time they left Poles Wood they had been running one hour
twenty minutes. The usual gate out of that covert had been done up,
and the jump out was not inviting. No, not after the rails were taken
down did landing into a bog off a slab of ice have any fascination for me.
I much prefered to turn tail and eat my sandwiches, even if I lost the
hounds, but I couldn't lose them that day, for Bailey was back again
directly, and the Curtis Mill fox has yet to be caught.

6S LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

Nothing happened to disturb the monotony of drawing covert after
covert blank until we reached Kelvedon Wood, when what might veritably
have proved to be the most disastrous event of the whole hunting season
occurred, for as a sequel to the long frost and waning season a great run
nearly came off, and if it had, not a man would have been there to tell
the tale. Let me explain. The river was still frozen over with thick ice,
which, though it offered a very convenient crossing for fox and hound,
utterly precluded horses following by the usual fords, and hounds had
reached Stanford Rivers before even the huntsman realised that there was
nothing for it but to gallop back for Langford Bridge or Shonks Mill, the
one a mile, the other two, out of the way. Choosing the former, he had
the good luck to come up with his hounds, who had run their quarry to
ground. Had the fox gone on (scent was good, for he was running up
wind) say, to Blake Hall, Bobbingworth Wood, or Ongar Park, neither the
huntsman nor anyone else would have caught them. At 3.30 we were
drawing Knightsland ; at 5 most of us were home, tired and weary after
such a long day in the saddle. Two or three more such days, and vets,
will be having a busy time of it, and Tattersall's will be besieged by
hunting men.

This world, can it show such a picture of woe

As a frozen-out master imprison'd in snow ?

His feet on the fender, he rides his arm-chair,

Even Bailey avails not to soothe his despair.

— Egerton Warburton.

In the heart of Leicestershire the frost has been very loth to relinquish
his grip on the turf, and I should say that the Essex Hounds have taken
the field a week earlier than any shire pack. So, after all, hunting in a
plough country has its advantages, Master Walter, and in fifteen years'
time you will be the first to admit it.

Hounds were advertised for Tuesday, the 2gth ult. Did Monday's
experience account for their not keeping the tryst ? for the country could
scarce have been worse to ride over. A by-day on Thursday, the last day
of February, was very well attended. Only to be out two hours, and in
that brief time to see all the fun that took place, was quite a stroke of luck,
and one which can only fall to the lot of those who hunt from home. It
required a mid-day sun to dispel the frost of over night, and one o'clock
had struck before hounds were thrown into Harlow Park. Finding on the
opposite side of the road, they were away at once for Parndon Woods, and
from the bird's-eye view I had of the proceedings, they ran at a great pace
for those coverts, and going out beyond, the few that had stuck to them
indulged in the very natural hope that they were in for a good thing.
Trotting quietly down the road with several other sportsmen, we were
passed by a gentleman''' on a blood-looking gre}', who had already had a
five-mile gallop on his own account round a ploughed field, and very soon
the pair were going again, and did not pull up before Nasing Common was
reached.

By the time we had resigned ourselves to being hopelessly out of it,
and only a distant view of a few vanishing horsemen remained to remind
us of the late scurry and rush, we suddenly realised that a good bold fox
had been headed, and that Bailey and the Essex bitches were coming back
on his tracks as fast as they could. Running well through Latton and
Harlow Park, they turned to the right over the lovely country which leads
to the Lavers. Having left Parish Hall, and all those who, like m3-self,
were too timid to jump, behind, they appeared to have settled down for a
real stinger.

* Poor Rex Caldwell.

JOHN WHITK TAKES A TOSS 369

What was there to stop them before they reached Matcliing Park or
Brick Kilns in the far-away distance ? — nothing but one snug httle covert
to break the Hne of the fine stretch of open country ; and yet in a few
minutes tliere they were coming back full cry — a regular steeplechase. A
prettier sight one could hardly have witnessed, and one in which it rarely
falls to the lot of Mr. Chaffey-Collin to play the passive onlooker, for he
generally leads the dance when the band begins to play ; but wisely had
he exchanged the good bay for the galloping hack, for good as the ploughs
might be, the banks were still hard and the turf was worse. But this
short gallop had only served to whet the appetites of the customers, and
they were eager and keen for more. One ! Two ! Three ! Everyone
of them slipped as they landed on the headland of the wheat field in which
we were quietly waiting for them. The fourth man did not. Mr. Sam
Fitch on a grey, which a short time ago, if I am not much mistaken, had
his first lesson in jumping at the hands of Mr. Fitch, jun., and was not
voted by that young gentlemen a particularly good performer ; but,
Bernard, it will be a long time before you come up to your father's form.
He has got the right enthusiasm about him that will make any horse go.
I speak from experience, for my knowledge of his prowess dates back
sixteen years. Quite a school followed Bailey as he cast round Canes
Wood. Feeling that I did not belong to them, and not caring to incur any
more chaff, I sneaked ofT home to keep an appointment, hearing siihseqiiently
with unfeigned regret that they did not find again.

Saturday, March 2, offered a choice bill of fare. Curry de Reynard to
be had for asking at Pleshey, eighteen miles off, too far ! Venison at
Blackmore, 12 p.m., well within reach at ten miles, and a hearty welcome
to all comers. Jugged hare at Sewalds Hall, 11 to 4 ; a choice dish, and
a select few invited to share it ; five miles by road, three-and-a-half with
the crow. Compelled by business engagements to throw in my lot with
tlie last, I dropped in after 2 p.m., for a very nice little spin, although
too late for the morning dish which Mr. Barclay's harriers had served up.
WHiat a chorus there is with this game little pack ; you could hardly lose
them in the thickest fog, and you can find them directly when they are
running full cry. Full cry it was as they came racing towards me near
Sewalds Hall with a hare picked up on one of Joe Tucker's fallows ; but
alas ! the melody gradually died away as the hare ran them out of scent.

Very few out, though ; some, including Mr. J. Pelly and his daughter,
had gone home, but a small field is a sine qua non with harriers — ^Mr.
Shapland, the host of the day, Mr. Hart, jun., Mr. Avila, Mr. G. Sewell,
Mr. Lucas, Mr. and Miss Waters, Mr. H. Fowler, Mr. Tyndale White,
jun., and Mr. Morris, and I think, you have them all. Scent, by common
verdict, had been bad in the morning : mid-day brought little improve-
ment, but an afternoon hare led us a merry dance. Jumping up out of
the same field in which I viewed one go away when Bailey was making
his cast round Canes on Thursday last, Mr. Barclay lost no time laying
hounds on, and they raced away for the Weald Brook without crossing.
Several of us being a little too previous and putting ourselves out of
court by jumping it, Mr. Tyndale White, jun., getting a nasty fall at the
next fence, a wide open ditch running parallel with the stream for some
distance, hounds suddenly turned left-handed, and none of us caring to
tackle the brook again, we had to retrace our steps, and lost sight of the
hounds altogether ; but we could hear them running by Sewalds Hall, and,
with better luck than we deserved, we nicked in with them as they swept
back full cry past Wynter's Grange, with the Master, Mr. Hart, and Mr.
G. Sewell in close attendance.
24

370 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

Running on past Canes Wood and the House, they got on some cold
fallows, and scent becoming worse at 4 p.m. Mr. Barclay decided to whip
off. Would he have done so, I wonder, had he anticipated the rapid
return of the frost ? Possibly, for though his hounds were short of work
they had had a tiring day, and he himself was feeling the effects of a
recent sharp attack of influenza. This influenza seems to spare no one ;
the man v/ho leads an outdoor life, and the clerk chained to the desk all
day, alike fall victims. Lord Lonsdale, master of the Quorn, was one of
the earliest to feel its effects. Everyone has his own special remedy ;
no one has a universal cure. Ammoniated quinine taken in the earlier
stages is very harmless, very cheap, and often very effective ; while a lady,
writing in the Standard of March 4, vouched for the efficacy of a
vigorous sniff of the drug periodate crystals into each nostril ; to carry
the powder well into the head, and to ease the pains, follow it up with
two teaspoonfuls of periodate of iron. Result — though badly attacked
herself, she awoke next morning as fresh as a daisy. I had hoped to have
wound up these notes with an account of a day in our Monday country
at Havering, and instead of that find myself tendering some very valua-
able (?) medicinal advice gratis, which makes me think it about time to
pull up.

1^

Wealdhall Coppice

First, tile evening gallop from W^eakl Coppice to Hiuh
Laver Hall. '

My clear sirs, why did you go home .-^ At least 150 of you
must have done so, and not more than 40 could have remained
to see the Coppice drawn. Mr. Bosley's covert has stood us
in good stead this season, but no better run than that of
Wednesday, March 6, has taken place from it for some time.
It wTis close on 4 p.m. when the hounds were thrown in, and
some half-dozen of us, including Mr. Frank Ball (why on a
pony I don't know!), Mr. G. Dawson, the Master, and Mr.
G. Sewell, had reached the white gate near the road in the

BOSLEY S rOX

371

hope of gettino- a view, if province at home, the fox should

break the usual line for Harlow Park.

There was no doubt about his beincr at home, for a shrill

view-halloa, directly hounds were put in, from the north corner,

and at the same time a warning cry of " Hold hard ! It's tally

ho! Back!" from that Old Parliamentary Hand, Georgie

Dawson, checked the impetuous rush for a start, putting us

all on the qui vivc. Hounds were now giving tongue freely

in covert, and the fox could be seen sneaking along the top

of the bank, the boundary fence of the wood. Breaking back

for a moment, we feared that the cup would be dashed from

our lips, and that he would be chopped in covert ; but no,

as good luck would have it, he was over the road and

half-way down the first long meadow before the Master

could get the horn to his lips, for Bailey was back in covert.

Twang, twang it went, but never a hound would come away,

and the fox had put another field to the good before Bailey

o-ot clear of the covert, brincrinor the hounds with him.
. . .

With just a word of warning to my friend on the right

that the insignificant-looking fence out of the first meadow

would not stand trifling with, we were away for what appeared

to be a most delightful country, and the Weald Brook to be

reckoned with. Right on its very banks hounds hovered,

threw up, and wouldn't carry the scent a yard further. Here

was a sell, and all your fun, my brave seigneurs, would have

been over for that evening if you hadn't had such an

extraordinarily good huntsman at the head of affairs. Quick

as lightning, in response to the halloa that came floating down

wind, he caught hold of his hounds and galloped them back

to the coppice. Although taking the shortest cut back

past the farm buildings, we only just reached the further side

of the covert in time to see the hounds streaming over the

plough towards us, and going a rare cracker over the long

meadow. It looked long odds on spending the evening in

the big woodlands, but we were after no ordinary fox, and

in his mind he had a certain big drain under Mr. Walter

Law's barn, which, if he could only reach, he would be safe

for that time at least, and once more would have the laugh on

his side against Bailey and the Essex Hounds, for if I am

not greatly mistaken, he was the renowned Bosley Fox, the

hero of a hundred fights.

Making straight for this sanctuary at North Weald, he

was fortunately turned, and hounds settling down to run at

a great pace, there was little time for looking about. Mr.

3/2 LEAA'KS FRO:\I A HUNTINC; DIAKV

C. E. Green, taking- his own line, was a prominent figure
in the van— fellows who take their own line are the ones
to catch the Speaker's eye. never those who follow in the
ruck. Crossing a narrow lane before reaching School Green
Farm, Mr. J. Felly's horse came clown [the ice zvas not out of
the bank, and the same gap had been scraped to the bo7ie in
the morning), and depositing his rider in the bottom of the
ditch, set off on his own account down the lane. Luckily
for him Mr. G. Sewell had just jumped into it on his right,
and immediately hooked the runaway, or Mr. J. F, would
have seen no more that evening.

Next crossing a rough meadow in the morning horses'
hoofs had rattled where they now sank deep in through the
crust (the thaw was beginning- to tell). A nice little rushy
fence at the bottom, a scramble up hi// tJiroiig/t an ice-bound
corner, a sharp turn to the right, a slippery bank, and Mr.
William Law, of School Green F'arm, was cheering us on,
cap in hand, with a cry of "he's nearly done," undoubtedly
hoping that his arch-enemy, the Old Bosley Fox, would
be caught at last.

Hounds must have been close at him here, for they com-
menced running much faster, fence after fence, to the right,
each and all requiring a hunter, or a gallop of loo yards down
a lane and a sharp turn up the road ; and hounds were
streaming across it and down the well-furrowed ploughed
field beyond, each man in his own furrow. That and all the
ploughed fields we crossed in the run rode like a flower
garden, or there would have been but small chance even for
those best mounted (Bailey was riding a rare good one, a
black) of living with hounds at the pace they were going.

Those who did not leave the road before reaching the
Talbot, were only just in time to see hounds cross it, and
those who rode in the wake of the pack were either too
excited, too eager, or too far behind to catch Mr. Green's
horse, which having come down a rare crump at a trappy
blind ditch, made for the Moreton road of his own sweet
will, and although one of the whips set off in hot pursuit, he
was not caught for many a mile — he ought to have been
nabbed at the gate. This was a rare bad stroke of luck for
his owner, as it cost him the run, one of the very few he has
dropped in for this season, as he didn't make a start till
Christmas.

We were after no woodland fox or he would have slipped
through Bobbingworth Wood on the right, and put Capt.

IN OR OVER TS MR. LOBB's MOTTO 373

Ricardo and one or two more in the rioht track. He didn't
even touch it, but turned sharp to the left, and although Mr.
Willie Sewell implored me not to go to the left and swore
I was wrong, I just told him that the cut of Mr. Chaffey-
Collin's brown coat was good enough for me, and over the
fence we went in hot pursuit. My word ! they were ding-
donging ; only fi\e anywhere near them, and Mr. Collin
with a clear lead of the lot.

The fences now came thick as peas in a pudding, and
made me long for the morning moimt. my good brown horse ;
Mr. Savill too had a handful, for the chestnut was boring
and rushing at the wrong place in every fence, and had to
be slewed round, and sent along to recover lost ground.
Close to Mr. Collin, the Master (Mr. Arkwright), Bailey,
Capt. Wilson, and Mr. Newman Gilbey. Down to the
Weald Brook we steered, where it ran neither sluggish nor
idle, but where its steep, broken banks told you plain, if you
meant it, the less you would like the longer you looked.
Brothers Sewell and Mr. J. Pelly were over in a line in hard
chase of the leaders. Let me confess to a voluntary on the
right side with the reins in my hands, and a vivid glimpse
of the top of Mr. Lobb's hat, as his pony, done to a turn,
sluthered down to the bottom, and was only salvaged on the
wrong side at the cost of a nasty cut over the eye. "In or
over" is Mr. Lobb's motto, but " in " it was this time. More
power to him next time, with a better mount and greater
speed, for his heart is in the right place.

But he had more than one brother in misfortune, for that
corner settled the account of a good many who came the
circumnavigation game, for cunning as they might be, they
never got on those familiar terms so necessary for sticking
to a pack who are running to kill in a straight line over a
strongly fenced country. Your only chance when thrown out
— I have tried so often to do the cunning and always failed —
is to ride on in a straight line in the tracks of the leaders.

A mile farther on, where down in the meadow the same
or another brook ran wide as a river, there was a slight check.
Just a pause, jus^ one of those opportune breathino- times ivhicJi
you never get in a point-topoint steeplechase, but ahvays in
the fastest foxhunting rtui ; and once more the huntsman's
unrivalled gift asserted itself. With a "Steady, just a moment,
gentlemen," hounds picked up the line on the further bank
and carried it down by the side of the brook to the road which
connects Ilinson's corner with Bobbinoworth Windmill. A

374 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

drop out of the field over the ditch into the road sharp over
the strong white bridge — a good colour on a dark night when
the brook is in full flood — and with " Mind the colts," and
" Last man through — (it wasn't me) — shut the gate," and we
wormed our way round the big pond in the meadow as the
hounds streaked through the fence, over the steep bank on
the left.

Exchanging grass for plough, we struck the main road
above the rectory by Mr. Chaplin's farm. Mr. Sewell, missing
the gate, had to take the drop over the rail, and left the road
by jumping the high bank out, hounds racing on for Magdalen
Laver Hall over a succession of well-drained pastures. Just
short of the Hall my mate viewed him as he made his last
turn, and with a yell of " Yo-onder he goes'' as he toiled along
under the hedge, weary and travel-stained, his doom was
sealed: and within sight of High Laver Hall, far away from
any covert or earths, this robber of hen-roosts, this disturber
of good housewives' rest, paid the penalty of his thievish
propensities. Five and thirty minutes over a country we
rarely cross, and one of the best lines that could possibly
have been selected. Not a yard of wire if you stuck to the
pack, sir, whatever some who were thrown out may have
to excuse themselves on that score. Seven miles as hounds
ran, five as the crow flies ; you can't make it less ; you couldn't
want more. No wonder then that the hot, flushed faces of
those who had struggled to the end beamed and bubbled with
joy — 14 all told, including the Hunt servants, and none of
them strangers, if you will look at the list : — The Master,
Bailey, and Jack, Mr. Chaffey-Collin, Messrs. W. and G.
Sewell, Capt. Wilson, Mr. Charrington, Mr. C, Savill, Mr.
Fowler, Mr. A. Pelly, Mr. J. Felly, Mr. Newman Gilbey.

Last Monday, at Havering, a heavenly day for riding about, a tearing
scent with a good fox from Mrs. Mcintosh's gorse to Hogg Hill, through
Mr. F. Green's grounds, over a blackguardly country — excuse strong
language, but the ploughs were awful, no fences, wire around the Forest.
Programme : two men stand on it while the huntsman and a few more
jump it, until a pair of hind legs hook it up again. So up to Lambourne
End, back to the Forest, to the gorse, to the shrubberies, for a kill, all
within the hour : 150 entertained at an al-fresco luncheon by Mrs.
Mcintosh (these are the sort of luncheons that are popular). Nothing
less than going head over heels into a pond — while his horse drank as if
he had not tasted any liquid for a week — would satisfy the thirst of a
well-known tradesman from Romford. One more incident, and I have
done with Monday.

Nothing gives me greater pleasure than recording how, when the
occasion ayises, the Old Guavd can give the young guard a stone and a beating.

THE OlA) Gl'AUn

375

Didn't we see it, sir, when the bitch pack left Pyrgo Wood in the mid-
day sun to a screaming scent, and crossing the road flashed down the
side of a fence which none of the thrusters would tackle ? Didn't we
ride our hearts out trying to catch the man who, with four followers, had
grasped the situation in a moment, and never allowed the first easy
fence out of the road to entice him on the wrong path, but boldly
selecting a big place in the first two fences, secured a lead which no one
in Essex would have wrested from him had hounds held on instead of
coming to a check on the green ? No, it is not the first time we have
seen Mr. Ned Ball do the trick. I hope that it won't be the last, but it
makes me blush to write how I saw Messrs. E. C, F. T., M. C, R. L.,
H. J,, H. P., L. H., L. A. — in fact, the whole alphabet three times over —
RIDING AWAY FROM HouxDs down a fence — thick, it is true, but quite
capable of having a hole knocked in it anywhere. Deeply I sympathised
with them in that splashy and muddy gallop down that long and boggy

y

Pyrgo Wood

lane that led to Curtis Mill Green, where hounds had checked, for a
fellow-feeling makes one wondrous kind.

Is it true, Mr. R. Lockwood, that we are to be indebted to your good
offices for a gate into Hainault Forest, where hounds generally strike it ?
If so, we will drink your very good health.

Hounds would need to have gone very fast and very straight to have
slipped away from last Saturday's field, for there was a very keen, hard-
riding, well-mounted band of pursuers of both sexes out, who were not
likely to be stopped by any fence to be met with in a race across the
Roothings, which were perhaps at their best on the day in question. The
ditches were clear, the going perfection ; it was tantalising not getting a

3/6 Leaves from a huntinc diary

run after all. \\e]\, if you will only exercise a little patience, my dear
sirs, you will have a chance of loosing off steam, and getting rid of all
your exuberant energy in a four-mile gallop across the Roothings on
Saturday next. For are not the much-talked-of point-to-point races to
come off then ? If ladies were allowed to compete, I could mention
at least three who were out last Saturday, any one of whom it would
have been pretty safe to have named as a winner.

Can you guess the selection from the following list ? Mrs. Bowlby,
Mrs. Crocker, Misses Capel-Cure, Miss Jones, Mrs. Price, Mrs. R. Smith,
Miss Gilbey, Mrs. Routledge, Miss Blyth, Miss Morgan, Miss Gosling,
Mrs. Upton, Miss Pelly, Miss Steele, Miss Quare. Failing that, can you
pick out the first man from the following male riders — I confess an
imperfect list, as the Chelmsford side is almost terra incognita to a
benighted southerner ? But I am going to hazard one winner and charge
nothing for the tip. Mr. L. Arkvvright, Mr. W. Baddeley, Messrs. E. and
F. Ball, Mr. Phil Barker (one of the finest horsemen in England), Mr.
Basham, Mr. Ford Barclay, Mr. Brindle, Captain Bruce, Mr. G. Buxton,
Mr. E. Caldecott, Mr. W. S. Carr, Mr. Charrington, Major Carter, Messrs.
Christy (4), Mr. C. Colhn, Rev. L. Capel-Cure, Mr. G. Dawson, Mr.
Dunlop, Mr. E. Docwra, Mr. A. J. Edwards, Colo-el Fane, Mr. H. W.
Gilbey, Mr. Guy Gilbey, Mr. Goshng (late Master of the Puckeridge), Mr.
D. Gingell, Mr. Gold, Mr. T. Harrison, Mr. Heinemann, Mr. H. Horner,
Mr. H. E. Jones, Mr. P. S. Lee, Mr. R. C. Lyall, Mr. J. INIarriage, Mr.
W. Nicholson, Mr. A. C. Oldham, Messrs. Pelly (three), Mr. Sheffield
Neave, M.S.H., Mr. H. J. Price, Mr. E. Quare, Captain Ricardo, Messrs.
Ridley (two), Mr. Roffey, Mr. H. Savill, m7. Steele, Rev. John Steele, Mr.
J. Sands. Messrs. W. and G. Sewell, Mr. T. Sedgwick, Mr. H. Sworder,
Mr. Swire, Messrs. Usborne (father and son), Mr. Waters, General Wood,
V.C, Mr. Millbank.

I have little indeed to tell you of White Roothing, Saturday, March
i6th, the mid-Saturday of the blustering month of March, but the little
is all very agreeable. We all rode about in good spirits, for, say what you
like, and think what you will, the weathercock has a good deal to do with
your own and your animal's feelings. As balmy as May ! Quite ; only
one drawback, we did not pass the portals of any of our hospitable friends
— (Mr. L. Pelly did not tell us where he and his daughter got the hot
coftee and cake) — and it was hardly the day to come out without a flask,
however small ; but anything stronger than weak whiskey-and-water with
a suspicion of lemon must have been a snare and delusion.

My mate declared that the orange gin got into his head. If so, it was
just at the right moment, for we found directly afterwards. I was very
much struck with the deliciously cool appearance of two grey habits, and
only wonder that all our Essex ladies do not adopt this delicate shade
for the dusty days of latter hunting. They are most chic. The straw
hats, too, must have been as delightfully cool as they were convincingly
appropriate. The best bit of riding that came under personal observation
followed after we left Garnish, to which we had run our fox at a very smart
pace from Lord's. The one-at-a-time business into a road at the only weak
place, with 100 waiting for their turn, did not suit our gallant General, Sir
Evelyn Wood, V.C. (who, all will be glad to hear, is pretty nearly con-
valescent from his recent severe attack of pneumonia), for he resolutely
charged the thickest place in a corner, where, at all events, the landing
was fairly soft, and picking himself up from the inevitable fall put a good
many hundred yards to the good between those who had looked on,
admired, and turned away. I hate jumping into a road! Don't you?

T,KONARI) PELLV ON GKAi\(;KR

611

But it paid well this time. Which side of the brook at Waples Mill did
you go ? One was wrong and the other no good.

Who disturbed that fox in the tree in Screens Park, which had been
harboured for a fortnight, ten minutes too soon ? And how was it that
hounds could run heel like wildhre, and only sulk on the forward line after
they were turned? Into the lane on his knees, and out on his head the
other side, would have unseated all but half-dozen men in our hunt, and a
tight grip of the back of the saddle— which of us always does this ?— would
have been of no use. I wish Mr. Usborne, M.P., would wear a hat-guard
—he gave up his spurs long ago to his son—or else pay his debts. A
promissory note for is. 6d. for a recovered hat may be a sign of the times,
but can't compare with a ready-money transaction of a shilling.

Leonard Pelly on " Granger "

Mr. Pcll\- takes a ^ooel deal of interest in local affairs, much
to the benetit of the neighbourhood of On^^ar, in ^\•hich he li\es ;
in the way of outdoor recreations he divides his tinu; pretty
equally between fishing', shooting", and htintin^-. Like all the
Pell)s, he is a hard rider, but I do not suppose; that he has
ever enjoyed his diiuier the less for missin;^- a L^'ood run.

3/8 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING niARY

We finished up a long day at 4.30 with the usual blank draw of Forest
Hall (I hear that they have not found there this season). This was all the
more regrettable, as Miss Gilbey, Mrs. Hine and Miss Blyth, and many
more from the further side of Essex, had persevered to the end, undeterred
by a twenty-mile ride home. I am afraid they will carry away with
them a very poor opinion of this end of their county. Where did you T
after all, Mr. Collin, and how many eggs did he stand you ? I hope, at all
events, that they were fresh ones, and not like the New York poulterer's,
" noo, noo laid" — (N.B. — About three months old) — and who, when
asked for something as fresh as a week old, replied that their hens did not
lay so recent as that. There was a great run on the refreshment depart-
ment at Bowes at 5 p.m. Methinks the gentleman in pink who dispensed
the viands with the celerity of a lamplighter has quite mistaken his pro-
fession. He only made one mistake — he cut the bread too thin.

We were all deeply concerned about the welfare of the good Caterham
folk : history reported that their Universal Provider in the catering line,
on this celebrated Wednesday was decoyed by the Pen-Man into our
Roothing country, and early in the run was swallowed up in one of its
numerous ditches.

Grass and Plou(;h. — Was Tuesday,, the 19th inst., when
we routed a fox out of Mr. T. J. Mills's stick heap, a bye day ?
I can't say, but it would have been a good one had we killed
the right fox. Would Nature had provided a safeguard, and
that 'twere as easy to distinguish the different sexes in the
vulpine tribe as it is for some men to bring down the gaudy
cock pheasant, sparing the hens, at the end of the shooting
season ! Some of us always swear by the grass ; none of us
despise 25 minutes across it at best pace.

Did the ^rooni* with the letter bao- see the finish ? for we
saw him being whirled round and swept along by the irresis-
tible tide that surged and boiled up the Rectory lane until it
broke on the green shores of Garnish Hall — down to and
through the ford, and you couldn't jump the ditch-guarded
bank to the left too soon. Mr. E. Ball, Mr. Ford Barclay,
and half-a-dozen more fiew it together, and swept over the
next two fences in line, as we swung up hill towards Cooper-
sale Hall. Wire! my boy! not in ]Mr. Mills' fences. Go at
them where you like, and catch the hounds if you can as
they fiick back over the small brook, and race up the ploughed
field, where Henry John (didn't he even ken it was a vixen ?)
sans hat confirmed the line.

In the road they hovered for a second, and a dozen men
had jumped in and out ere ever a hound had whimpered
on the turf beyond. On, and out of the lane at a soldier's
double, (|uicker if you could manage it, two more fences
without slacking rein, and they struck the road beyond

* Mr. Hotham's.

NO COMMONER SURELY 379

Skinner's Farm, and rose the lon^ grass slope for the belt of
trees on the hill, in and out of that strip few followed Mr.
Barclay over the rails. Down the hill once more, and three
men to one gate to unravel the fastenings, while hounds were
stealing away over the Park.

Turning back through the trees at the bottom, they ran on
over Mr. Rumball's Farm — grass every yard of it — in and out
of Barber's Wood. Half a mile further on, at the side of the
brook, came the catastrophe of a good vixen killed, while the
dog, which had slipped away from the fagot heap a few
minutes later, had gone scot free, Bad luck this, but not so
bad as being found dead in a trap. We did not find again,
unless it was a holloa at Beachetts which hounds never
endorsed, and we visited the renowned Weald Coppice in
vain, and cracked up the once happy hunting-grounds of Mr.
Bosley's fox all to no purpose, and rode home at 4.30 with
the splash of warm rain in our faces, the harbinger of a
great scent on the morrow, as it soaked steadily into the warm
earth all through the night, a/^d for the first time for niaiiy a
long iveek zue rode or drove niackiiitoshed to a meet.

Little Laver the point, with the certain feeling that on such
a morning there must be a scent ; the moisture that clung to
the grass, the soft, balmy feeling in the air, all betokened
that it was a morning not to be missed. No, not for a king's
ransom — Brick Kilns, I love you. No covert within the
confines of the Essex Hunt is more closely entwined in heart's
fondest memories of the sweet intoxicating pleasures of the
chase than your sacred groves. How many historic runs
have been conceived in the depths of your wooded stillness !
Who can look back upon a vista of years with feelings unmoved
of proud and happy satisfaction at the triumphs you have
witnessed '^. And now yet another garland has to be woven
in your honour. Would that abler hands had grasped the
genial task.

Dearly should I like to have viewed the fox (no connnoner,
surely !) who at the first sound of the huntsman's cheer (by
the bye, did you notice the extra ring in the huntsman's voice
that morning ?) went as straight as a dart for Man Wood.
There are two ways of reaching this famous covert : he took
the best. I say it advisedly, there is a left-hand course and a
right-hand one, but the two lines of country offer no comparison.
Fence after fence out of light sandy plough, hounds racing-
over the ditches, the big dogs jumping them in their stride as
with heads up and sterns down they seemed to revel in the
ravishing scent.

ESSKX F(M< EVER 3<Sl

In and out of the White Roothing- road with hounds and
huntsman to Man Wood without countino- the cost, but trustino-
to Providence ; or well clear of it to tht; rii^ht. with Messrs.
Sworder and Jones ; or free from difficulties on the left,
through the mudd\- ride with Sevvell, Harrison and Hart — •
which line did you take? It mattered not if you rode on, rode
on, for hounds were driving remorselessly on without the
shadow of a check. Twenty of us reached the big wood with
the pack : the Master, Messrs. Ford Barclay, H. Fowler,
C. Oldham, Capt. Bruce among them ; and six of the twenty
proffered their horses to the huntsman, whose horse looked
hopelessly settled. Catching his legs in the wire netting, he
had shot his rider over his head into the trees, and lay on his
back in the ditch.

No time for delay, thought Mr. Barclay, as he turned sharp
back to the right over the fence, and bearing left-handed, set
off, over the rough fields between the woods, in pursuit of
Messrs. vSworderand Jones, and Major Carter, who had already-
viewed the hounds entering the further covert ; but unfor-
tunately for those leaders they overshot it, and instead of
taking the ride between and striking in and out of the muddy
lane, they rode on for the Row Wood corner, and were hope-
lessly coopered by a double ditch and some hoop iron.

Your lucky star must have been in the ascendant if you
extricated yourself from these big. coverts, with such a scent
as there was on Wednesday, in time to see the hounds leave
them behind for good as they still ran on.

" Not a nose on the ground, not a stern in the air,
And you knew by the note of that modified chorus
How straight you must ride if you wished to be there."

But who was that young, brown-coated sportsman on a
chesnut cob stealing away froni Man Wood.'^ Young Mr.
Hart, for a thousand! W^orthy son of a worthy father; may
he long continue to show us the way. Roly, too, in his old
form, just back from the historic pastiu'es over which the
Kildare and Meath hold sway, with his war cry of " Fssex for
ever;" and Bobby Lockwood, getting his last day and last
kick out of a tired horse. And clear of these, and clear of the
woods, that exponent of welter point-to-points, George Sewell,
on a chesnut horse almost as good as the old mare. Another
sportsman, too, who takes a lot of beating, Mr. Charrington,
of Australian fame (the Harlow people know this, and haven't
forgotten the twelve sheep at Christmas), held pride of place as
hounds raced on without their huntsman for Down Hall.

3^2 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

Just as there are two ways from Brick Kilns to Man Wood,
so are there two lines from the latter to Down Hall, and again
this o-Qod fox chose the best, down by the brook-side below
Hatfield Grange. Seventeen viimites from the find ive zvere in
tJie Thorns, and the Master at the head of affairs to hold us in
check, as the hounds raced round the wood, and carrying the
line out without aid of huntsman, who came up at this critical
moment, his horse still bearing the impress of his nasty fall.
They dashed across the cabbage field — (the one in which we
so often find) — without changing, without a falter. What a
scent there must have been to have raced on as they did
through this odoriferous crop

Could you have wished for a prettier sight, listened to a
more tuneful cry, as "Trouncer's" young progeny, " P^airplay" and
" Fallible," raced for a lead through the fir-tree-covered slopes
of proud Rookwood's Hall ? Did you grudge that moment's
delay, just 22 minutes from the find, beyond the further bridge
of the moat, as the fox swimming the stream fled in full view
down the narrow pasture with hounds close at his brush ? On
as fast as ever towards Matching Park ; the Master with a
clear lead of the lot, as he went in and out of roads and lanes,
just as they came. Methinks he was riding one good enough
for any point-to-point race, although not the trump card he
had up his sleeve. Just short of Matching Tye they swung
left-handed and bore down for Moor Hall, close to their fox
all the way.

Foiled in his attempt for the big earths, he turned sharp
back ; and Jim Cockayne, out for a day in his old country, as
he got a view of the beaten fox capped on hounds at once,
and with Bailey one side and Jim the other, and "Trouncer"and
the rest of the pack bang at his heels he ran the length of
the Park policies. If ever a fox was a gone 'coon you would
have said he was, but he beat the lot by five yards, as with
arched back and drooping brush he gained the earth under the
old elm tree, having afforded as good a gallop of 45 minutes
as we have had this season.

" And \qv\^ may he live to repeat the good story
He told us to-day in this wonderful run ;
We'll drink to his honour and sing to his glory

With all the good fellows who shared in the fun."

One gentleman* who saw a good deal of the fun was heard
to declare that he would not have missed it for ^25. But
runs like this are not to be gauged, still less bought, at a

* Mr. A. C. Oldham.

'^vf

^-x-;

■^^1^

^ «',

»^i

^M , 1^

3>^4

LEAV

FROM A HUNTING DIARY

and hounds, which
you conjure; tlieni ;

price, for what a com])ination of happy circumstances you
re(]uire to ensure the ris^ht thing! Vox, country, scent, horse,
of these could )ou do without ? Could
1 up at will with untold gold ? 'Faith, I
trow not. Do you pit\', or do you envy the man* who, having
secured a good start in this run, saw not a yard of it through a
ladv falling in front of him ? Such chances of self-denial do not
occur (tvery day ; but virtue has its own reward, and, staying-
out till the end of the day, he shared in the rattling gallop
from Matching Park that wound it up.

A. C. Oldham

Mr. Oldham secured a great bargain when he bought the
horse on which he is here shown. Certainly the chestnut ^\■as
an extraordinary good hunter, with great staying power, and
hardly knew how to fall, though, had he had the slightest
inclination that way, he could have indulged the propensity to

Mr. T. R. Hull.

A coon FINISH 385

any extent, for Mr. Oldham, during the many seasons he rode
him, went as straight as the crow flies. Not even Mr.
Oldham's brother-in-law, Mr. Giles, could get him down,
though I remember seeing him do his best at a brook just
below Ongar Park Woods, coming away from that covert, at a
place where most of the field were hung up. The chestnut
safely negotiated it, though the tree stumps and overhanging
briars and deep chasm would have puzzled a schoolboy in a
paper chase.

Nineteen clear minutes hounds raced their fox across
the cream of the Roothings without the semblance of a
check, at such a pace that he could never make a point, nor
yet complete the circle, though at one time it looked odds
on Harlow Park, until Jim Cockayne, the old vSurrey hunts-
man, mounted now on Mr. Charrington's bay, viewed him
stealing along by the belt of trees near Thrushes Bush.
Hounds required no lifting, no cheering on, only riding at in
the form Mr. Edwards was sending his long-tailed bay along,
if you meant to be with them ; and who, out of this lot, didn't ?
The Master, Mr. C. Green, Mr. H. Fowler, Mr. T. R. Hull,
Mr, Charrington, Mr. C. Collin, Mr. H. Sworder, Mr. Edwards,
Mr. G. Sewell, Mr. Newman Gilbey, Mr. Bevan (and who
else ?) were with us at Matching Park besides the staff when
we found. My word ! there was a row among the pigs as
hounds unbuttoned the waistcoat of this dog fox in the middle
of the farm yard ; no mistake about his sex, nor of the indica-
tive glow on the happy faces of those who had revelled in this
rapid burst — the finishing touch of a capital day on the plough.

25

Pilgrim's House, Brentwood. Formerly known as Bell House
Kennels of Essex Hunt, 1808

CHAPTER XIII.

BcU House — The Essex Kennels, 1808 — The Point to Point Races at Hif^h
Rodiiif^ Biii'v — Pyygo House — Ltick in Horse Dealing — G. Scwell — Duchess —
A Wonderful Recovery — The Merry Midlands — Crick Gorse — Scyila and
Charyhdis — Brooksby — The Qnorn Cotintrie — The Coplow — John o'Gaunt —
Barnsleys — Hunt Changes — E. E. Cockett — Northamptonshire Brooks —
Bailey's Plunge — Canes— The Sequel to a good Stag Run — W. H. Sewell —
Jack — Over the Iron Railings — The Hunt Button — One of the worst frosts in the
' memory of man — A Retrospect — Blooding our young Nimrods — Cubbing Notes
jji 'g^ — Weston Crocker — Blizzard — True Blue — One fence in October zvorth
a dozen later — Roydon Park — In the Heart of the Roothings — Garnetts — The
Queen of the Hunt — A. R. Steele — The Pleshey Tonic — A Bad Photo of a
Good Horse — Havering- Atte-Bower — Loughton Sha%vs — Bellows to Mend.

OUR point-to-point races at High Roding Bury on Saturday were in
every way a great success. No less than sixteen started for the hght-
weight race, and about ten of them completed the course, which
was very well chosen, as the riders could be seen from start to finish. Of
course, Mr. Arkwright was well in it, and some say that he would have
won if he hadn't taken a very bad line at the turn of the last flag near home.
That he had a large following goes without saying ; Mr. Bevan, Mr. Heine-
mann, and several more, losing a lot of ground by accepting his lead. Mr.
Buckmaster's ready eye and sound judgment served him in good stead, for
he never swerved a yard from the straight line, and romped home an easy
winner on Mr. Tresham Gilbey's horse, a most popular win in every way.
Mr. Arkwright was second, and Mr. Audley Blyth third. Both Mr. Blyth
and Mr. Buckmaster have been hunting from Rugby this season.

Six faced the starter for the welter weight, which, in spite of being a
very slow run race, was a very pretty one, for all kept together to within
four fields from home, when Mr. Guy Gilbey, who was lying second with
plenty in hand, and looked like winning, had the bad luck to come a rare
crumpler at a big yawner, just before the last brook, and did not reappear
before the race was over, and when he did his own brothers didn't know
him. He was black from head to foot with wet mud, but luckily he was

THE rOTNT-TO-rOINT KACIsS. IllCir RODIXC liUKV 387

not hurt — no, not even at the vincontrollable fits of langhter w'hich greeted
him, as it slowly dawned upon us who the apparition was. Mr. Guy Gilbey
is far too good a sportsman to mind that or any faU. It was certainly by
far the best sample we have seen this season. Of course everyone now
knows that Capt. Bruce steered Mr. Newman Gilbey's horse home a
winner by a neck, and that Mr. Chaffey-Collin rode a fine race for second
place, and that not a length divided the third and fourth, Capt. Ricardo's
grey and Major Carter's " Spitfire." Mr. Arkwright rode the winner in the
Farmers' Race. Mr. T. Christy walked away with the welter in the
Farmers" Race.

Traces of the sad havoc wrought by the disastrous gale of the previous
day met us at every turn on Monday as we drove to the meet at Dagen-
ham. Straw stacks stripped of their thatch, and many a noble tree laid
low ; three fine elms lay prone in Mr. Sands' grounds alone, and the rooks
cawed disconsolately amid the ruins of their homes, or sought in vain for
those that had been blown away by the storm. A meet at Dagenham is
synonymous with open house at Mr. and Airs. Sands', and they enter-
tained us all most hospitably before we proceeded to draw for a fox. A
quick find rewarded the patient care with which Mr. Sands always looks
after his foxes, but being a vixen, she was allowed to depart in peace.
Trust a keeper for distinguishing the sex. No one wondered, after such a
blustering night, and on so wild a morning — for the wind still blew with
the force of half a gale — that foxes were not easy to find ; but all were
astonished at the piping scent and screaming burst which we had from
Curtis Mill Green. Thirty-five minutes and a kill in the open over a
most sporting if rather rough country (full of hazards, in fact) ; quite Mr.
Caldecott's special brand, for he knocked daylight in the worst fence we
encountered in the whole run, just between Navestock Heath and the
gravel pits. Turning back through Pyrgo Wood, and helped by a
judicious cast by the huntsman over the park, hounds ran through Mr.
Pemberton-Barnes' coverts and killed at Noak Hill.

Half the field were spread-eagled over the country — simply couldn't
live with the lady pack at the pace they ran. 'Faith, they're as musical
as they are fast, and their piping notes came floating back as they smeused
through the fences and raced in keenest jealousy down the hedgerows and
through the woods. Half-a-dozen couples appeared to me to do all the
work. One old lady came towling along the line with a train of admirers
quite a minute after the fox was broken up, a good guide to the rear guard.

" Years steal
Fire from the mind as vigour from the limb ;
And life's enchanted cup but sparkles near the brim."

— Byron.

Yes, and as we get older we shorten the stirrup-leathers,
and open the purse-strings to buy the animal that we now
think necessary to carry us in comfort and safety across a
country — a ten-pound note at least for every decade. How
amusing would most men's reminiscences be of their first
dealings in horse flesh ! Perhaps their most profitable ones,
for they could not possibly lose much where they risked so
little, and many a horse which from temper or sheer cussedness
has been looked upon as worthless has in the hands of youthftil
pluck and impetuosity developed into a valuable hunter.

KOUR DEALS 3^9

A friend of mine — alas! owing to hard times, no longer
able to indulge in the pastime which delighted him in early
youth — gave me an amusing account the other day of his first
four deals, and they were not very unprofitable. ist {cetat 19),
a wonderful chipped-kneed grey ; hunted him two or three
days a week for as many seasons, and sold him at the price
he paid. ^Etat 22, going up in price, ^,24 for a beautiful-
looking mare, but as wicked as sin ; would lie down in the
middle of a field occasionally if the fit was upon her, or would
carry him brilliantly at the tail of the hounds. Improving
wonderfully in his hands, she was sold to a friend for £^0,
who, also being a very fine horseman, gave the fixnishing touch
to her education, selling her for ^130 to a master of hounds,
who in turn refused ^500 for her. The next deal from a
friend turned out badly, a ^10 note being lost ; but it was
recovered on the fourth purchase {(Etat 26), and the figure
now bounding up to £\o ; but this was the best he ever had
in his life, and he grew as fond of her as ever Arab of his
mare.

Full of life, she would always, upon leaving the stable,
bound and kick like a deer, and pretend to start at a leaf or
twig rustled by the wind ; but knowing her well, he took little
heed of these tricks. Once, however, riding home across the
Swansea Barrows, upon a heavenly day on which to live was
bliss, the mare going like a cow, with the reins on her neck,
her rider with a good cigar well under weigh between his lips,
his hands thrust home in his breeches pockets (he had just
remarked to himself, " Well, this is a day ! How could it be
more perfect? ") (N.B. : he was just engaged to be married),
when, in a moment, he found himself going up towards the
clouds, where his spirit was already lost in happy dreamland
(the way of lovers ; look at his age again), and next moment
coming down to things terrestrial in a sitting posture on the
sands, with the cigar still alight, and the mare galloping away
like the wind. Nearly slipping up in the sharp turn she made
to pull up, she turned and quietly trotted back and rubbed
her muzzle against him as much as to say, " What are you
doing here ? You didn't tell me, you know, that the sheep had
a bell, or otherwise I should not have given you the slip."

The mare was more sensible than many human beings —
would follow her owner over any bank without the reins (and
the Glamorganshire banks are not small), and upon one
occasion, surrounded by wire, she hopped over it. where
merely a pocket-handkerchief was laid on the strand. Even-

390

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

tLially m\ Iriencl sold her for ^60, and he has never had her
like again. But, as poor Whyte Melville wrote :

But

' ■■'- * ■''■ '-■■ every sportsman, they say,

In his Hfetime has one that outrivals the rest."

''Tis passing sad to part, by a sale or a swop,
With the clipper that stands in the stall at the top."

Duchess '

I'he above portrait from a })aintini4- hy Frank Baton is a
very true likeness of" Duchess," a iL^olden chesnut mare stantlini;-
16 hands. How is she bred ? was a question often put to her
owner, Mr. (ieor^e Sewell ; but it was a question Mr. Sewell
was never able to answer, his father having" purchased her dam
(a thoroughbred mare) whc-n in foal. Judging, how^ever, from
" Duchess's " appearance, her sire must ha\-e ])v.en as well bred
as " Eclipse."

DUCHESS

391

Mr. Sewell commenced ridino- " Duchess" with hounds when
she was 5 years old, and rode her when she won the following-
races : viz., 14 St. Point-to-Point at Wintry Farm, P^ppino-, in
1892, when the ^Ji;oing was friohtfully heavy ; the 14 st. Point-
to-Point at Stondon in 1893, and the Essex Hunt Welter Cuj)
at Harlow, the same year. Unfortunately, in 1893, when she
mi^ht ha\t' had a chance of repeating- these j^erformances, the

George Sewell on Polo Pony

mare met with a very bad accident from barbed wire near Shaftes-
bury Farm, on the Copped Hall Estate, cutting- herself so
badly that for a lon^- time her recovery was despaired of.
However, thanks to the unremitting care of her attendant,
H. Allsopp, in carrying' out Mr. (i. Harris's instructions,
necessitating hot fomentations day and night for sexeral weeks,
the mare got over her terrible injuries, but was never the same
animal again, owing to the shrinking of the muscles of the
injured leq-.

392 LEAVES ERO^I A HUNTING DIARY

"Duchess" was ridden a^^ain in a Point-to-Point near Epping,
but althouo'h she made a gallant effort, she had shot her bolt
when she reached the last fence, and fell all of a heap, her
owner escaping- without a scratch.

Mr. Sewell declares that he will never have another hunter
like " Duchess ; " and this we can well believe, for during the
twelve seasons he rode her with the Essex Hounds, we never
knew the mare turn her head from a fence, and she could sweep
over the widest ditch without an effort, and was away like a
bird almost before she had landed, gaining twenty lengths on
a sticky horse at every fence.

We get big musters in Essex, but they look small in comparison with
the huge fields one encounters in the Midlands or in the heart of Leicester-
shire. And last week, too ! Many had gone racing, but neither wind or
rain deterred at least 300 putting in an appearance at Crick upon the
midday of the week, for is it not, as Brooksby writes, " the centre of the
choicest playground upon which the Pytchley are privileged to romp ; and
didn't they romp to some tune, visiting one covert four times?

They manage things in a leisurely fashion in that part. Ostensibly
meeting at twelve, it was 12.30 before we moved off; mostly a dull-coated
assemblage, for it was raining hard, and it was twenty minutes to one
before the Master could get the covert sufficiently clear to allow a fox to
have a chance, but Mr. Wroughton knows how to manage a Pytchley field,
and not a hound was allowed to enter Crick Gorse before we had all drawn
up in compact order at one corner.

The time went pleasantly enough chatting with a lady who had hunted
nearly all her life in Essex, but who would not now exchange grass for
plough for a heavy guerdon. Who would ? Unless 'twere for the barbed
wire, which, in the Pytchley country, rears its hideous, hydra-headed form
in many unsuspected places, in spite of the strenuous efforts of the
executive to grapple with it, and which, upon the day in question, very
nearly brought dire disaster to a dear friend of my own, a parson, who
always rides his own line. Jumping up a bank, over a ditch, between two
trees (they have banks and doubles even in the Shires), the warning cry of
" Wire " reached him just as his horse, chesting, struggled against it.
Truly it was a case of Scylla and Charybdis. To go forward was madness,
for it would cut the horse frightfully ; to retreat almost impossible, for the
trees prevented turning to the right hand or to the left, and a fall back-
wards with the horse on the top of him seemed the inevitable and only
solution of the problem. The horse resisted being pulled back, but
eventually having to come, managed to fall sideways into the ditch as he
staggered and reeled as his legs slipped from under him. " Well out of
that," said Brooksby, as he rode past, and so most would think from the
above description.

An account of the day's sport could hardly interest anyone in Essex,
but Brooksby's description of it is decidedly amusing. One man riding a
pulling horse voting it a rotten day, another man on a steady old hunter
finding it delightful. A fox in every covert was a novel experience, and
one old dog we viewed across Mr. Muntz's park was much too good a
customer to be caught upon a medium scenting day. Hounds at times
ran much too fast for gates that didn't yield at the first push, and the first

TU^rr

IK FIRST tiirkl; fknces

193

whip made a rare bungle at one, the quick men leaving him to it, and
jumping a big fence at the side. Jump the first three fences whatever
they are, and you may ride in peace and comfort for the rest of the run,
provided it is straight, through well-hung gates has hitherto been my
experience of the Pytchley country.

Report has it that the Quorn domain is very similar, but one can
hardly form a fair judgment from one day's experience, though cast in one
of the best parts of their country, Ashby Folville, on Friday last. From
a hunting point of view it is perfection : not a yard of wire, not a warning
post, to be seen anywhere, for under the magic influence of Lord Lonsdale's
regime they have all disappeared. The Coplow to John o'Gaunt in the
evening was no distance (we saw the Quorn at their fastest in a three-mile
steeplechase from the first covert near Lowesby in the morning), but Tom
Firr's musical voice, as it rang out over the open earth, was as well worth
listening to as the long blast upon the horn (as it sounded the note for
home) rising and falling like the distant echo of a song.

#' ">

17 J l.> > •'■

Barnsleys

Melton, St. Pancras, Harlow — in time, if not for the general meeting,
at all events for the aftermath at 12. (Don't you like 12 o'clock meets at
the end of the season ? I do.) What a large muster we had, but the spell
of a great day's sport upon the most important one in the annual history of
our hunt has been broken at last. Year after year we have had great runs,
but this time it was not to be. But no one murmured, still less grumbled,
for they were in much too good spirits at the satisfactory conclusion of the
hunt meeting. Radical as we may be in many matters, we are all staunch
Conservatives when it comes to the question of the well-being of our Hunt,
and none of us care for change, still less to be in the unenviable position of
about thirty oarks of hounds, as stated in one of the papers, as wanting

394 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

masters, or changing hands, at the end of the season. Mr. Bowlby and
Mr. Arkwright have consented to hold office for another year, and as each
year of their reign adds to their popularity and success, we may anticipate
even a better season next year than we have had this ; for, considering the
frost, it has been a most successful one.

Second in importance to the Mastership, in the welfare of a hunt, comes
the question of the staff; that here again no change is anticipated must be
a matter of sincere congratulation to us all. Bailey ! Where can you find
his equal ? Expert with hounds, familiar with the country; a good, bold
horseman, liked by everyone; he has no equal as a huntsman, we Essex
men think, in any plough or grass country in England. Jack Turner is a
famous first whip — quiet, steady, always there when wanted ; and Easterby
is equally reliable.

Of Saturday ? What an expanse of country we drew without finding —
country, too, that is known to contain foxes — but where were they ? No
doubt, in the open or the hedgerows. Isn't it a curious fact, but the truth
of which experience fully confirms, that once find a fox, and you will soon,
in the course of a run, put up several more ? Nor have we to seek far
afield for the explanation. Nature has endowed the vulpine tribe with a
keen sense of hearing, in addition to their extraordinary gift of cunning, so
he thinks it about time to rouse himself from his kennel in hedgerov/ or
field when the sound of the chase sweeping onward in mad chorus, growing
nearer, clearer, deadlier than before, breaks in upon his watchful ears ; and
thus it happened upon Saturday, when we found at last — at 5 p.m. in
Parndon Hall— good omen ! the INIaster's covert, and a thorough sports-
man's home ! —for in the course of an hour's run foxes were seen in all
directions.

A good hunting one— it would have been voted first-class with harriers
— and worked out very much as follows: Over the brook to Pinnacles,
thence to Parndon Woods and Latton, not entering the covert, but crossing
the common, and on at a good pace to Bays Grove, leaving the Gravel Pit
Wood on the right, eventually running us out of scent, and sending us
home in a very contented frame of mind from Passmore's Farm.

Wednesday, April 3rd, we met at Birch Hall, and left off at Navestock.
This assertion at first sight appears strange, but is not if you come to
analyse it, for not a fox could be found in the whole country south of
Epping. Covert after covert was drawn blank, to say nothing of the
Forest, Birch Hall, Beech Hill Park, Barber's, Beachetts, and the day had
nearly drawn itself out before, sick at heart, weary in mind and body, we
found a fox in Ongar Park Woods. To get away from these big woods
with a travelling fox upon a good scenting day is more a question of luck
than management, for you never know which side or end he will break,
and past experience teaches us that hounds can slip through them much
faster than we can.

Thus it happened upon this occasion we were all posted six deep in the
middle ride, when Jack's view holloa at the top end galvanised us into
action. The majority, headed by Mr. E. Ball, held straight on the main
ride in the direction of Toot Hill, and consequently never saw a yard of
the fierce scurry across to Northlands and Beachetts. The minority —
about thirty — followed Jack down the side ride, and reached the boundary
fence just in time to see half-a-dozen couple of hounds {sans huntsman)
break covert. The fence out of the wood was trappy and blind — one
riderless horse was flying past us (as we jumped in and out of the road)
followed by another — Mr. Bevan's, I believe — before we reached the
bottom or brook which stretches its sinuous course below Toot Hill. The

E. C0CKE1

ON

r.OUNCER

395

first four, including Majors Wilson and Carter and Mr. Cockett, flew it
in their stride.

Jack, pulling up to catch ihe runaway, lost the necessary monientum,
and subsequent inspection not proving encouraging, coasted down for
an easier place, which he was not long in finding. In the meantime the
leaders had reached Northlands with hounds, to jump in and out of the
road as hounds left it behind (the big chesnut being first over the high razor
bank; in vain we appealed to the two majors to stay for the gate), and
stretched along at a great pace (the pick of the bitch pack, mind you, and
there isn't a bad hound in the lot; over the big fields to the small spinneys
outside Beachetts.

E. E. Cockett on "Bouncer"

INIr. Cocktitt hcis an eye for a '^ood horse cind a very good
eye for a country. He rides forvvai'd, and lias been pretty
fortunate in the matter of tosses. ( )n a \'isit at Hean Castle,
Saundersfoot, in 1896 he had an (opportunity of seeing the late
Mr. Charles Rankin Vickerman's wonderful hunting journals,
anrl'Mr. Cockett's description of them made me doubly anxious
to avail myself of Mr. Vickerman's kind offer to place them at

396 LEAVES FROM A IIUNTINCi DIARY

my disposal, for, as I have remarked before, Mr. Cockett
knows a good thing- when he sees it.

" Just a moment, gentlemen," said Jack as he came galloping up (was
he on "Catapult"?) as the hounds, giving tongue, leapt out of the covert
and tore down the hill for Colman's before swinging round for Beachetts,
where eventually the rest of the field caught them. Before hounds could
be got together again out of covert invaluable time had been lost. That
a good hunting run w^as subsequently brought off was entirely due to the
marvellous skill and patience shown by our huntsman in unravelling the
tangled web of this fox's mazy wanderings. Making some extraordinarily
good casts, which, unless you followed pretty closely, you soon found
yourself half a mile to the bad, he gradually worked out as good a
hunting run as you could possibly wish for over a deep and very rough
country, and did not relinquish the pursuit before Beacon Hill Farm was
reached.

Folk in the grass countries say that they never remember the hunting
season winding up under better auspices. Scent good, foxes plenty,
and the going perfection. Even from Harleston's extensive coverts the
Pytchley scored a good run on Friday last. The big dogs, forcing a
fox out of these woodlands over the railway, raced him at top speed
for about fifteen minutes by Holdenby, leaving nearly all the field in
the lurch. From these they hunted on very steadily for another hour,
by Spratton and back towards Harleston, without bringing their fox to
hand. During the day several of us had the opportunity of sampling
the Northamptonshire brooks ; they certainly do not compare with Essex, for
they are treacherous and boggy to a degree. Stay a moment, I had
forgotten Bailey's brook in the Canfield country, which he discovered
upon the same day. Nothing like it except on Christmas cards had been
seen before by a good many of the Essex thrusters. In the words of the
Belvoir bard : —

" They saw a scarlet ' Somersault ; '
A splash the water stirred,
And gleaming through the glittering wet,
A pair of boots and spurs (nothing else).

They saw a dismal dripping frame

Rise from the muddy deep ;
At first an imprecation came,

About that cursed leap."

But afterwards, as the mud was raked out from 'twixt collar, coat and skin,
mouth, nose and eyes — for you can't take a header into two feet of soft,
black mud, and remain stuck fast for a minute-and-a-half at the bottom of
a brook for nothing — he joined in the hearty laughter that greeted his
recovery, and galloped off home for a change of clothes.

Of Tuesday's meet with Mr. Sheffield Neave's Stag Hounds I can only
offer a very meagre description. It certainly seemed Hke old times
meeting at Canes, nor can we ever recall a larger muster at this most
popular tryst. Even Mr. Hart's hospitality must have been fully taxed,
for our numbers were legion. How much easier to make good resolutions
than keep them. Cantering up late to the meet with one of my boys, with
no intention whatever of following the chase, but only just to show him a
stag, which he had never seen (he declared) out of the Zoo before. The
sight of the noble Monarch of the Glen speeding away over a heavenly
country at a racer's pace, in search of that freedom which he hoped to
attain, was too much for the most heroic resolves, and with the rest of the

THE SEQUEL TO A COOl) STAC; RUN 397

huge field we settled down to see what we could ; and a very enjoyable ride
it Avas too, up to the time I left them casting round Broomshaw Bury
Wood.

\\'ith a good scent it would have been perfection, for the stag never
touched a road except to cross it. Look at the following line. Over the
brook or into the brook (which was it, my dear sir ?) to Sewald's Hall,
leaving Joe Tucker's farm on the right, and passing by Belgium Springs,
we ran on to Matching Park, and crossing some interesting fences, and so
to Down Hall. There, getting on better terms, they slipped along at a
great pace down these meadows up to the heath road, one hound with a
clear lead of the others, and crossed a biggish drop fence, which caused Mr.
Marriage, who was laying next to the Master, to part company. From
here they ran to Row Wood, where scent failed, and shortly afterwards I
reluctantly left, as it was a perfect day for riding across country, but horse-
flesh must be considered sometimes.

Probably Cambridge would be reached before that good stag was
taken, for he was making a splendid bee line. But I will hazard just a few
names besides the staff who would be there to see the operation. Of
course, the Hon, Secretary, Mr. Harrison, who goes as straight as the crow
flies, Mr. Hull, Mr. Pemberton-Barnes, Mr. Oldham, Mr. Giles, Mr.
Caldecott, Mr. Blyth, Mr. W. Sewell, Mr. Marriage. I expect, Mr. Hart,
he was going strong, riding his old line as of yore, when I bade farewell to
the chase. Mr. Hart and Mr. Carroll, Mr. Buckmaster on " Success,"
Messrs. Christy (two). Miss Blyth and Miss Jones, and ^liss Morgan and
her niece. How the foxhunters enjoyed their gallop with the staghounds;
none more so than the Master, Mr. Bowlby. How well his little daughter
was going. \\'hat a treat it was to see the cool, calm way Mr. Neave
negotiated any and every kind of fence without a pause, when making a
cast, coming straight down to and over them without even a preliminary
look. He would sv/im a river like a shot to cast his hounds if necessary.
What a clinking, bold, horse he was riding, the same dark grey which he
landed in the first four in our welter point-to-point race.

Long may stag-hunting flourish in Essex ! I believe it is awfully
popular with the rural population. You should have seen them on the
gates and straw stacks watching the fun, and they picked up many a
sixpence that day. Many thanks to the Master, who gave us such a jolly
day and never a cap sent round, though there were fifty out who would
gladly have given their guinea apiece.

" Leave us the chase, where, in harmony blending,
Men of all classes ride on to the end ;
Men become brothers, each brother contending ;
Every true sportsman is counted a friend."

W. Phillpotts Williams.

In bringing to a conclusion my hunting notes for the season
1894-95, and before passing in brief review some of the
principal runs, most of which have come under personal notice,
it is more than satisfactory to have to record a very sporting-
incident which happened upon Saturday last, the sequel, in fact,
to the long run with Mr. Sheffield Neave's Stag Hounds upon
the Tuesday previous. It seems upon that occasion that the
stag, or more properly speaking, the hind, " Lady Chelmsford"

.oS

LEAVES FRO^r A HUNTING DIARY

hy name, one of Mr. Neave's very best, was never taken, but ran
hounds completely out of scent in the neighbourhood of Hatfield
Broad Oak, and although the Master persevered in his search
tor her until a comparatively late hour, his efforts were unre-
warded, and, much to his chagrin, she had to be left out — three
sportsmen only, Messrs. W. and A. Sewell and Mr. Oldham,
remaining with him until he threw up the sponge.

Miss Dorothy Sewell.

William H. Sewell on "Jack"

This good little chestnut horse by "Jove " by "Thunderer"
by "Thunderbolt" out of a high-class mare, was bred at
\\'arren Hill, Loughton, l)y Mr. Sewell's father, being foaled in
May, '79. He began his hunting career as a three-year-old.
when he was uncommonly tricky to ride, and has been ridden
bv Mr. .Sewell ever since ; not hacked about, but ridden hard
and straight to hounds, and very long days, too, for Mr. .Sewell
would never go home Ijefore the hounds ; yet in '96-'97 he was
still going brilliantly, and in '98-'99 taking his turn regularly

JACK 399

with the Harriers. It is doubtful whether there is any other
horse goino- with the Iissex Hounds that has been hunted so
long.

In eighteen seasons Jack may well have been expected to
learn a thing or two, and so he has, for he will pop over iron
railings as readily as a sheep hurdle ; how his owner found out
he possessed this accomplishment may be briefly told. On one
occasion of partnership dissolved in Mark Hall Park, " Jack "
made off for the lodge gates, where Mr. Sewell fondly imagined
that he had cornered the runaway. Not a bit of it ; turning to
one side, " Jack " popped over the iron railings. Although
very blown from his burst across the park after his horse,
Mr. W. H. S. was not sorry to see this feat, and determined if
ever the occasion should arise to turn the accomplishment to his
own advantage. Fortune favoured him, for not many days
afterwards, when hounds were running at a great pace across
Hylands Park, their followers were brought up by some high
iron railings, and a chained gate. Putting "Jack" at the
wire, he jumped it like a buck, without the slightest hesitation.

"Jack" exemplifies again the wisdom of sticking to a good
horse when you get one. One of my earliest recollections of
Mr. Sewell in '79, before I made his acquaintance, was seeing
him By over a yawner near Belgium Springs in a run from
Harlow Park, and when one used to hear even the stick-at-
nothing George Dawson call him " owdacious " I suppose he
was. Mr. Sewell is one of the few members of the Hunt who
received the Hunt button at the Master's hands before the
Hunt Club was formed and acquired the right to confer the
button, being one of the lucky few who, with Bob Ball, received
it in memory of the famous run from Parndon Woods on
March 12th, '81.

How long a stag would exist without artificial feeding in
our Roothing country I am unable to state, but I imagine that
he would have no difficulty in obtaining a living if left in peace,
however much he might deteriorate in value and appearance
when no longer fed upon the best clover hay, old beans, and
peas. News that a stag has been left out soon travels far afield,
so there are always plenty of willing friends on the look-out in
every direction for any intelligence that may lead to his recaj)-
ture. In this case the first intimation Mr. Neave received of
the whereabouts of his lost deer was in the form of a telegram
upon Saturday morning from the Rev. M. Wilson, to the effect
that she had been harboured in Canfield Hart, and inviting
him to bring his hounds out upon the following Tuesday to
take her.

400 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

Almost at the same time he received information of her
being- much nearer home in a wood a few miles from Ingate-
stone. Proceeding to this he slotted her in, and hastily sending
out a dozen telegrams to his nearest supporters, about mid-day
took the field in search of the noble consort of the King of the
West. But at the first sound of the horn from the sanctuary
of Horsefrith Park she had flown.

" Like a storm-driven cloud, like a hawk on the wing,
Like a shaft from a bow, like a stone from a sling,
How she shoots over bracken and boulder and ling —

They may gallop their best !
But the horse and his rider shall labour and strain,
The rowel be reddened, and tightened the rein,
And the staghound shall droop ere a furlong he gain
On the Queen of the West."

G. Whyte Melville

Making straight for P'^orest Hall, she emerged from Roding's
limpid tide, keen and refreshed, and for many a weary mile
hounds sped on in pursuit. Past Ongar's busy town, Bobbing-
worth's peaceful hamlet, and by many a quiet homestead, the
chase went on, and one by one the pursuers dropped ofT.
Leaving North Weald behind, hounds reached the Forest close
behind their quarry, and with only one attendant left, besides
the Master and his second whip (Mr, Brindle unfortunately
being laid up with an acute attack of pneumonia), for a few
brief minutes she managed to elude the hounds, but a ringing
view halloa from keeper Little brought them on her track, and
she broke covert in full view across the Epping Links, where
four pink-clad golfers were contending in a hot foursome.

Throwing down their niblicks, cleeks, and putters, they
joined in the chase. How could they help it .^ Hadn't three
out of the four started in pursuit of this very deer upon Tuesday
last, and now they were to be seen flying across country at a
pace no unhorsed pinks had surely ever footed it before, as
leaving the plain behind, the hounds ran on close to their
quarry by W^intry Wood, and coming up to her in a pond on
Mr. Trim's farm, she was taken — after having afforded another
good run of an eleven or twelve-mile point. The Master was
delighted, so was Mr. Giles, the only other mounted man up
besides the whip. So were brothers Sewell (three). " Lady
Chelmsford " is one of Mr. Neave's best deer, and he
wouldn't have lost her for ^40. Over our tea and cigarettes
the battle was fought again, and the hounds went home in a
light cart, packed as tight as sardines in a box.

MRS. ^v,

)\

ACK

401

The wind from the east blew keen and cold ;is we all wished
the Master good cheer in his fourteen-mile hack home on a
horse, a big bold chesnut, that thrice that da\ alone had jumped
into wire and had escaped all injury

" Long may it prosper, the pastime we cherish,
Long may the gallop be heard on the lea ;
Long be the day ere our stag-hunting perish.
Long may the chase be unfettered and free."

Mrs. W. H. Sewell on "Jack"

Mrs. William H. Sewell, like Mrs. Waters, is devoted
to hunting- and hockey. She is a first-class tennis player, and
has been very successful in winning prizes at the West Essex
and vStansted Polo Club Gymkhanas.

The season that has just passed away will ever be associated with ouc of
tlie i^orst fvosts in the memory of man, cutting out, as it most completely did,
the best month of the year, when foxes travel and the country carries a
scent. In spite, however, of this drawback, and the difficulty experienced
upon several occasions in finding foxes, the season has been a distinctly
26

402 LEAVES EROM A IIUNTINC; DIARY

good one, and many good runs have taken place, which those who had the
good hick to participate in will never forget.

Saturday, October 13th. — A capital spin with a cub from Matching Park, killing at Down
Hall, will always be remembered by the Jones v. Collin match.

Wednesday, October 17th. — Eight a.m., at the King William. A clinking good run. I
shall not forget it. The captain* hung me up over a gate, and finished me off to dry over the
High Easter brook, which Mr. Crocker and many others flew in their stride.

Monday, October 22nd. — Half-past eight, at Coopersale. A great morning's sport from
Beachetts, which, as luck would have it, was never repeated from this covert.

Wednesday, October 31st. — Fog and mist. A rattling gallop from Galley Hills, most of us
left behind.

Monday, November 12th. — One hour and fifteen minutes from Mrs. Mcintosh's gorse. Was
one of the best runs I have ever seen. Mr. Willie Sewell bought the brush.

Friday, November i6th. — "Great Easton." "Maxima dies."

Saturday, November 17th. — A day full of incident and sport {vide Essex Times).

Wednesday, November 2isl. — A great run from the Forest to ground at Down Hall. Must
always remain sadly associated in the memory as poor Meyer's last gallop with fox hounds.

Monday, November 26th. — The Bobbingworth W^ood day, with Mr. Millbank's fox. Run
at a great pace, or Beacon Hill, Navestock, could not have been reached in forty-five minutes.

Friday, November 30th.— Thaxted. Ask Messrs. Jones, Gilbey, and Collin about this
grand day, and don't miss " Sonnet " if by kind invitation you spend a summer's morning on
the flags.

Saturday, December 1st. — White Roothing. But (|uite a red-letter day. The morning run
of fifty-five minutes was full of grief and divarshun.

Monday, December 3rd. — The run came off in the evening in the Navestock country, but
was worth staying for.

Wednesday, December 5th. — Matching Park. Another grand day. Seventy minutes via
Norwood, Brick-kilns, Man, and Row Woods.

Wednesday, December 12th. — .\ splendid woodland hunt in the morning, winding up with
a rattling gallop from Weald Coppice in the evening.

Friday, December 14th. — Dagenham. Still they come. I had no idea that I had seen so
many good runs until I came to jot them down. Forty minutes of the best from Mr. Barnes'
covert scut us all koine happy at 2. p.m.

Monday, December 17th. — Norton Heath. " A clinker to Roxwell."

Saturday, December 22nd. — Hatfield Town the meet, but the run came off from High
Roding Springs in a gale and a half of wind to the tune of seventy minutes, and a kill in the
open at Screens — quite Chateau Lafitte.

Christmas Eve. — Nothing stirring took place, but all the same, it was a very enjoyable day
spent in the Nasing country.

Saturday, January 5th. — Met at North Weald, and cheating the frost out of a day gave a
zest to the gallop from Berwick Wood.

Friday, January i8th. — A very fine run of one hour and forty-five minutes followed a
Radwinter meet.

Friday, January 25th. — Dropped in for a very nice run with Mr. E. Barclay's Harriers from
Obelisk Wood to the Warren,

Saturday, P"ebruary 23rd. — Met at High Roding street. Bailey killed a fox, probably the
only huntsman in England who upon that day succeeded in doing so, for the frost had only
half gone.

Wednesday, March 6th. — Mr. Collin's run from Weald Coppice to High Laver ; nothing
better this season.

Wednesday, March 20th. — The five-and-forty minutes from Brick-Kilns to Man Wood was
run under splendid scenting conditions.

Monday, March 25th. — A very good but very rough thirty-five minutes from Curtis Mill
Green with a fair kill in the open.

Saturday, March 30th. — Most of the one-horse men had cooked their nags before we got our
run in the evening from Parndon Hall.

Wednesday, April 3rd. — A good hunting run on the top of a 2\ miles fall-producing scurry
in twelve minutes.

Monday, April 8th. — The last advertised meet of the season '94-95.

Looking at the above notes, it will be readily seen that until the frost set
in sport was e.xceptionally good.

First blood at the fourth time of asking, so it was brought about at
Beech Hill Park on Wednesday, September i8th, at seven o'clock in the

Captain Bruce.

lU.OODIN'C OUR VOUN(; NIMRODS 4O3

morning, in the year of grace 1895, ^^ the presence of, let me see: Mrs.
and Miss Waters, Mr, Frank Ball, Mr. R. Bevan, Mr. A. Edwards, who
had provided the bill of fare (his son and several others on foot), and then
again, riding, INIr. Bury, Mr. F. Green and two sons, Mr. Johnson, Mr.
Avila on a three-year-old, — Turner, Mr. Armstrong ; the latter smoking a
very strong-looking cigar, which made me feel positively ill at that early
hour in the morning ; he actually wanted to launch over a hurdle in cold
blood if I hadn't called out, " 'Ware cricket ground."

Cricket it looked like much more than hunting, as the sun rapidly dis-
pelled the white mist which, as we had ridden meetwards, shrouded every-
thing and everybody in a white sheet. How the ground rattled as we
galloped after the second of a strong litter of cubs, which made a dash for
the open — with just a glimpse of their waving sterns as the hounds streaked
through a small plantation, and rattled him round a potato field to his
death ; and then came the most artistic part of the morning's proceedings,
as Bailey, with brush in hand, with a few strokes of a master's hand laid on
the paint on two youthful faces that beamed with delight as they received
their guerdon in the shape of mask and brush for facing the ordeal without
which let no youth in Essex boast himself a fox-hunter.

And who were these youthful Spartans, never more to be dubbed
" Master," but Mr. Borwick, jun., and ditto Chisenhale Marsh ? Young
men beware! if you have not been blooded, look out, for, as sure as eggs are
eggs, if Mr. F. Green, of Hainault Lodge, is out, you will have to go through
it. For having brought up all his own boys, who can sit in a saddle, in
the right way, he looks after the rising generation. Parndon Wood to-day
(Saturday) at 6 a.m., and then KntJiout rain, it is rumoured, hounds h'ill
not take tlic field again.

First fruits of the season were those which many of us gathered on
Wednesday, October 23rd, when, at g a.m., upon a keen, cold morning,
hounds were thrown into Squire Colvin's preserves, the noted Galley Hill
woods, and if the fruit that we garnered then may be taken as a specimen
of what is in store for us during the coming winter, we may heartily
congratulate ourselves upon having such golden opportunities within our
reach.

Nine a.m., even on a morning when the wind blows with keen and
cutting virulence, has no terrors for Essex sportswomen, still less for their
hardier brothers, and there could have been but few short of a hundred if
the roll had been called on the morning in question. Some names I can
give you, but not all, for a good many new faces were discernible, if
several well-known hahitncs were absent : Mr. Loftus Arkwright, our
master, and his wife, both riding very nice bay horses ; Mr. R. B. Colvin,
late master of the Essex and Suffolk, back once more in his own demesne,
Monkhams Hall, but Essex's gain is Suffolk's loss ; his brother-in-law,
Col. Bonham, riding a bay horse on which, in a subsequent spin, he shoved
along to some tune; Mr. C. E. Green, our late M.F.H. ; Mrs. Neill, the
three Miss Buxtons, Mrs. Waters, Mrs. Frank Ball, Capt. and Mrs.
Wilson, Capt. and Mrs. Bruce, Mr. and Mrs. Howard Fowler, Mr. and
Mrs. W. Sewell, Mr. A. J. Edwards, Mr. Francis Dent, Mr. Newman
Gilbey, Mr. Audley Blyth, Mr. Crocker, Mr. Steele, Mr. P. M. Evans,
Messrs. G. and A. Sewell, Mr. P. S. Lee, Mr. S. Single, Messrs.
Horner (2), Rev. L. Scott, Mr. T. H. Harrison, Mr. Harrison (of Enfield),
Mr. G. H. Lee, Mr. H. Sworder, Master Jack Miller, Mr. Bestall, Mr.
Harris, Mr. Nevill Dawson, Mr. Cook, Mr. Baddeley, Mr. Nicholson, Mr.
Chapman, jun., and others.

The morning sped on rapidly as cub after cub was viewed away from

404 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

different parts of the big woods, but scent in covert was worse than
indifferent, so not one could be brought to book. Deer Park was tried,
and at the end of two hours' patient work we were back in Galley Hills,
getting slack just when we ought to have been on the alert. At the
Monkhams end of the big woods Mr. Crocker luckily viewed a cub
crossing one of the rides, which hounds were able to press right through.
Over the big pastures towards Nasing Bury he was viewed stealing away.

Down the two large grass fields charged the field, or those of them
(about a score) who were fortunate enough to be cognisant of what was
going on, and jumping out of the road at the bottom rose the big hill with
hounds running on their left. Dipping down once more (the whole of this
run was up and down hilb, the fox crossed just below Mr. Bury's house
in view of Mr. Bury and his wife, who were out on foot enjoying the fun.
Up the lane we clattered, those who had come by the fields and those who
had snicked in by the Coach and Horses, and then down hill they swept
over Mr. Taylor's Farm.

Not liking this part of the country, the fox once more breasted the hill
and then retraced his steps over the road we had recently crossed, leaving
Nasing Ikiry well on the right. A momentary liesitation in the next grass
field, and they had hit it off over the brook quicker even than Bailey could
find a way over — a nasty slide down hill and four feet deep at the bottom,
it was not inviting, but quite Bailey's place. None did it better than
Capt. Bruce's grey Arab, none sooner than Col. Bonham, who was over
second, though his horse took a lot of persuading before he would tackle it.
What became of some of the rear guard can only be conjectured, for hounds
were running forward at a good pace, and Mr. Crocker coming down,
further blocked the way.

In the meantime on the hill-top we came to a regular teaser in the
corner of a field you couldn't see over and you couldn't see through. Not
a loop-hole anywhere until Bailey ran his good little chesnut cob up an
ivy-clad bank, and pushing his way through the bushes on the top, he
hopped over the ditch beyond like a bird — each second it became easier,
plainer, and more defined. The Master, Col. Bonham, Capt. Bruce, and
the Admiral were certainly the first quartette over. Fences came quick
after this, a rail-guarded one yielding to Mr. Howard Fowler's chesnut
made it plain sailing for Mr. H. Sworder's cob to follow.

Down in the bottom below Nasing schools we lost this good cub, who
had afforded such a delightful 20 minutes from the big woods. Many
thought the fun was over for the day, and they turned their horses' heads
homewards when we reached Nasing Park, but in the policies surrounding
the house a noted fox was known to harbour ; loth, indeed, was he to leave
them, but he streaked away when he did to such a tune, and so straight,
that he fairly elongated a hard-riding field on horses only half fit to
gallop. Going across the park it was no time for loitering, as hounds ran
parallel to the steep lane running up to Nasing hamlet, and only those
who had turned sharp back, and galloped their hardest, were in time to
see hounds stream over the road and enter the narrow plantation on
the left.

Mr. Green and Mr. Lee chose the left-hand side Bailey and his
immediate following took the right, some barbed wire hindering the
leading section for a few moments until they found a gap under a tree.
Unlucky the man who came down, for at the splitting pace hounds were
going he was completely out of the fun. A few more fields and we reached
the road at Low Hill ; down it we galloped past the plantations that fringe
it, as hounds crossed our front, with Mr. C. E. Green, their nearest

WESTON CROCKER ON "BLIZZARD

405

attendant (where was Mr. Lee ?), holding a lead which none could
wrest from him, till hounds bayed their fox to ground below Roydon
Park.

The pace hounds tore on through the top of Tattle Ikishes, those only
knew who had to wait their turn at a gap ; but going well to the front,
I could discern only two ladies, Mrs. Arkwright and Miss Buxton, while
of the men the welters, as represented by the Admiral, Mr. H. Fowler, and
Mr. Green, already mentioned, more than held their own. But sooner or
later — but rather later than sooner — came a string of twenty men, but all
looked cheerful after this sparkling gallop over a line of country which,
if unbroken from Galley Hills to Roydon, will take a lot of beating at any
time.

Weston Crocker on "Blizzard"

Mr. Weston Crocker hunted with the Essex Hounds as tar
back as '73-74. He swears l)y the Roothinos of Essex. He
is a very straii^ht rider, and a persona orata with all the

mem

hers of the Hunt, most of wlioni at some tunc

)the

4o6

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

have partaken of his hospitahty as they passed Hatfield Grange
on their way home after a long day in the Roothings.

Mrs. Weston Crocker, on "True-Blue," shares in her
husband's popularity, and shares his enthusiasm for the chase.
She possesses a capital nerve, of which she once gave a

Ml-. WebtOH C

True Blue"

Striking proof in the season of 1896-97. Through her horse
falling back upon her in a ditch half full of water, she had
a very narrow escape from being suffocated, but although in
imminent peril not a word of alarm escaped her, and those who
assisted at the rescue could not helj) remarking upon the calm,
cool courage she had shown.

The philosophic mind derives sonie satisfaction, however small, even
in the most adverse and strange surroundings, and that no one may aspire
to become a huntsman who does not possess it is a truism, even if Beckford'

CUBBING IN 95 407

is not responsible for the dictum ; but it must have required all the
philosophy with which the huntsman of the Essex hounds is usually
credited to have gathered one crumb of comfort from his frosty surround-
ings on Monday, October aSth, 1895, when for one hour you couldn't see
fifty yards in front of you, and the fog clung to and frosted everything
with which it came in contact as we rode like restless spirits to and fro
in the dank atmosphere, hoping against hope for it to clear away. But
the grain of comfort was there, and it came in the showers of leaves which
the frost was cutting away in bushels from the trees overhead. As the
huntsman remarked, " Make it all the better going for us next week," and
so, if it rains, it will, for the leaves, scorched and shrivelled by the frost,
will disappear from the hedgerows as snow melts before the midday
sun.

But is it not curious, in this strange season of '95, that the morning
in question made the fifth white frost without rain, and three in olden times
were considered quite sufficient to ensure a downpour? "Drop the
weather, and tell us what took place and w4io was there to see it," my
dear friend, the reader, not unnaturally remarks, adding, " I know that
you met at Coopersale." Quite right, O King, we did, and quite an
array of bicycles you would have seen had you been there. Three sisters
from Tawney Rectory rode up looking cool and collected, but with a
healthy glow on their cheeks, which their brisk spin of five miles to the
meet on pneumatic tyres had given them, and afterwards they joined in
the sport on foot, for, even with the latest patent in spring chains, the
bicycle is no use over a country. Two other ladies, also well-known for
their affection for bicycles, and their skill in riding them, were there, one
riding a dun-coloured cob, the other a rich dark-coated thoroughbred
mare. Perhaps you can identify them if you follow the Essex Hounds ;
if not, do not ask me to enlighten you, for I write for the followers of that
particular pack.

The Master, Mr. Loftus Arkwright, drove up with his wife punctually
at nine. Mr. and Mrs. Howel Price graced the meet with their presence.
Mr. F. Green loomed up through the fog for an instant, and disappeared as
suddenly as he had arrived. Mrs. W. Sewell stayed out until one. Major
Ricardo, Mr. Roland Bevan, Major Carter, Captain Wilson, Captain Bruce,
curiously enough all riding greys, which diminished in size in the order
given. Mrs. Bruce was exercising, what she called, her harness cob, but,
as her husband sensibly remarked, they do not keep their horses to look at,
but all have to earn their living. Mr. H. Sworder and Mr. H.J. Miller,
both riding blacks ; Mr. Willis and Mr. Avila on bays ; Mr. Cook, Mr.
Baddeley, Mr. Lee, Mr. Steele, Mr. Single, Mr. Cockett, Mr. D. Cunliffe
Smith. Later on in the day Mr. Patchett, Q.C., might have been seen
with Host Morris, on his grey, in attendance, and Mr. A. J. Edwards
turned up before it was all over.

Cubs were known to have been reared in the Gaynes Park preserves, for
although Mr. Chisenhale Marsh is not very keen about hunting himself —
only coming out occasionally — he always takes a lively interest in pro-
moting the welfare of the Hunt, and with no wire and plenty of foxes on his
estate, what more could you want ? But up to the time I left hounds that
day, I p.m., these cubs had not been found, though a friend of mine, out
shooting, viewed one in an adjoining wood, known as Watson's, which
undoubtedly hailed from Gaynes Park.

i\t Beachetts, however, we had a rapid find and a nice little spin to
Knightsland. Eventually, we arrived at Rough Talleys in search of other
cubs which did not appear to be there, and the luncheon hour, fitting in so

4o8

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

conveniently with the propinquity to home, tempted many of us to forsake
the pleasures of the chase for the amenities of the table. Of the going it
may be remarked that it was not at all bad, not half so hard as some who
had not been out would like to have made it. Of the fencing it may be
asserted that it was excellent if not very plentiful, for we hit upon several
lines of gates ; but one fence in October in full leaf is worth a dozen in later months,
if you care for the excitement of what may be fairly called a leap in the
dark, for I can assure you, my friend, that many of the ditches were not to
be seen, though known to exist. Major Carter's new grey seemed to take
to them like a duck to water. Mr. H. J. Miller's black cob was never
asked to play follow my leader, a game which can be played to perfection
in the leafy month of October.

Coming away from Roydon Park

9 a.m., Wednesday, October 30th, found many of us at Koydon, which
we had reached by travelling over roads of iron and fields white with
hoar frost. An immediate find at once settled the question of a burning
scent in covert, and as quickly dispelled the idea of there being any in
the open, for hounds could never run more than 100 yards at a time,
though taken along very straight by a fox that knew the country to
Tattle Bushes.

Another fox at the back of Roydon brickfields afforded a momentary
excitement, but little else; but, even in these few brief moments, youth
and valour, as represented by Mr. Nevill Dawson, and maturity and
discretion by Mr. Dent, found their opportunity, and took it, of kissing
mother Earth, both standing on their heads in the process. Mr. Nevill
Dawson, however, gave his nag a large order when he shot out from the

TX THE HEART OF THE ROOTHINGS 409

crowd and charged the strong stake-bound fence, ditch-guarded, which
shut him off from the hounds, hut had the bridle not given way he would
have been all right. Truly he is a chip of the old block, and that grey
horse will develope into a valuable hunter if he comes up sound at the
end of the season.

Mr. Bowlby and his son were both out for the first time this season,
having left Scotland covered with snow — which seems to have favoured a
good many counties on the previous day. It would be heartily welcomed
by hunting men in Essex, the ground is too hard and the fences are too
blind to extract much pleasure from hunting unless you join the road-
riding, coffee-housing contingent.

" The Roothings are full of foxes " ! Such were the cheery words
of a sporting friend. So sixteen miles to a meet, and three on to the
first covert to be drawn, resolved itself into a mere nothing, with the
certainity of sport at the end, to the dozen or so Southerners who
invariably take their Saturdays wherever the hounds meet, rarely sending
their horses on, but hacking or driving the whole distance. The
Northerners are not half so energetic, and seldom visit our sunny and
grassy quarters of hill and dale, interspersed with fences of varied
description, which deprives it at once of the reproach of monotony.

The mate draws the line at a hack on of more than ten miles. So
9 a.m. sharp, and the polo cob in the shafts, was the order of the day,
and what a morning Saturday, November gth, was. If you were a light
sleeper you would have heard the rain, which for forty-eight hours had
been coming down almost incessantly, still dashing against the window
panes as if the very floodgates of heaven had been loosed ; but remembering
the old adage, " Rain before seven clears up at eleven," you would have
dozed off without any rheumatic forebodings, whatever misgivings you
might have entertained about the wind getting up to roll the clouds away.

How everything reeked with moisture as, leaving Epping behind us,
we bowled along through the Lower Forest, the golden leaves, which
still clothed its decayed and stunted trees, adding a bright gleam of colour
to the glittering road pools. On through North Weald the huge Ongar
Park Woods (still a closed demesne) loomed up on our right like heavy
cloud banks, and we took the first pull at the cob as we breasted Bovinger
Hill, and neared its mill, for the sails were whirling round in mad glee, and
the mare wouldn't have them at any price, and the mate had to jump out
and catch her by the head, and coax her past. Moreton village was reached
and passed with nothing worse than " hold tight ! " as the mare swerved
viciously at some decaying trees. The same village brought us luck in the
drive home that night. It must have been about one hour after sunset
when we were passing through the village again when the mate spied
his favourite terrier, which two days previously had been lost or stolen. A
minute sooner or a minute later, it could not have happened ; the mutual
recognition of man and dog is worthy of a special note in the Spcctatoi' (the
mate must write it).

Up the long hill from the village we were overtaken by an active,
mackintoshed figure,''' hacking the whole distance, past Mr. Paton's, the
great animal painter, and leaving the once more deserted White House,
near Little Laver (would it not make a capital hunting box ?), we were
in the heart of the Roothings, with the wind coming up in angry puffs,
tearing wide rents in the leaden sky o'erhead. Then we chortled as we
thought of low hats and mufti costume.

Mr. R. Bevaii.

4IO

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

Always a capital piece of road between Brick Kilns and Man Wood —
we made the pace and soon overtook two more equestrians.! Reaching
the peaceful hamlet of Abbess Roothing, we entered upon a veritable fairy-
land ; the rains and gales had done their work, and the road was a carpet of
green and gold, which the gigantic elms overhead kept replenishing with
their rounded and brilliant yellow leaves, and the sun now breaking out lit
up the copper beeches with a thousand tints, and in its rays the hedgerows
glistened as if bedecked with myriads of sparkling diamonds, while a lovely
rainbow in the far distance lent the finishing touch to the beautiful scene.
Horseman after horseman was soon overtaken as we neared the old
hostelry of the " King William," which we reached to the tick at 10.30.

Three miles, and half-an-hour to compass it in— we could take it easy,
nor as we approached the tryst, High Roothing Street, were we long in

^^cg^

Garnetts

doubt as to the lovely apparition who with such grace and skill guided her
team of beautiful bays through the crowd. None other but the Countess of
Warwick could ever have worn such ravishing attire. A blue tam-o'-
shanter ! a light blue cloak, was it velvet, or was it cloth ? I was too shy
to venture on a close inspection, everything blue with the exception of a
front of rich white satin ; she looked, as she is acknowledged to be, the
Queen of the Hunt, for all who ride with the Essex Hounds are proud to do
her homage.

How describe a run when you don't know a yard of the country ? I
have said this before, but that does not matter. History always repeats
itself. How relate where hounds were at fault, and where and when their
individual merits and their huntsman's skill shone out ? For you all came
out, brave sirs and fair dames, you'll readily grant me, not to gossip and

+ Miss Webslcr and Daniel Gingcll ;

RUNNING FROM CARNI'.TT'^

411

ride over hairy ditches and yawning gulfs, but solely for the purpose of
catching a crafty animal with the aid of high-couraged and pure-bred
hounds. The task is beyond nie, so I can only jot down in irregular
sequence what is after all but a blurred outline of the day's sport, though
on the following day there was nothing to mar the brief retrospect.

I could hear the deep-throated chorus of the merciless bitches as fox
after fox was driven from his lair in Garnett's leafy groves. The " Gone
away " from tv/o different parts of the covert still rings in my ears, and
across my vision passed, like a ilashing beacon, the stalwart form of the late
Master, as he galloped forward to the distant echo of the huntsman's horn,
and the black-and-tan pack came sweeping back two fields away, as we
cleared the covert. Nor would the huntsman admit of a check as he urged

A. R. Steele

his good little black over the drop into the meadow, and clapped hounds
forward to where Mr. Ridley, hat in air, cut the sky line. I could see
hounds own to it now, and note how one, two, three, four of us converged
to the spot over which the huntsman had flown. It was a narrow bank,
and the ditch lay wide beyond, but Miss Jones skimmed it like a swallow,
swiftly followed by her father, and then hounds threw up as we jumped
into a lane.

Bright shone the sun through the fence beyond, but still in a straight

41^

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

line towards Pleshey hounds kept steadily moving. The game had now
commenced ; the ball was really set rolling, and men were falhng in all
directions and letting their horses go. Mr. Buckmaster skilfully caught
one and restored him to his panting owner, for ploughs are heavy even
in Bartley's best. Where did hounds throw up ? Who can say ? But
many affirm that it was an old fox who in about thirty minutes managed
to give Bailey and his pack the slip. Next, hounds running like smoke
for" three fields with a fresh fox from Israel's, and coming to an
unaccountable check in the road. Last, but best of all, a fox from
some turnips below the same covert, standing up for sixty minutes in a
long, twisting, puzzling run, to fall a victim at 2 p.m. to a pack that
deserved him, Mr. Steele and Mr. Green, of Parndon, and Mr. Horner,
of Walthamstow, having among those in at the death, one of the longest
rides home.

A. R. Steele's favourite hunter

Ah ! A day in the Pleshey country is a delightful experience ; the
finest nerve tonic in the world. Foxes abound, for there are some keen
and good sportsmen who look to them, and in whose company it is a
pleasure and an honour to charge side by side over the wide ditches,
which, free from wire, make this one of the happiest and safest hunting-
grounds in the whole of England.

A bad photo, of a g'ood horse, taken at his worst in rough
summer condition, big in belly, low in muscle, and looking", as
Mr. Steele wrote me, as bad as possible ; but for eight seasons
this good brown horse, standing 16-2, carried Mr. Steele
brilliantly to the; front with the I'^ssex Hounds two days a
week, and occasionally, mark it \ (; Mellonians, a third day ;

A TWO DAY A WEEK CONVEYANCE

4^

he seldom fell without an excuse. How well I remember
the day when he went head over heels into the brook at
the bottom of Man Wood, knocked into it by a horse th^it
swerved into him ; how they were all mixed up together.
The end of his career as a hunter was brought about l)y
jumping into a boggy place in which he strained the sus-
pensory ligament : otherwise he might ha\'e gone on for
years, as he was only 14 at the time, and at 21 we have
seen them do the trick in Essex.

Havering-atte-Bower

Monday, November nth, at Havering, afforded in the afternoon what
may be fairly reckoned the best gallop of the season. Of the morning's
vi^ork the less said the better." 'Tis true we found and lost a fox in Mr.
Pemberton-Barnes' covert which gave us a ten minutes' spin, but not a
trace of a fox in Mrs. Mcintosh's gorse, and it really looked as if we were
in for a very poor day, and that Captain I5ruce had come out on the right
one, the polo Arab, after all. When, at 2.15, at an hour when some were
asking the nearest way back to Brentwood, Bailey's cheer rang out as
hounds whimpered in Loughton Shaws.

Crack went fifty thongs as we galloped alongside the covert to turn him
from the Forest, and out at the top away went a fox who for twenty
minutes led the field a dance over what Mr. Dalton was heard to say was a
real Leicestershire country ; those who know that line will appreciate it.
Running close to Theydon Bois Station, they swung up hill by Mr.
Avila's wood, and left the road opposite Mrs. Debenham's, and sinking
the vale below Theydon rectory, crossed the brook at the bottom, and

414 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING 1)L\RY

climbed the hill for Coopersale Hall. Leaving this on their left, they ran
on at a great pace and crossed the road at Stew Green, where Ainger,
the carpenter, viewed him turning back by the Merry Fiddlers, entering the
grass beyond as if he intended to pay a visit to Barbers. Hounds were
brought to their noses, and the fun, the sparkle, the joy of the run was over,
for although this good fox was tracked back past Coopersale Hall, he
succeeded in beating the dog pack. This is the barest outline of a real
good gallop, but it is all I have to offer, for I never saw a yard of it.
The rememberance of it clings to me like a nightmare ; but with scent
in the air and wet in the ground, the first gallop after a few weeks'
conditioning following a summer run, if you start two fields to the bad, soon
tells tales, and more than one cried, " Bellows to mend." Mr. F. Green's
hireling was utterly cooked, and put him down twice, and few indeed
accompanied the hounds when they went back to Mr. Avila's wood to try
for another fox.

Warlies

CHAPTER XIV.

Siv Thomas Foicell Buxton, K.C.M.G. — Warlies — Netfesi.'ell X — The Weald
Brook — Latton Park to Matching Hall— The Mexborough Thoroughbred —
The Scarlet Jacket — The Evening Gallop from Man Wood — The Rector of
Abbess Roding — Marshall — A Tricky Fence — The ''Black Bull,]' Fyfield —
The Dido Brand — Nevill Dan/son — The " Green Man,'' HarloiD — Sticking
to Hounds — Reaping the Reward — A Riddle Unsolved— Black Mondays —
The Hunt Staff^CourtJield Wood — Conflicting Evidence — Casualties — Too
Late —Poplars.

SIR THOMAS FOWELL HUXTON has never, I can
well imao-ine, hunted half as much as inclination would
have prompted him, for his life has been a very busy one, given
over to doing- something for the community at large, and cul-
minating in taking, at considerable personal sacrifice, the
Governorship of South Australia in 1895 ; but when he did
come out 'twas easy to see how his heart was in it, impossible
not to observe his plucky riding. Generally riding \ery fresh,
young horses (often without reputation for any cleverness), how
he sent them along! In truth he has inherited the pluck of
that ancestor who jumped off his horse to seize and hold a mad
dog that was about to attack a pedestrian.

Warlies, his beautiful country seat in Essex, has alwaNs
been a favourite meet of the Harriers, and those who love a
gallop over the grass with flying fences never miss it or a
fox-hound fixture in that neighbourhood.

4i6

LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

Netteswkll Cross. — If you had been asked by your most intimate
friend the meet par excellence you would have chosen for trying the new
purchase, you would have said, " Oh, Netteswell X." If, on referring to
the card, you had reflected upon the best day for giving the young'un an

Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, K.C.M.G.

airing or the old horse a breather, it would still have been "Netteswell X,"
and if your knees had not yet shaped themsehes to the saddle flaps, and
your muscles were still slack, and nerves unstrung from six months' absence
from the pigskin, in answer to the qualms of conscience (this is a tender
way of putting it) and the stud groom's untender solicitude, you would have

NETTRSWELL X 417

murmured, " Oh, Netteswell X." The country is open ; there is room to
gallop. The fences are easy and will not stop me. Gates are numerous
and bridle paths convenient. So a truce to the vaunted Roothings, but
leave me Netteswell X.

But what a dispeller of such airy dreams and nice calculations was
Wednesday, November 13th, the last occasion upon which our hounds met
at this never-to-be-forgotten meet. For on that particular day never did
you require a better mount, never had you occasion to feel in better form if
you would have dined in comfort and slept in peace, unhaunted by the
nightmare of having, after all, gone out on the wrong'un. Will you allow
me to give you the names, or as many as I can remember, of those who
were fortunate enough not to miss this fixture, for, later on, I dare not
venture to give a tithe of those who assisted at the final obsequies of as
gallant a fox as ever crossed a country, without fear of giving mortal offence
to some whose familiar forms may have escaped my notice. Among them
you will find names of those who, when hounds are running hard, will
always be there or thereabouts :

The two Masters, Mr. E. S. Bowlby and Mr. Arkwright, Mrs. Ark-
wright, Mr. A. S. Bowlby, Mr. R. Y. Bevan, Mr. C. E. Green, Mr. E.
Barclay, M.H., Mr. G. Buxton, Misses M. and T. Buxton, Mr. Ford
Barclay, Miss Ida and Miss G. Blyth, Messrs. H. and A. Blyth, Mr.
Bailey, Mr. Borwick, Major and Mrs. Carter, Mr. Cockett, Major and
Mrs. Ricardo, Captain and Mrs. Bruce, Major Wilson, Mr. and Miss Peel,
Mr. P. S. Lee, Miss Mason, Mrs. Frank Ball, Messrs. A. and G. Gold,
Mrs. Neill, Mr. F. Dent, Dr. Grubb, Mr. Steele, his son and clergyman
brother, Mr. Newman Gilbey, Mr. Hull, Rev. L. Scott, Mr. Todhunter,
Mr. PheUps, Mr. and Mrs. Swire, Mr. Green, Mr. Avila, Mr. G. Lee, Mr.
Harris, Mr. Fitch, Mr. Chapman, jun., Mr. Roddick, Messrs. Sewell (3),
Mr. Howard Fowler, Mr. Patchett, Q.C., Mr. Wahab, Mr. Hart, jun., Mrs.
Crocker, Mr. N. Dawson, Mr. Horner, Mr. E. Felly, Mr. Tilling, Mr. P.
M. Evans, Mr. H. Sworder, Mr. Pemberton-Barnes, Mr. Basham, Mr.
Baddeley, and others.

It was hardly a day upon which we expected hounds to run without any
assistance. The wind was not N.E., forbiddingly keen ; neither was there
a southerly wind with a cloudy sky. But rather a flashy wind, puffing up in
gusts from the west, warmed by a sun which shone steadily all through that
mild November day. Even after the hounds had raced a fox at top speed
from Weir Hatches and killed him at Mark Hall, there remained some
sceptics who doubted the plough carrying a scent. Was I one of them ? I
cannot say, nor for the life of me make out how it was so many of us waited
so long in Latton Park, after the big fox with long white tag had crossed
over into the Parndon side of that historic covert. Was it the presence of
the ex-master, whose ancient authority still inspires us with the same awe
which every man who has been to a public school ever retains for his
headmaster who has laid to heart King Solomon's advice ? Who can say ?
But had not Mr. Green made a move, a score of us would have been left
behind for a dead certainty. Nor, when we emerged, could we solve the
riddle of the group of horsemen at the far side of the first field, standing
still as if the fox had gone to ground or a horse had broken his back. They
were beginning to move, however, by the time we reached them, and none
too soon, for Bailey was already another field beyond with his hounds,
galloping for all he was worth down the Harlow Road below Rundells,
while a string of flying pinks could be seen clattering up its gravelled ride.

To jump out of the road was the work of a second, and reins were
loosed and horses called upon to extend themselves over the big field below
27

I

FROM LATTON PARK TO MATCHING HALL 419

the house to catch liounds, which bearing at first shghtly to the right, as
they dipped over the brow of tlie hill after crossing the lane, turned into
the grass on the left, placing both the left and right-hand contingents on
equally good terms. The rails were low into the meadow through which
flows the North Weald Brook :

No shallow dug pan with a hurdle to screen it,

That cocktail imposture the steeplechase brook ;

But the steep broken banks tell you plain, if you mean it,

The less you will like it the longer you look.

But low as they were they gave one good man" and one good horse an
imperial crowner. No occasion to disclose the identity of those whose
discretion, being greater than their valour, caused them to steer for the gate
and the bridge at the bottom of the meadow, and escape what was, perhaps,
after all, the biggest jump in the run, but methinks a certain very keen
young sportsman f would never have seen, still less gone, after the straying
bullocks had not a too intimate knowledge of the country in front tempted
him out of his line, and he has since confessed to me that, had he half
realised the grand run that was really only just commencing, those bovine
monsters would have been left to wander the country at their own sweet
will.

But this was by no means an isolated case of thinking Weald Coppice
would see the finish of the burst over the steeplechase course, for it was
within a stone's throw before hounds, slightly overrunning it, cast them-
selves in a beautiful circle, recovered the line and turned in the direction of
Canes Farm. Crossing the road and passing to the right of Mr. Hart's
house, we had two heavy fields in succession before leaving Canes W^ood
(through which our fox had gone), hounds following without affording us
the smallest chance of taking a pull at our reins. Single file down the
headland, and open order over the next two fences into the root field, and
pointing straight for Sewald's Hall, we embarked upon a sequence of sound
grass enclosures, through one of which runs a small but treacherous brook
— if you knew the right spot it was a leap for a pony ; if you missed the
place it was a test for a good horse, and lost more than one man the pride
of place which he held up to that point, for hounds were running too fast
to admit of a refusal, still less of a fall.

Running on at a great pace towards Wynter's (by-the-bye, the hunting
crop that was left in the fence below it was recovered next day), hounds
came to their first and only check behind the Grange— a check that was
fatal to the resolution of half-a-score of sportsmen, who got hung up by
some nasty fences in the meadows to the right of the house, until Mr. Peel
discovered an outlet. Those who went in the direct line of hounds secured
an easy outlet through a couple of gates. Leaving Wynter's behind, the
field began to lengthen out, for although hounds were on unmitigated
plough, they were going faster than ever, and fences were coming thicker
and certainly bhnder — one out of a lane below the small spinney, which
hounds touched some mile from the road, losing a very hard man the rest
of the run.

Not touching Belgium Springs, although they ran close up to it, hounds
kept swinging away to the left, leaving those on the right of them hope-
lessly in the rear. Getting close up to the road, hounds tore along parallel
with it up the furrowed plough, fairly tailed out, and crossing to the right
of Mr. Wederell's Farm, headed for Matching Park. The field galloping
all they knew to keep near them, it was absolutely impossible to take note

* Captain Bruce. t Mr. Hart, junr.

420

LEAVES FROi\I A HUNTING DIARY

of anything except the best way into a field and the quickest way out of
it, otherwise we might have seen Mr. Sam on the grey, and another
gentleman^ on a bay, turning down a lane to avoid three fences, and never
reappearing for the rest of the gallop. A crucial test for horse and rider
was soon in front of a dozen or so of us on the left, who crowded round
the only weak spot in the fence, a very wide ditch, the take-off slopmg
downwards, and on the far side a hurdle, reaching nearly to the top of the
bank, was a certain trap for a horse that was "cooked." The Majors-
grey swung neatly over. The Mexborough thoroughbred' cleared it, too,
and then grief and disaster. Someone was down, I am told, and the rest
of the run was blotted out for those who had to assist the fallen.

Matching Hall

How silently hounds were streaming along now. Who were those with
the Squire in pink coats ? Who the man in the brown coat and cap to
match ? Who were the brave ladies in dark habits ? Who was the
wearer of the scarlet jacket ? Who the two or three blacks as many
undress ? Who, gallantly holding their own, were riding abreast of the
FASTEST HOUNDS IN THE COUNTY, " the lady pack of the Essex Hounds,"
as draggled and worn, scarce a field ahead of them, the fox could be seen
still going gamely on, having left Matching Park and missed his last
chance of shaking off his pursuers. For at the pace they were driving
forward there was little hope of his ever gaining the big earths at Down
Hall ; but as he drew steadily nearer to them, and it looked as if he would
gain them after all, the huntsman caught hold of his hounds, and, capping
them on as they ran from scent to view, rolled him over in the open within

Mr. Pemberton-Barnes,

- Major Wilson.

Mr. E. Barclay's horse.

THE EVENING GALLOP FROM ^rAN WOOD 42 I

a hundred yards of Matching Hall, and from more than one pair of lungs
rang out the shrill whoop that proclaimed the termination of as good a run
as has ever fallen to the lot of our noted pack.

Sandwiches were eaten, flasks proffered, and cigars lit amid the mutual
congratulations of those who had struggled to the end, and who one by
one came dropping in to form another unit in the group of happy and
smiling faces who were gathered in the drive at Matching Hall. And who
would deny them ? Why, if they had ridden the road the whole way, it
would have been a creditable performance to have got to the end of such a
rattling burst, for, from the time he was found in Latton, allowing eight
minutes before hounds pushed him out of the covert, a reference to the map
will show that we covered 8^ miles in 40 minutes, the furthest point being
exactly five miles as the crow flies from Weald Coppice to Matching Hall.
Mr. Arkwright was the recipient of many congratulations upon having
found us, as he has so often done before, a fox of so game a breed in his
Latton coverts. He saw him unkennelled, and saw him killed, and with
his huntsman led the chase from start to finish ; riding the renowned
" Diana," and adding yet another leaf to her laurel crown.

With few exceptions, all but those who were fortunate enough to have
second horses out went home, and missed what upon an ordinary day
would have been voted a run far above the average, covering as it did
another five-mile point, though in the sixty minutes hounds were running
they must have traversed twice that distance. W' hat a scent there was
upon this eventful day ! The moment hounds were put into covert they
found, and foxes, too, were equally alert to the fact, for they were on the
move in all directions. Harlow Park, Latton, Parndon, Maries Woods,
it mattered not where, foxes, and foxes too of the right sort, were con-
tinually being viewed. I will not weary you with a description of our
second run from Parndon Woods, but would only note that had not Mr.
Arkwright decided to spare the fife of a good fox, Bailey could easily have
killed him, as he ran the hedgerows near Hubbard's Hall.

Wednesday, November 27th, at Fyfield, left nothing but pleasant
impressions, though accompanied more or less by intermittent showers of
rain, following a sudden rise in the temperature after a sharp frost on the
previous night. Yes, this is quite a weather diary, I can assure you. A
quick find in Witney Wood, a fierce, bloodthirsty rush of a hundred, all
wanting to go first, two or three locked gates, the coverts cleared, and
Blackmore and Stondon quite on the cards, but somehow or other, from
lack of scent, or other mystifying cause, it was a misdeal, and the fox as
trump card never turned up again in that game. In Norwood, hounds had
all the best of the second rubber, forcing a fat cub out in the direction of
Envilles, and bringing him to book at Bird Hatch at the lunch hour.

The best of the fun was condensed into the evening gallop from Man
Wood. The Rector of Abbess Roding, with his daughter, was waitmg m
the muddy lane, at the time the huntsman had finished drawing the Brick
Kilns side of this noted covert. The rain was pattering down, a dull blue
haze surrounding everything, while scarcely a breath of wind stirred, and it
was quite warm enough to remove any fears of horses catching cold. So
the Rector was standing there, little dreaming that in half-an-hour's time
the hounds would have shown him such a short cut to his own dove-cot ;
and where he stood so did nearly all the field, quite indifterent to the fact
that some wild, uncultivated fields, covered with withered grass a foot
thick, tangled with creeping briars, were being drawn by the huntsman,
who was hidden from sight by a tall, straggling hedge.

Now, if there is one man more than another who is never (luite easy m

42 2 LEAVES EROM A HUNTING DIARY

his own mind when hounds are not in view, that man is Major Wilson ;
and quite right, too. If you have taken a day off duty, boxed your horse
by train at some expense, and got wet through into the bargain, to be
bilked at the last moment is, to say the least, a little provoking. So no
wonder, when all were coffee-housing in Man Wood's muddy lane, that the
active little grey mare could be seen picking her way daintily across the
prairie fields, which bisect the coverts, to reach the White Roothing side,
just as the hounds were thrown into the wood, having failed to put up a
fox in the rough fields beyond it. Knowing the Major rarely makes a
mistake, I luckily followed him. Do you know the little hand gate that
leads into the narrow bridle path that separates the Row Wood end from
the rest of the covert ? It was just here that a lovely lynx-eyed little fox,
such a green eye too, with one hound at his brush, broke from one covert
to the other, but not quick enough to escape the Major's eagle glance or
the roving eye of the ploughman. When it came to the holloaing the
]\Iajor was really not in it with the ploughman, and I had to help him.

"Marshall"

"Marshall," a bright chesnut gelding, 162, by " Mare-
schaK' (a horse belonging to Lord Rosslyn) carries his owner, the
Rev. Laurence Capel-Cure, who when the Hounds meet in the
Roothings may generally be seen piloting one of his daughters
by one of the numerous short cuts he knows so well, in time for
the finish of many a good gallop.

Our united efforts brought Bailey on the scene in a trice, muttering,
as he dashed through the gate, "Not a yard of scent." The hounds, how-
ever, tuned up a bit, and running down the covert for a hundred yards,
turned back, and then for a second whimpered and faltered at the boundary

THE "black bull," FVFIKLD 423

fence of the wood, on the White Roothing side ;' one old lady waved her
stern in the most demonstrative way as she smelt at the fence, and then
jumped over, Bailey remarking, " That's where he is gone," and out came
the horn, as, pushing open the gate, the pack got together and dashed
down the side of the fence. All down that field Bailey kept the horn going,
for it was pain and grief to him getting away without his followers knowing.
But this time they did knowj for they had heard the halloa, and heard the
horn ; and although there was not a soul in sight, except Jack and those
already mentioned, they were coming along post haste ; but, fast as they
were coming, they would never have caught hounds had it not been for a
very opportune check.

Running sharp to the bottom of the field, hounds turned over a wide
ditch to the right, and then taking another twist ran straight and fast until
they reached the White Roothing Road, where a man had ex'idently turned
the fox without getting a view. " Which way were you ploughing ? "
shouted the huntsman, as his hounds threw up. Looking back you could
not have seen a prettier sight — it was more like a point-to-point race than
anything else. Coming hand- over -harid. Mr. Jones and Mr. Newman
Gilbey, Mr. Arkwright, and one or two others were carrying a strong lead,
the rest of the field being strung out in a long tail, and they reached liounds
just as they picked up the line again for'ard, and for another ten minutes
ran fast and straight towards Abbess Roding ; scent not improving and the
field rapidly crowding up, just as the hounds required more room, and more
room is just what they did not get.

Near the Rectory we sadly wanted the guidance of the Rector, for not
only were we ignorant of the name of the church whose wooden spire stood
out as a prominent landmark on our right (some affirming it to be Matching
and others Beauchamp Roding), but we were confronted by two extra
thick fences, through which we should have liked the Rector to. have shown
the way, but failing him we gladly fell back upon Mr. Swire for the first,
and Mr. Jones and Major Wilson for the second. Jumping into the road,
we crossed it and bore down for the river, eventually losing our fox near
Waples Mill, the first thirty-five minutes of the gallop having been emphati-
cally good. Mr. A. J. Edward took a toss, and Mr. Tyndale White, jun.,
parted company, the latter over a very tricky fence, a wide ditch the take-
off" sloping downward with nothing but a high narrow bank to land on,
into a road, fortunately with grass margin. Have you ever tried the Black
Bull Inn, Fyfield, for gruel, eggs, and tea ? If not, do not hesitate to do
so if after a hard day you are stranded anywhere near it. Three of us
voted that we had not eaten such eggs and hot buttered toast for weeks as
the good hostess of the Black Bull placed before us in a very few minutes,
on snowy tablecloth, upon that Wednesday afternoon. The horses, too,
were very well cared for. The landlord himself has a weakness for a good
cigar, which he keeps in the right place — the chimney corner. Conse-
quently we do not mind how soon we renew our acquaintance with the
Dido brand.

Nevill Dawson, rising three when I first knew him, has
grown into a great stalwart fellow (a very smart one, too),
who takes after his father and grandfather in his love for
hunting.

A Saturday's meet at Harlow is sure to attract a large gathering,
though probably not in the memory of the oldest inhabitant have so many
ladies adorned one before. No less than thirty-two skirts were counted,
and not a skirter amongst them, if we might judge by the way they stuck to

424

LEAVES FROM A IIUNTINC DIARY

hounds all through the day, which was marked by another pleasing incident
— the election of the son of one of the oldest and staunchest supporters of
the Essex Hunt to membership in its club. Mr. Nevill Dawson has the
honour of being the most juvenile member, but as this does not involve
giving a champagne luncheon or turtle soup dinner to his seniors, he will
forgive my making allusion to the interesting fact.

Nevill Dawson

Parndon Woods, for the third time of asking, and that, too, within a
comparatively recent period, did not fail us, and this time a leash at least
were driven from its shelter. Mr. Green, who shoots these coverts, would
dearly like to see a Parndon fox killed. He tells me that a Parndon Wood
fox always did take a lot of killing, and the foxes that are there now are
pretty tough customers. They ring the changes so nicely that it will
surprise some of us very much if Bailey succeeds in brushing one without
the dog pack, a small afternoon field, and a real good scenting day. They
knew the country to Roydon, and Epping Lower Forest, Nasing Coppice,
to say nothing of Latton and Harlow Park, at any of which points they
can always rely upon a friend in need if pushed too hard. I don't bet, but
if Bailey succeeds in killing a Parndon Wood fox before Christmas Pll give
him a sovereign."

* I had no occasion to part. — El).

426 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

If your horse wanted a pipe-opener he certainly got it before the woods
were left behind. The rides were nearly hock deep, for even the brick-dry
clay of Parndon Coverts has at last yielded to the incessant rains and is
now as plastic as putty and sticky as bird-lime, and yet there is no help for
it unless you would chance your luck, and heading the fox at the same
time, you must plug up and down the rides within hearing distance at least
of the hounds. In big woods it is surely fair to follow hounds while they
draw, provided you give plenty of room, say 200 yards at least, to the
huntsman. We learn this in Essex, we practise this in other counties, and
the result is that we read how only two days previously, while hunting with
Lord Willoughby de Broke's noted hounds, out of eight people who saw
the good run from the wooded heights of Shuckburgh (what pleasant
memories that name conjures up), four were representatives of the Essex
county — Lady Warwick, Capt. and Mrs. Breeks, and ^Ir. H. Blyth — the
rest of the field, we are told, were picnicking.

But there was no picnicking about Parndon on Saturday last, but
scatter and splash to be with hounds as they crossed Epping Green for a
dart over the grass, only to have the cup dashed from our lips, when
we had touched Maries, by a fox that turned and went a strong line of
his own down wind towards Roydon, leaving no clue that hounds could
unravel. Oh, what a long dreary draw ; oh what a long, long trot, before
we got back to fox-land once more, to coverts too that had been shot
through only a few days previously ! But in Harlow Park there was a
yellow fox, and a right merry gallop he gave us ; for the pastures that
surround Sewalds Hall always carry a scent, and the bitch pack screamed
up them, taking full advantage of the hover and delay caused by the brook.
On past the farm buildings the leaders, led by Mr. Ford Barclay, would
not touch the gate, but whisked over the thorn fence and rode straight
on in the wake of hounds, catching them easily as the enclosures
grew smaller. Over the road at the back of Mr. Lucking's farm, and
over the road in front of the roadside inn — why did hounds throw up as we
charged in line over the next fence ? and where did he go ? May we solve
the problem and guess the riddle when next Harlow Park awakes from
its slumbers !

Monday, December 2nd, Passingford Bridge. — Whether you managed
to extract any fun out of this particular day's sport would entirely
depend upon your temperament, or perhaps, to be really accurate, the
state of your liver. If you wanted a shake up without the risk of jumping
nasty fences, the opportunity was afforded, and in good company all day
you might ha\e noted easily all that was done without jumping a stick. If
you lilce being jumped on or crossed when going at a fence, you could
hardly complain that the chance was not given you, though you might not
so readily admit the fog as an excuse. If you like to see a fox killed
without getting out of your carriage at the meet, you had only to sit
tight, and hey, presto ! the thing was done. If you like to see covert
alter covert, and mile after mile of country traversed without finding a fox,
well, Monday last i^'as no exception to n'liat has, after all, so far proved the rule in
the Monday country this season. If you like hunting Bailey instead of the fox,
your vaulting ambition would not have o'erleaped itself, as he held hounds
forward without a scrap of scent for about twenty minutes from Church
Wood, Stondon. If you like catching a lady's horse you need not
have been baulked in so laudable a desire, but you would have had to
be very nippy to cut out Mr. Horner and Mr. Lee, who captured and
restored two riderless steeds." And, finally, if you like getting home by

* Mrs. Redwood and Mrs. Upton's.

I

si

h V

42 LEAVES EROM A IIUNTINC DIARY

dayliglit when roads are bad and stones can be easily seen, you had only to
leave Kehedon Wood (which had been shot through forty-eight hours
before) when the horn played didce doniiiin, to have satisfied even that
moderate wish.

We all liked the ride to the covert,

And the greeting of friends who \vere there ;

But regret that the fox for the river

Should ever have stirred from his lair.

For if he had not tried to swim it,
To escape from his foes not a few,
He might this identical minute
Be laughing at me and at you.

That the scent was not very holding
Was a consolation to some,
For what with the fog in the morning,
We might have been easily done.

To say naught of the bad start from Stondon,
When all nigh were left in the lurch,
Save a lady, and one man, a bold 'un,*
Who snicked in with hounds at the churcli.

Courtfield Wood

Wednesday, December 4TH — ix the Front.

The Mate said it was a very poor da}'.

Mrs. Waters said : Why wern't you out ? We have had a capital
day.

The Huntsman said : A very fair day.

Miss Jones said : A very nice day ; at least iny father said he enjoyed
himself.

* Mr. Tyndale White and Mrs. Waters.

CONFLICTIN(; EVIDENCE . 29

AU this at Mrs. Sewell's Palace of Varieties entertainment, at which
so many of the dandies of the Hunt turned up in all the bravery of their
pink coats.

Weighing all the above evidence carefully without help of jury, we
should say that it must have been a very useful day. Why ? We can
dismiss the mate's evidence ; he must have been out of it.

Mrs. Waters, we happen to know, was riding a very good horse and
got well away.

The Huntsman didn't kill.

As for Mr. Jones, now he is a regular subscriber to the E.T., it behoves
one to be very careful. But, sine dnbio, he must have been one of the very
few who left the forest and crossed the railway on good enough terms
with hounds to see them run their fox to ground.

Friday. — I know precious little about Friday, but heard rather a good
joke from a fellow guardian* at the board on that day about the previous
Saturday. It seems he had come to grief in the brook below Sewald's
Hall, and only emerged with the loss of both leathers. While groping for
these in its miry depths a hat came floating down stream. " Aside to a
friend," but not sotto voce : " Ah ! some other poor devil has been in
the brook, here's his hat all plastered with mud." Friend (going into
convulsions): "Why, you fool, don't you know your own head gear?"
In the hurry and excitement of the moment he hadn't missed his own
beaver.

Saturday at W^illingale hardly adds much to the length of my
yarn, though a difference of ten minutes in time ; and it might have been
spun out to unreadable length before Monday came to be dealt with.
What a day it was ! The sun shining out in bitter mockery. Not a
particle of warmth in its glare as the icy blast swept in furious gusts over
the winter landscape.

11.30. Hounds would just be drawing the first covert. Perhaps
starting on the run of the season as the old horse was brought round,
and we swung ourselves into the saddle. How hard and dry the road !
Only a wet patch here and there, where it lay wind-sheltered. Where
were the bicyclists ? What were they doing, missing the run down to
Chelmsford with the wind at their backs ? For their purpose, perhaps,
the roads were perfection, in spite of clouds of dust hurrying along ever
and anon in our tracks as if 'twere March and not December.

How clear and distinct the black hedgerows were silhouetted this
December noon against the emerald green of the root fields, a sign of
rain for which it was too cold ; of snow possibly, for it had fallen heavily
in many parts of the country the previous night. A quiet path at any
time when you leave the main road at the Talbot and strike out for the
Lavers. It was quieter than usual. As the good brown slipped over
the roads no sound broke over the ear save the moan of the wind as it
rushed through hedgerows and trees, deadening the rhythmic tread of the
horse's feet, so that the two hay carters in deep confabulation as they
walked by the side of the last cart didn't hear our approach, but they
returned a friendly greeting with good will, for hunting is popular, very
popular, with the working classes in rural Essex, and there's very little
barbed wire would ever disfigure the fair fences of a fair country if it
rested with the men instead of the masters, methought as we passed the
glittering strands on either hand of the farm near Matching.

* Mr. W. R. Dent.

i

J

CASUALTIES

431

On over the Green, what a contrast to the life and excitement of the
opening meet, only one charioteer''' to be discerned driving a smart cob ;
waving his whip in recognition he drove on, leaving behind the solitude
he had broken. Man Wood and its associations, its possibilities and
disappointments, gave food for reflection ere we had left White Roothing,
with its mill and gale-driven sails. Where was the boy at the gate ? We
found him on the return journey, and he caught the coin if we didn't the
hounds. Under the hedges, the headlands showed little signs of the
drying winds, and the poached holes were full of water, while ten yards
out the fields were rapidly hardening. The last gate was half open. The
busy straw-tiers spied us a little too late, otherwise it would have been
shut with one of the deft binders in waiting. Past the white bridge, we
were getting very near the King William, the point we were making for,

Poplars

though some half-hour earlier than we had intended, and unmistakable
signs of the presence of hounds in the immediate neighbourhood broke
unexpectedly upon us. Two ladies, hacking homewards, one, I sad to
relate, with bandaged face, the result of a too bold and venturesome leap
under a tree, reported hounds were in Lords. A solitary horseman, J in
bright scarlet, with bowed back, reached the inn as we rode up, eliciting
our hearty commiseration as he lamented his bad luck in having just
lamed his favourite hunter.

However, there was little time to be lost. First horses were having
their gruel, and the second were not to be seen, an ominous sign that we
had arrived just a few minutes too late. "Not a sound to be heard, not
a glimpse of anything," said the familiar figure at the King William, as

Mr. G. Harris.

t Mrs. Pigott.

t Mr. Guy Gilbey.

43- LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY

we steered for the first wood, but he had not spied two reluctant horsemen
riding away from it, gazing after the rapidly disappearing panoply of the
chase, nor heard the whimper of the hound left in covert. Ah ! There
they were, some half-mile away ; and a pretty sight it was, too ; worth
even a thirty-mile ride to see. The rustics on the top of the straw stack
said, " You can easily catch them, they are not going so fast ; " but why
a big cloud of horsemen were riding away from the smaller band of work-
men who were sticking to hounds, we could not quite make out. Is it
always so in a bird's-eye view of the chase '? But quickly determining that
if they meant running there would be no overhauling them, and if they
didn't it was not worth while on a day so cold to court a ride back in the
dark, we struck into the first road, and reached home at 3.15, only
encountering two road menders at work on the fourteen miles of macadam.
Again we wondered, " Where were the bicyclists ? "

We heard all about it next day at Church parade. How if we had
been a little more patient, a little less susceptible to anticipated chaff, we
might have dropped in for the best thing of the day— a hunt of forty
minutes from Poplars to Row Wood in the evening, when only a select
and family circle were left to enjoy it, the biting wind having fairly driven
the rest of them home — not excepting the man -■'■ who jumped a big gate, or
those who got sworn at for chasing the fox without the hounds.

End of Vol. I.

Mr. Docwra.

INDEX.

Abbatt, Miss, 193.

Ainger, W. , 414.

Albany, Duke of, 72.

Albany, Duchess of, 72.

Aidred, 192.

Alger, W., 118, 169, 223, 294.

Alger, Mrs. W., 294.

Allen, 52, 54.

Allsopp, Lieut. Col. Hon. \V. II., 37, loi,
187, 188, 192, 193, 197.

Allsopp, H., 391.

Anthony (Huntsman to Somerset and Devon
Stag-hounds), 286.

Arkwright, L. W., 9, 12, 16, 32, 52, QI, 95,
loi. III, 115, 130, 131, 132, 135, 146, 229.

Arkwright, Mrs. L. W., 12, 25, 44, 52, 54,
55, 57, 64, III, 115, 123, 131, 157, 366.

Arkwright, L. J. W., 60, 90, 95, 103, 118,
131, 133, 134, 144, 145, 153, 157, 159, 161,
164, 165, 166, 170, 171, 173, 175, 176, 177,
182, 183, 184, 1S9, 197, 201, 204, 205, 211,
213, 215, 216, 217, 221, 222, 226, 227, 229,
230, 234, 238, 240, 245,247, 248, 251, 25s,
256, 257, 261, 264, 268, 270, 271, 275, 284,
286, 292, 293, 299, 302, 306, 310, 318, 323,
332, 335> 337, 364, 367, 370, 373> 374- 376,
382, 385, 386, 394, 403,407> 417, 421, 423,
425-

Arkwright, Mrs. L. J. W., 266,267,284, 288,
403, 405, 407, 417.

Arkwright, C, 230.

Armstrong, Mr. (Enfield), 403.

Arnold, W. S., 183.

Arundel (W. C. A. Blew ?) 61.

Ashley, 55.

Ashton, Mr. M. F. H., 359.

Astley, F., 52.

Avila, Frederick, 152, 153, 157, 182, 186, 189,
205, 206, 223, 239, 242, 248, 252, 294, 298,
301. 335. 364, 369.403, 407, 413. 414, 417-

h
Back, Mr., 135.
Baddeley, W. H., 294, 364, 376, 403, 407,

417.
Bagot, Harry, 4, 12, 16, 25, 56, 60, 61, 62,

64, 65, 72, 150, 168, 169, 230.
Bagot, Miss, 60, 64, 204.
Bailey, F., 361, 362, 417.
Bailey, James, 2, 7, 11, 13, 14, 15, 17, 20,

23, 26, 27, 28, 29, 38, 40, 44, 55, 56, 60,

28

122,

127

140,

142

IS9,

161

183,

187

65, 71. 72, 73. 77, 78, 84, 86, 90, 92,
96, 97, 98, loi, 102, 103, 104, 107,
no. III, 112, 114, 115, 116, 118, 120,
128, 129, 133, 135, 137, 138,

J43. 144, 147. »S2, 156, 157,

167, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174,

188, 191, 193, 197, 200, 201,

208, 213, 216, 217, 222, 225, 226, 227,
231, 238, 242, 243, 244, 245, 246, 250,
255, 256, 257, 258, 267, 268, 271, 273,
281, 284, 288, 299, 301, 304, 308,310,
319, 321, 337, 344, 356, 364, 366, 367,
369, 371, 372, 373, 374, 382, 394, 396,
404, 412, 413, 421, 422, 423, 424, 425,
427.

Baker, Rev. J. J., 131.

Baker, R. (the Runner), 360.

Ball, Edwaid Ash, 37, 38, 44, 50, 56, 64
80, 85, 86, 96, 105, 108, 115, 123, 127,
144, 167, 177, 182, 189, 192, 205,210,
221, 223, 224, 225, 227, 230, 232, 238,
251, 258, 261, 268, 286, 294, 303, 315,
375, 376, 378, 394-

Ball, Robert C, 23, 25, 37, 38, 40, 56,
61, 62, 64, 72, 80, 82, 92, 93, 94, 105,
III, 117, 123, 127, 129, 131, 133, 144,
150, 157, 170, 177, 182, 184, 186, 188,
192, 201, 399.

Ball, R. F., 56, 60, 80, 94, 179, 184,
215, 218, 221, 230, 232, 245, 247, 251,
268, 286, 294, 323, 370, 376, 403.

Ball, Mr.s. R. F., 403, 417, 425.

Ealloch, A. C, 232, 242.

Balloch, Mrs. A. C, 224, 294.

Bambridge, W., il, 30, 41, 115, 1 18,
124, 127, 144-

Bambridge, Miss, 294.

Banks, 279.

Barclay, E. E., 84, 86, 105, 123, 180,
215, 216, 221, 226,239, 240, 244, 281,

139,
158,
182,
204,
228,
254,
274,
313,
368,
402,
426,

. 79,
•31,

218,
247,
319,

, 60,
108,
147.

205,
26r,

184,
305,
369,

335. 337. 343, 349. 35°, 352, 353, 354,

370. 379. 402, 417, 420.
Barclay, Mrs. E., 335.
Barclay, Ford, 248, 376, 378, 381, 417, 425,

426.
Barker, P., 376.
Barrow, R., 361, 362.
Borrow, Mr., 277, 294.
Barihropp, Mr., 279.
Bartley, 412.
Basham, F. T,, 61, 187, 248, 268, 294, 364,

376,417-

434

INDEX

Bathurst, Mr. (M.F.H.), 359.

Bawtree, Mr., 12, 96, iii.

Baxter, Mr., 44, 187.

Beckford, P., 17, 406.

Bennett, L., 157.

Bennett, Mrs. L., 146, 157, 161, 175, 230,
268, 271, 275, 294, 307, 335, 364.

Benton, Mr., 179, 180, 268, 275, 294, 320.

Beresford, Lord Charles, 118, 123.

Bestall, Mr., 403.

Bevan, R. Y., 16, 23, 34, 37, 40, 42, 56, 57,
58, 64, 85, 86, 88, 90, 92, 96, 97, 98, 99,
loi, 105, III, IIS, 131. 140, 144. MS, 152,
153, 157, 165, 166, 177, 183, 184, 188, 222,
227, 232, 236, 238, 240, 242, 245, 248, 250,
252, 268, 284, 2S6, 294, 321, 347, 364, 366,
381, 3S5, 386, 394, 403, 407, 409, 417.

Biron (late M.F.H. Surrey Foxhounds), 248.

Biscoe, Major, 360.

Blackborne, Mr., 123, 150, 166, 175.

Blott, Mr. (Coopersale Hall), 117, 1S7.

Blyth, Miss, 376.

Blyth, H., 362, 417, 426.

Blyth, Audley, 361, 386, 397, 403, 417.

Blyth, Miss, '376, 378, 397.

Blyth, Miss G., 362, 417.

Blyth, Miss Ida, 359, 361, 362, 417.

Blyth, Mr. (Farmer), 228.

Boatman (Keeper), 209.

Bonham, Colonel, 403, 404.

Boothby, W, 9.

Boram, Mr. 250, 303.

Berwick, J., 43, 150, 234, 242, 294, 417.

Berwick, J., Junr., 403.

Bosley, T., 2S3, 319, 355, 357, 370, 371, 372,
379-

Bott, Mr., 226.

Bowen, Mr., 230.

Bowlby, E. S., 115, 117, 132, 144, 150, 164,
229, 245, 247, 248, 251, 255, 262, 263, 264,
266, 268, 269, 293, 310, 394, 397, 409, 417,
425.

Bowlby, Mrs. E. S., 115, 117, 132, 144, 147,
150, 158, 195, 197, 240, 247,248, 255, 264,
266, 268, 271, 376.

Bowlby, Frank, 158.

Bowlby, A. S., 245, 247, 266, 294, 319, 343,
409, 417.

Bowlby, Miss Eva, 265.

Bowlby, Miss Kitty, 265.

Bowlby, Miss Eleanor, 265.

Brace, Mr., 51.

Brassey, H., 100.

Breeks, Captain, 426.

Breeks, Mrs., 426.

Brindle, Mr., 277, 298, 311, 376, 400.

Broke, Mr. (Gladwyns), 117.

Broke, Lord Willoughby de, 426.

Brooke, Lord, 1 31, 258.

Brooke, Lady, 118, 123, 131, 176, 177, 1S2,
201, 204, 213, 221, 226, 230, 232, 234, 2^5,
236.

Brooker, 82, 83, 85.

Brooksby (Capt. P. Ehnhirst), 38, 205, 330,
392.

Brown, Arthur, 86, 183.

Brown, George, 12, 20, 37, 81, 151, 177, 212,
248, 268, 271, 277, 294, 425.

Brown, Mr. (V.S.), 347.

Brown (Farm " Coach and Horses," W.

Abbey), 40.
Brown, F., 80.
Bruce, Capt. C. D., 261, 267, 286, 292, 294,

304, 306, 315, 317, 332, 333, 335, 337, 341,

343. 344. 376, 3S1, 387. 402, 403, 404, 407,

413, 417, 419-
Bruce, Mrs. C. D., 2S6, 288, 292, 294, 344,

403, 407, 417.
Brumskill, J. S., 132, 248, 294.
Bryan, George, 50.
Buckmaster, W. S., 179, 180, 227, 230, 247,

27s. 330. 361, 362, 368, 386, 397, 412.
Budd, 301.
Burns, Miss, 230.
Burchell, Mr., 183, 189, 238, 333.
Burrows, Mr., 361, 362.
Bury, C. J., 27, 37, 52, 54, 55, 60, 96, loi,

115, 123, 127, 157, 159, 247, 275, 292, 308,

309, 404.
Bury, Mrs. C. J., 404.
Bury, R., 292, 294, 308.
Butcher, Thomas, 340.
Butler, Mrs. H., 219, 220.
Buxton, Sir Thomas Fowell, 52, 115, 127,232,

248, 415, 416.
Buxton, Gerald, 182, 225, 226, 238, 239, 247,

268, 269, 271, 275, 283, 288, 303, 376, 417,

425.
Buxton, Mrs. G., 271,425.
Buxton, Laurence, 425.
Buxton, Noel, 248.
Buxton, Miss T., 178, 230, 248, 268, 336, 351,

353- 364, 403, 417-
Buxton, ]\Iiss M., 178, 230, 248, 268, 336,

351. 353, 364,403, 417, 425-
Buxton, Miss C, 178, 230, 24S, 336, 351, 364,

403-
Byng, Mr., 123.
Byron, Lord, 387.

Caldecott, A., 54, 55, 64, 91, loi, 105, 115,
124, 125, 126, 127, 131, 156, 157.

Caldecott, Mrs. A., 123, 131.

Caldecott, Miss Maud M., 113, 115, 123, 125,
126, 131, 156, 157.

Caldecott, Miss R., 176, 201, 204.

Caldecott, E., 205, 214, 245, 247, 248, 251,
255, 261, 268, 271, 273, 286, 294, 297, 307,
323, 345, 364, 366, 367, 375, 376, 387, 397.

Caldwell, R., 213, 221, 226, 227, 230, 234,
294, 330, 361, 362, 368.

Caldwell, S., 99, 171, 177, 1S2, 205, 211,
213, 2x6, 221, 226, 227, 230, 232, 234, 236.

Caldwell, ]Miss, 177, 213, 234.

Calverley, H., Capt., 64, 166.

Campbell, Capt., 127.

Carnegy, Capt., 56, 200.

Carr, \V. S., 376.

Carr (Deer Park), 129.

Carr, T., 127, 314.

Carter, A., Majur (R.A.), 235, 240, 247, 248,
250, 256, 268, 271, 273, 286, 294, 298, 299,
306, 313, 314, 316, 364, 366, 367, 376, 381,
387, 395,407,408,417.

Carter, Mrs. A., 240, 247, 248, 268, 294, 417.

INDEX

435

Caton, Miss, 52, 54, 55.
Caton, Mr., 54.
Cecil, Lady Maud, 60.
Chalmers, Mrs., 294.
Champion, 133.
Chaplin, P., 56, 169, 374.

Chapman, Mr., 417.

Chapman, K., 50, 77.

Chapman, Mr. (Roydon Lea), 161, 171.

Chapman, Thomas, 275.

Charlton, N., 8.

Charringlon, C. N., I15, 123.

Charrington, S. C, 132.

Charrington, Hy., 105, 115, 123, 132, 157,
158, 197.

Chairin^ton, VI. K., 374, 376, 381, 3S5.

Chetwode, .Mr., 52, 54.

Chilton, J., 230.

Christian, Dick, 57, 78, 214.

Christy, David, loo, 182, 247, 255, 283, 306.

Christy, D., Jun., 154, 166, 297, 376.

Christy, James, 36, 61, 108.

Christy, Theodore, 376, 387.

Clarke, Mr. (Rye Hill), 145, 178, 180.

Clay, Col., 230.

Clements, S., 1 15.

Cockayne, Jim, 133, 140, 147, 170, 173, 176,
182, 187, '189, 195, 201, 204, 208, 209, 211,
215, 216, 221, 231, 303, 382, 385, 427.

Cockett, E., 294, 395, 396, 407, 417.

Cockett, Mrs. E., 294.

Coleman, T. (Netteswell), 137.

Collier, H. C, 198.

Colley, P., 149. 150.

Collins, Mr. (IL Grange), 174.

Collin, C. Chaffey, 226, 228, 230, 245, 247,
251, 254, 255, 256,257, 258, 261, 268, 270,
283, 284, 28b, 292, 294, 320, 324, 335, 337,
338, 364, 369, 373, 374, 376, 378, 385, 387,
402.

Colvin, R. B., Lieut. -Col., 11, 12, 14, iS, 19,
31, 32, 61, 71, 74, 82, 84, 86, 105, III, 118,
122, 123, 127, 140, 196, 198, 403.

Colvin, Lady Gwendoline, 19.

Colvin, Cecil H., 132, 140.

Colvin, F. F., Capt., iii, 113, 118, 140.

Conyers, H. J., 29, 124, 241.

Coope, O. E., 64, loi.

Cook, W., 251, 364, 403, 407.

Cook, Colonel, 293, 357.

Cooper, I'ercy, 5, 6.

Cooper, F., 117, 176, 201.

Corben, Walter, 265.

Cording, 71.

Corvell, 167.

Cottis, J. W. and Sons, 309.

Cowee, Thomas, 267, 306, 347.

Cowley, Mr., 11.

Courage, Edward, 223.

Craig, A. W., 277.

Crane, Tom, 217.

Crane, .Sam, 118, 135.

Crane, George, 170, 215.

Crawley, Charles, no, 229.

Crawley (the whip), 23, 38, 158, 18 1, 195,
197, 231.

Crespigny, Sir Claude de, 196.

Croker, Weston, 52, 227, 230, 247, 268, 284,

286, 294, 301, 335, 402, 403, 404, 405.
Croker, Mrs. Weston, 227, 230, 247, 268, 286,

288, 294, 376, 406, 417.
Crosse, J. G., 123, 127, 128, 132, 144, 145,

146, 150, 157, 161, 166, 170, 173, 174, 197.

252.
Cunliffe, Mr., 52.
Cure, The Rev. L. Capel, 37, 115, 123, 15S,

230, 294, 376, 421, 422, 423.
Cure, Miss Capel, 1 15, 123, 230, 247, 376,

421.
Cure, Arthur Capel, 20, 37, 44, 60, 61, 64, 90,

96, 105, IIS, 132-
Cure, Major Capel, 40, 64, 142, 213.

D

Dalton, W., 223, 247, 251, 413.

Darby, John, 126, 330.

Darby, Alfred, 118, 119, 261.

Davenport, Bromley, 191.

Dawson, George, 10, 12, 14, 18, 20, 21, 22,
25, 26, 32, 37, 38, 55, 56, 57, 64, 91, 98,
132, 176, 187, 190, 201, 204, 239, 294, 301,
3U, 317, 370, 371, 376, 399.

Dawson, Mrs. G., 132.

Dawson, Nevill, 167, 403, 408, 417, 423, 424.

Dawson, Miss, 25, 132,

Dawson, Miss Maud, 156, 157, 188, 190, 294.

Deacon, A., 28, 30, 31, 52, 54, 55, 60, 64, 91,

"S-
Deacon, Mrs. A., 115.
Deacon, Miss, 60, 64, 75, 115.
Deacon, Miss A., 17, 30, 31, 115, 122.
Debenham, Mrs., 413.
Dent, W. R., 123, 239, 429. .
Dent, F., 303, 353, 403, 40S, 417.
Dewey, C. (Galley Hill), 247.
Dewhurst, Mr., 350.
Dewhurst, J., 230.
Dickinson, Barnard, 5, 9, 23, 25, 37, 40, 56,

60, 64, 96, 102, 123, 132, 150, 241.
Dickinson, H. B., 170, 196.
Dickinson, A., 4, 5, 123.
Dobson, S., 8, 9, 10, 13, 31, 32, 52.
Docwra, E., 268, 294, 376, 432.
Docwra, Miss A. N., 245, 294.
Doxat, C. N., 157, 183, 184, 217, 245, 294.
Driscoll, Rd., 198, 199.
Druitt, Dr., 294.
Drybrough, T. B., 163.
Du Cane, Capt. J. B., 213, 214, 217, 221.
Dunlop, A. J., 248, 267, 376.
Dunmow, James, 229.

1-:

Easterby, H., 296, 319, 320, 33S> 394-
Edwards, A. J., 12, 14, 37, 132^ 150, 170,
174, 221, 248, 271, 376, 385, 403, 407, 423.
Edwards, 41.
Egerton, Mr., 8.
Ekler, H. H., 37, 123, 150, 158, 182, 223,

2j0, 247.

Elder, Mrs. H. H., 37.
Eldied, J., 117.
Elvin, F., 117.

Ethelston, E., 17, 131, 170, 183, 225, 362,
363-

436

INDEX

Evans, P. M., 56, 71, 82, 89, 105, iii, 227,
230, 236, 240, 242, 244, 251, 261, 262, 268,
361, 362, 403, 417.

Fane, Rev. F., 40, 52,83,91,95, in, 115,
123, 127, 131, 157, 175. 177, 195. 230, 241,
247, 262, 284, 293, 313.

Fane, Col. F. T., 367, 376.

Fane, Miss, 37, 71, 95, 177, 234, 247.

Fardell, J., 328.

Firr, Tom, 11, 393.

Firr, Fred, 4, li, 17, 23, 26, 27, 29, 38, 42.

Fitch, Sam., 44, 117, 222, 231, 240, 292, 296,
320, 334, 369, 417, 420.

Fitch, Bernard, 239, 321, 360.

Fitch, C, 90.

Fitzgerald, Lady, 55.

Fitz Herbert, Sir William, 218.

Fitz Herbert, Rev. R., 8.

Fletcher, R., 96.

Flinn, Mr., 425.

Flint, A., 246.

Flux, E. H., 117, 238, 239.

Follett, J-, 115, 123, 144, 145.

Follett, Mrs. J., 115.

Forrest, Thomas, 49, 50.

Fort, Miss, 132.

Foster, Rev. Sir C. F., 35, 54.

Foster, Major J. F., 35, 96.

Foster, Hervey, 12, 15, 20, 23, 25, 33, 34, 35,
36, 37, 44. 46, 48, 51. 52, 54, 55, 62, 64,
82,83,85,91, 131-

Foster, Mr. (Ongar), 204.

Foster, W., 150, 176, 201, 294.

Fowler, Howard, 41, 55, 60,84, io9, m, '77'
182, 213, 216, 226, 239, 245, 247, 248, 256,
258, 261, 268, 270, 271, 275, 284, 286, 292,
294, 335, 338, 369, 374, 381, 385, 403, 405,
417.

Fowler, Mrs. Howard, 248, 403.

Furze, J., 231, 294.

Gardiner, William, 202.

Gardner, Lieut. -Col. Alan, 56, Si, 82, 102.

Gee, H., 362.

Gellatly, Miss Maud, 142.

Gibbs, Kenneth, 64, 85.

Gibson, Edward, 61, 62, 64, 72.

Gibson, Mr. (Chelmsford), 277.

Gilbey, Sir Walter, 359.

Gilbey, Lady, 294, 359.

Gilbey, H. W., 310, 362, 376.

Gilbey, Tresham, 56, 60, 94, 230, 247, 255,

284, 286, 358, 360, 361, 362, 386.
Gilbey, Guy, 230, 247, 248, 26S, 284, 286,

294, 3", 358, 360, 362, 376, 431-
Gilbey, Miss, 294, 359, 361, 362, 376, 378,

386.
Gilbey, Newman, 230, 260, 284, 285, 292,

294, 335, 373, 374, 3^5, 3^7, 402, 403, 417,

423-
Gilbey, Mrs. Newman, 294.
Giles, Arthur B., 313, 364, 385, 397, 400.
Gilham, Mr., 360.
Gingell, Daniel, 71, 132, 150, 223, 231, 247,

268, 294, 376, 410.

Gingell, James, 81, 113, 123, 132, 150, 223,
268, 294.

Gingell, W., 179, 239.

Gingell, John, 286.

Ginger, F. H., 117.

Gladstone, Right Hon. W. Ewart, 120.

Glyn, Miss, ill, I15, 123, 131.

Glyn, Miss M., 86, loi, 102, 105, 106, 108,
III, 117, 123, 131, 157, 176, 197,201, 204,
230.

Glyn, Mrs., 115, 131.

Glyn, Clayton, 115.

Goffe, Mr., 294.

Gold, Philip, 312, 362.

Gold, A., 417.

Gold, C, 362.

Gold, Gerald, 361, 362, 417.

Gold, Miss, 294.

Goodall, 330.

Goodwin, Rev., 40.

Gosling, Miss Dora, 360.

Gosling, Mr. (late M.F.H. Puckeridge), 376.

Gosling, Miss, 131, 376.

Graham, Col. Sir Lumley, 25, 64, 127.

Green, Frederick, 10, 12, 16, 18, 20, 23, 25,
37, 39, 40, 44, 56, 61, 62, 64, 72, 74, 82,
84,85, 86, 87, 88,89,90,95, III, 132, 142,
159, 183, 184, 187, 189, 191, 205, 211, 226,
227, 344, 374, 403, 407, 414-

Green, F., Jun., 246, 248, 251, 268, 283.

Green, Miss AL, 205.

Green, C. E., 17, 20, 23, 25, 32, 37, 39, 40,
44, 55, 56, 60, 62, 64, 72, 74, 82, 85, 86,
88, 90, 92, 93, 95, 98, loi, 104, 105, 108,
109, no, 113, 115, 117, iiS, 123, 124, 127,
130, 131, 133, 135, 140, 142, 144, 145, 147,
152, 153, 155, 157, 159, 165, 166, 167, 170,
171, 175, 176, 177, 183, 184, 187, 188, i8q,
191, 193, 195, 197, 201, 204, 205, 207, 209,
213, 217, 221, 224, 226, 227, 228, 229, 230,
231, 236, 245, 250, 264, 283, 288, 296,
330, 334, 335, 353, 364, 372, 385, 403, 404,
405.

Green, Mrs. C. E., 123, 127, 131, 230.

Green, Major G., 88, 105, 177, 221.

Green, James, 12, 17, 32, 37, 55, 57, 96, loi,
115, 123, 127, 144, 172, 225, 234, 247, 248,
268, 294, 412, 417, 424.

Gregory, D. , 364.

Greenall, Sir Gilbert, 203.

Gribble, Mr., 12.

Grubbe, Francis, 52.

Grubb, R. T., 90, 268, 269, 2S4, 294. 314,
315,417-

H

Hamilton, Baillie, Sir W., 131.

Handbury, Miss, 53.

Hanbury, Osgood, 230.

Hargreaves, P , 23, 29, 37, 42, 43, 44, 62, 64,

74, 82, 84, 92, III, 127, 129, 150, 197, 230,

234-
Harris, G. (V.S.), 77- 123, 132- 39i, 403-
Harris, G. H., 1 17, 132, 294,431.
Harris, J., 96, 115, 127, 132, 158, 165, 176,

197, 201, 222, 223, 225, 230, 234, 238, 248,

268, 286, 294, 417.
Harris, Mrs., 115, 132.

INDEX

437

Harris, iMis

57-

Harris, W., 115, 123.

Harrison (Enfield), 403.

Harrison, T. H., 72, 150, 157, 205, 223, 277,
294, 376, 381, 397, 403-

Hart, George, I2, 14, 17, 20, 29, 37, 42, 55,
57, 64, 80, 95, loi, 104, 115, 123, 127, 132,
137, 144, 145, 148, 151, 158, 168, 169, 177,

184, 197, 204, 206, 209, 212, 213, 217, 223,
225, 230, 231, 232. 247, 248, 271, 294, 381,

396, 397, 419.
Hart, H., 417, 419.
Hart, Jun., 189.
Hartopp (Chicken), 81.
Hatton, J., 328.
Hayes, Sam, 51.

Heinemann, W. D., 294, 376, 386.

Helme, Edward T., 176, 201, 204, 252, 267.

Heneage, H. G., 132.

Heseltine, Mr., 251.

Hibbert, C, 6.

Hill, lames Duke, 55, 60, 131, 132.

Hill, Mrs. J. D., 115.

Hill, R. D., 123, 131, 132, 150, 157, 159,

1S2, 184, 213, 230, 231, 294.
Hill, Mrs. R. D., 294.
Hill, Miss, 115.
Hine, H., 80, 96, 115.
Hine, Mrs., 294, 376.
Hitchman, J., 170.
Hoare, Mr., 244, 353.
Hodding, General, 230.
Horner, W. Sims, 64, 96, in, 123, 144, 177,

234, 240, 248, 251, 268, 269, 294, 304, 323,

336, 364, 365, 366, 403, 412, 417, 426.
Horner, H. W., 248, 251, 26S, 294, 304, 364,

376, 403-
Horner, Miss, 140.
Hotham, C. G. B.. 378.
Houblon, Miss Archer, 85, 145, 186, 187, 222,

425.
Howard, Colonel S., 12, 20, 25, 38, 51. 52,

54. 56, 58, 59. 71, 73. 74-
Howard, T. J., 115, 150, 157, 205, 206, 230,

242, 294, 425.
Howard, Miss, 55.
Howett, Bob, 6.
Hull, T. R., 155, 157, 169, 177, 227, 230,

234, 247, 248, 258, 261, 268, 277, 384, 385,

397, 417-
Hull, T. A., 335.
Humphreys, Mr., 357, 358.

Hurrell, W., 81, 161, 178, 179, iSo, 1S5, 186,

239, 240, 281.
Hurrell, W. (young Bill), 161, 162, 178, 180,

185, 186, 239, 240, 281, 353.

Ibbetson, Sir Henry SeUvin, 13, 14, 16, 17,
20, 23, 25, 27, 28, 32, 37, 38, 39, 40, 42,
43, 44, 51, 54, 55, 56, 61, 62, 64, 71, 82,
85, 86, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 97, loi, 104,
106, 112, 114, 115, 116, 117, 123, 126, 131,
135, 144, 157, 159, 165, 204, 223, 399.

Ibbetson, Lady, 64, 72, 75, 115, 131.

Ind, Edward, 10, 112, 114, 117.

Ingram, Messrs., 328.

J

Jackson, A., 154.

James, W., 156, 184.

Jameson, Mr., 167.

Jenkins, Wm., 61, 217.

Jennings, C, 147, 250.

Jerrard, Mr., 224.

Jerrard, Junr., 240.

Johnson, Mr. (Harlow), 403.

Jones, H. E., 37, 60, 61, 64, 72, 74, 77, 86,
90, 100, loi, 105, 108, III, 117, 118, 123,
132, 134, 135, 144, 155, 157, 159, 169, 177,
184, 187, 205, 213, 221, 223, 225, 227, 230,
232, 234, 245, 247, 248, 250, 255, 256, 258,
261, 268, 270, 277, 284, 286, 291, 294,
306, 310, 376, 381, 423, 425, 429.

Jones, Mi-ss Ethel, 148, 154, 168, 169, 171,
175, 177, 205, 227, 230, 234, 236, 245, 248,
261, 268, 288, 294, 297, 364, 376, 397, 402,
411,428.

Jones, Mrs. Hand field, 190.

Jones, Rev. (Mag Lav), 182, 303.

Jones, V. S. Leicester, 169.

Jordan, Mr., 44, 117, 167, 288.

Jorrocks, 14.

K

Kemp, Sir Kenneth, 93.

Kemp, S., 96, 117, 123, 234, 245.

Kemp, A., 77, 96, 117, 123, 127, 150, 152,

153, 154, 157, 170, 182, 184, 191, 234, 236,
^245.

Kemsley, J., 243.

Kemsley, A., 97, 170, 210, 215, 271.
Keppel, H., 25, 40, 60, 64, 96, 109, 11 1, 115,

118, 123, 132, 150, 157, 301.
Keppel, Mrs. H., 25, 4c, 109, iii, 115, 123,

132, 150, 157.
Kelts, W., 39, 92, 180.
Ketts, Jun., 364.
King, H. 8., 117.
Kingsley, Chas., 147.
Kipling, Rudyard, 242.
Kirkby, J. \V., 109.
Kirkby, J., 115.
Kirkby, W., 115.

L

Lamarque, Miss, 244.

Lamb, Mr., 328.

Langworthy, Miss, 105.

Law, Wm., 372.

Law, Walter, 371.

Lawrence (Toot Hill), 151.

Lawrence, Edward, 36, 73, 80, 85, 96, 157.

Lawrence, Henry V. S., 37, 72, 96, 150, 158,

159, 195, 252, 277.
Laxton, Mr., 44.
Leatham, Miss, 244.
Leatham, Mr., 294.

Lee, G. H., 213, 230, 403, 404, 405, 407, 417.
Lee, P. S., 145, 230, 248, 268, 353, 364, 376,

403, 417, 426.
Lines, H., 115, 223, 245, 248, 284, 286, 294.
Lines, Miss, 294.
Lister, H. J., 25.
Little (Keeper), 400.
Littler, W. H., 114, 117, 132, 195, 201, 294.

438

INDEX.

Littler, Tun., 176, 195, 294, 425.

Littleworth, Chas., 23, 38, 86.

Lobb, G., 230, 294, 373.

Lobb, Guy, 302.

Lockwood, Lieut. -Col., 12, 17, 25, 37, 40,
42, 43, 45, 46, 50, 51, 52, 54, 60, 64, 74,
82, 89, 91, 92, 93, 95, 96, 101, III, 113,
115, 117, 118, 131, 137, 158, 195, 197, 205,
222, 224, 230, 234, 240, 243, 251, 261, 268,
298, 300, 303, 344, 345, 347.

Lockwood, Mrs., 45.

Lockwood, R., 20, 25, 27, 40, 45, 46, 48, 49,
SO, 51, 54, 74, 82, 91, 94, 97, 98, 105, III,
113, 115, 117, 118, 119, 120, 122, 131, 146,
147, 148, 152, 153, 157, 170, 177. 191. 195.
230, 246, 268, 269, 271, 275, 364, 366, 367,

375, 381.

Lockwood, Mrs. R., 25, 53, 148.

Loder, Mr., 330.

Longbourne, J. V., 37, 40, 113, 132, 140, 145,

215, 217, 223.
Longfellow, H. \V., 357.
Lonsdale, Lord, 246, 247, 370, 393.
Lord Mayor of London, The, 87.
Lowndes, Alan, 45.
Lowndes, Miss, 45.
Loyd, F. E., 230, 294.
Lucas, Mr., 369.
Lucas, A. P., 177.

Lucking, C, 167, 168, 205, 277, 426.
Lvall, R. C, 197, 210, 221, 24S, 268, 294,
'335> 376.

M

Machell, Captain, 50,

Maclean, Colonel, 177.

Macrae, Mr., 121.

Maitland, Miss Venetia, 64.

Maguire, Mr., 53, 54.

Mann, Miss, 268.

Mappin, Mr., 8.

Marriage, Mr., 61, 108, 1 15.

Marriage, Jacob, 108, 155, 277, 311, 312, 313,

376, 397-

Marsh-Chisenhale, S., 42, 43, 55, 64, 66, 71,

82, III, 115, 123, 127, 129, 131, 144, 157,

158, 159, 175, 294, 407-
Marsh-Chisenhale, Mrs., in, 157, 158, 195,

197.
Marsh-Chisenhale, H., 403.
Marsh-Chisenhale, Miss, 115.
Marter, General, 230.
Marter, Miss E., 230.
Mashiter, T., 366.
Mason, Miss, 417.
Mathews, Porter, 64, 145, 150.
Mathews, T., 82, 122, 150, 195, 248, 262, 26S.
Maynard, Lord, 293.
Maur, St., 132.
Maxwell, Mr., 127.
McConnell, I'rimrose, 182
Mcintosh, Mrs., 222, 230, 246, 250, 271, 283,

294, 298, 344, 347, 357, 374, 402, 413.
McKee, C. F., 44, 60, 70, 85, 100, loS, iii,

113, 117, 123, 127.
Meggs, Miss, 359, 362.
Meek, C, 40, 62, 102, in, 1 13, 115, 127.
Melles, J. W., 25, 64, loi, 132, 273, 274.

Melles, W. E., in, 274.

Melville, Whyte, 290, 356, 390, 400.

Metson, Mr. (Thrushes Bush), 156.

Meyer, Capt. Herman, 23, 24, 25, 38, 65, 66,
150, 230, 232, 301.

Meyer, C. Paul, 24, 304, 402.

Michell, H. B., 364.

Micklem, H. (R.E.), 274.

Milbank, G. V., 198.

Millbank, [. PL, 305, 402.

Milbank, W., 115.

Milbank, F., 115.

Miller, Dank, 143.

Miller, W., 41.

Miller, Henry John, 29, 36, 39, 40, 55, 56,
61, 62, 64, 65, 72, 91, 92, 96, 98, III, 112,
114, 120, 138, 144, 152, i!;7, 158, 171, 173'
174, 175, 177, 1S4, 186, 187, 195, 197, 213,
216, 230, 239, 291, 294, 297, 407, 408, 425.

Miller, Jack, 92, 176, 201, 204, 294, 403.

Miller, Frank, 176, 201, 204, 294.

Miller, Thomas, 288.

Miller, John, 85, 108, 242.

Miller, J. (Bishop's Stortford), 132.

Miles, Mr., 157.

Mills, T. J., 29, 37, 40, 60, 62, 64, 95, 98,
108, 115, 158, 179, 184, 1S6, 195, 206, 209,
231. 234, 239, 240, 241, 242, 243.

Milton, Matt., 214.

Morgan, Miss E., 152, 154, 184, 226, 230, 240,
247, 248, 251, 261, 267, 26S, 271, 294, 298,
299, 306, 313, 319, 328, 364, 376, 397.

Morgan, Miss M., 251, 364, 397.

Morgan, — Jun., 261.

Morris, William, 206, 207, 20S, 248, 252, 294,
364, 369, 407.

Mugleston, T., 306, 364.

Muntz, P., 330, 392.

N

Nathan, J., 80.

Neave, Sir Arundel, 53.

Neave, Capt. A. T. Digby, 277, 280.

Neave, Edward, 150, 206, 20S, 223.

Neave, Sheffield, 115, 117, 118, 123, 127, 142,
144, 148, 149, 150, 154, 168, 205, 206, 208,
221, 223, 229, 277, 278, 279, 327, 376, 396,
397, 398, 399, 400.

Neill, Mrs., 286, 288, 294, 403, 417.

Nelson, Capt., 223, 230.

New, A. J., 294.

Newall, J., 55.

Nicholls, T., 29, 213.

Nicholson, William, 157, 364, 376, 403.

North, Miss, 118.

O

Oakley, W. E., 50, 51.

Oakley, Mrs. W. E., 51.

Odell, Mr., 52.

Oldham, A. C, 268, 275, 296, 376, 3S1, 382,

384, 385, 397, 398.
Oliver, Rev. Austin, 60.
Oliver, Endon, 157, 205, 210, 213, 223, 230,

239, 244.
Oliver, Miss, 123, 205, 213, 223, 230, 248,

251, 268, 294, 323.
Olney, Mr., 96, 210.

INDEX

439

Onslow, Loid, 103, 1 18.
Owen, Hugh, ijo.

P
Palmer, J., 120.
Palmer, Miss, 54.
Palmer, Ralph, 86, 145, 183, 236.
Pamphilon, Mr., 18, 23.
Parham, Mr., 179, 180, 210, 244, 245, 303.
Parish, Wm., 163.

Parkes, C. R., 56, 90, 91, in, 112, 114, 127.
Parkes, John, 215.
Parrolt, Mr., in, 123.
Parry, N., 76.
Patchett, W., Q.C., 230, 239, 244, 252, 268,

294, 364,407, 417.
Patchett, Mrs. W., 294.
Paton, Frank, 390, 409.
Peake, G. Herbert, 113.
Pease, A, J., 239, 240, 247.
Pegrum, A., 117, 185, 186, 239.
Pegium, George, 98, 163, 192, 250.
Peel, Archibald, 215, 218, 219, 236, 292, 309,

417,419.
Peel, Miss E., 219, 220.
Pelly, A. D., 248, 374.
Pelly, E., 40, 55, 71, III, 211, 230, 248, 268,

286, 333, 335, 337, 353, 404, 405, 417.
Pelly, H. Cecil, 72, 115, 127, 239, 248.
Pelly, Miss E., 369, 376.
Pelly. J. G., 37, 44, 55, IIS, 123, 127, 177,

184, 230, 240, 248, 251, 268, 269, 275, 369,

372, 374, 376-
Pelly, Mr., 39.
Pelly, L., 37, 56, 90, g6, 177, 252, 268, 364,

376, 377-
Pelly, Mrs. L., 140, 230.
Pelly, Percy, 216.
Pemberton- Barnes, W. H., 60, 64, 96, 117,

127, 150, 157- 177, 223, 224, 230, 235, 236,

238, 240, 247, 248, 251, 252, 254, 268, 277,

283, 294, 298, 306, 307, 319, 324, 326, 327,

328, 347, 364, 365, 367, 387, 397, 402, 413,

417, 420.
Pemberton-Barnes, Mrs. W. H., 268, 277, 328.
Pemberton, Rev. J. H. R., 238.
Perkins, Jack, 215.
Petre, Henry, Hon., 36, 52, 56, 72, 212, 213,

346-
Phelips, C. J., 76, 417.

Philby, H., 40, 56, 61, 90, 1 13, 161, 162, 186.
Philby, Miss, i6r, 162, 1S6.
Phillips, Lewis, 178, iSo, 244, 245, 303.
Pigott, Mrs. Wellesley, 431.
Piper, Mr., 301.
Pole, Chandos, Mr., 8, 51.
Pomeroy, Mr., 54.
Poole, Alfred, 294.
Poole, Mr., 181.
Poole, S. S., 132.
Poole, W. A., 115.
Poole, G., 115.
Powell, Rev. P. H., 115, 131.
Prance, Miss, 362, 407.
Prance, Miss U., 359, 361, 362, 364, 407.
Prance, Miss G., 359, 361, 362, 364, 407.
Pratt, Frank, 96, 153, 252, 366.
Pratt, S., 235, 252.

Price, Howel J., 150, 170, 183, 208, 213, 230,
248, 251, 268, 273, 283, 294, 297, 313, 314,
319. 323. 335, 337. 364, 376, 407-

Price, Mrs. Howel J., 268, 376, 407.

Price, Mr., 52.

Prince of Wales, 177, 227.

Pryor, Thomas, 275.

Pryor, Mr., 54, 206.

Pryor, Miss, 52.

Pyne, Mr., 213, 215, 230.

Pyne, Mrs., 230.

Quare, E., 64, 226, 268, 269, 284, 294, 376.

Quare, Mrs. E., 294.

Quare, Miss, 230, 268, 284, 294, 376.

Quare, Tudor, 55, 64, 91.

" Q " of the Quorn, 302.

R
Raby, G., 154.
Ray (Essex Union), 296.
Redwood, Mrs., 239, 271, 426.
Ricardo, Major, 247, 252, 261, 262, 294, 364,

.373- 376, 387, 417-
Ricardo, Mrs., 417.
Richardson, Herbert, 196.
Richardson, Miss, 238.
Rickett, T., 183, 206, 271.
Rickett, T., Jun., 178, 180, 226, 244, 303.
Rider, Wm., 122.
Riddell, Mr., 54.

Riddell, Major, 247, 255, 261, 262, 267.
Ridley, C. E., 52, 64, in, 127, 132. 157,

195, 258. 267, 376,411.
Ridleys (Four), 55.
Ridley, Walter, in, 132, 157, 376.
Ritchie, Mr. (Kildare), 161.
Rivers, Mr., 102.
Robin, Mr., 104.
Roberts, Rev. A., 230.
Roberts, Mrs. A., 230.
Robertson, Mr. J., 6.
Roddick, A., 272.
Roddick, A., Jun., 272, 273, 417.
Roftey, W. T., 25, 37, 64, 86, 104, in, 115,

117, 123, 150, 157, 197. 376.
Rolleston, Lancelot, Lieut. -Col. (M.F.H.), 5,

6, 8.
Rookwood, Lord, i, 2, 12, 60, 62, 82, 145,

230, 232, 245, 268, 284, 294, 356, 382.
Rookwood, Lady, 3, 4, 230.
Ross, J., 115.
Rosslyn, Lord, 422.
Rouse, Lndy Gwendoline, 19.
Rossgrove, Col., 40.
Rowland, T. W., 115, 123, 127.
Rowland, Mrs., 294, 303.
Rowland, W. K., 317.
Royds, Mr., 52, 54.
Rumball, D., 143, 187, 379.
Rumney, H., 115.
Rust, James, 196.

Salisbury, Lord, 60.

Sands, J., 64, 114, 127, 150, 176, 201, 204,
230, 252, 268, 376, 387.

440

INDEX

Sands, Mrs. J., 387.

Sanderson, Mr., 362.

Sargent, H. R., 339.

Satch, Mr., 250.

Saunders, P., 55.

Saunders, Mr., 179.

Saunders, Rev. G. W., 169, 227, 236, 300, 314.

Saunders, Mrs., 227, 230.

Savill, Alfred, 224.

Savin, Cecil, 373, 374-

Savill, H., 127, 376.

Saward, J., 37, 364.

Scott, Rev. R. L.. 131, 247, 248, 268, 294,

403, 417-

Scott, Mrs. R. L., 131.

Scruby, Mr., 301.

Scruby, T-, 12, loi, 205, 206.

Sedgewick, Mr., 132, 304, 376.

Selborne, Lady, 60.

Sellar, D. P., 240, 252, 261.

Sewell, Arthur, 230, 234, 308, 400, 403, 417.

Sewell, George, 44, 56, 60, 61, 62, 71, 82, 92,
105, III, 150, 161, 162, 175, 183, 184, 187,
190, 205, 213, 215, 216, 221, 223, 224, 227,
230, 234, 238, 245, 248, 250, 252, 257, 261,
268, 275, 284, 286, 294, 298, 304, 324, 329,
330, 347, 362, 364. 369. 372, 373, 374, 376,
381, 3«<S> 390, 391- 392, 400, 403, 409, 417,
428.

Sewell, W., Sen., 224, 398.

Sewell, W. H., Jun., 25, 37, 39, 44, 55, 5^,
60, 62, 64, 82, 95, 105, III, 127, 150, 153,
162, 171, 1S3, 184, 205, 206, 210, 211, 213,
214, 217, 223, 224, 225, 227, 230, 232, 234,
245, 248, 252, 254, 255, 268, 269, 275, 2S3,
284, 286, 292, 298, 303, 316, 362, 364, 373,
374, 376, 397, 398, 399, 400, 402, 403, 417.

Sewell, Mrs. \V. H., 44, 227, 230, 248, 252,
268, 271, 286, 292, 309, 359, 361, 401, 403,
407, 429.

Sewell, Miss, 230.

Sewell, Miss D., 398.

Sewell, Dr., 328.

Shapland, A. H., 369.

Shaw, R., 6.

Shelly, 127.

Sheppard, E., 251, 302.

Sheppard, G., 8, 255, 256, 258, 294.

Shorter, Mr., 127.

Silvester, Mr., iii.

Simmonds, Mr., 345.

Single, S., 403.

Single, Washington, 268, 269, 352, 364, 407.

Skelton, 6.

Slocock, Rev. G., 115.

Smith, Sir C. Cunliffe, 37, 52, 54, 55, 60, 81,
90, 94, 95, 144. 223, 234, 291, 336, 364.

Smith, D. Cunliffe, 42, 95, 176, 185, 201,
222, 223. 252, 268, 335, 353, 364, 407.

Smith, R. Cunliffe, 95, 185, 252, 294, 376.

Smith, T. G. (Worcester), 193.

Smiih, James, 56, 185, 239.

Smith, Peter, Gibbons Bush, 183, 245.

Smith, W., 112, 114, 115, 132.

Smith, Miss (Bishop's Stortford), 132.

Sorrell, J. Biockett, 210, 211, 347.

Somerset, Colonel, 51.

Sparrow, Newman, 172, 173.

Spencer, Miss May, 359, 362.

Spencer, Miss Ethel, 359, 362.

Spencer, Lord, 332.

Speed, Mr., 51.

Stacey, F., 360.

Stanley, Mrs. Sloane, 81.

Stallibrass, F., 108, III, 127, 230.

Starbuck, Miss N., 44.

Steele, A. R., 25, 55, 60, 72, 213, 223, 248,

286, 294, 335, 376, 403, 407, 411, 412, 417.
Steele, Mr., 417.
Steele, Miss, 286, 288, 376.
Steele, Rev. John, 294, 304, 376, 417.
Stevenson, H., 64, 72, 96, 115, 150.
Stiell, Mr., 235.
Stout, Mrs., 148.
Stradbroke, Earl of, 19.
Stuart, Stirling, 278.
Suart, Alfred, 23, 40, 42, 148. 150, 151, 230,

294.
Surridge, T., 40.
Swire, J., 284, 286, 287, 288, 294, 304, 309,

335, 337, 376, 417, 423-
Swire, Mrs. J., 294, 417.
Sworder, F., 132.
Sworder, H., 25, 37, 40, 60, 62, 64, 71, 86,

92,96, loi, 102, 108, III, 112, 113, 115,

120, 121, 122, 123, 132, 144, 145, 147, 152,
157, 158, 166, 177, 182, 195, 210, 221, 226,
230, 232, 234, 236, 240, 242, 243, 291, 292,
294, 298, 299, 300, 303, 335, 364, 376,381,
385, 403, 404, 407, 417.

Sworder, W., 20, 25, 29, 37, 40, 41, 42, 64,

121, 132, 142, 144,
Sworder, Hy., 109, 158.
Symes, Walter, 205.

Symes, William, 12, 20, 36, 37, 39, 80, 97, 150,
205, 241, 250.

Tabor, C. V., 202.

Tabor, J., 16, 221, 230.

Tail, Major J. C, 12, 18, 20, 37, 40, 42, 44,
60, 62, 64, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 82,
95, loi, 105, 108, III, 115, 117, 123, 127,
131, 135, 142, 144, 150, 157, 158, 177, 182,
185, 195, 197, 205, 206, 210, 223.

Tait, Mrs., 12, 20, 37, 40, 44, 60, 62, 64, 68,
70, 95, III, 115, 123, 127, 131.

Tait, Miss Hattie, 40, 44, 70, 108, 123, 156,
157, 177, 213, 227, 230, 23S, 251, 294, 359,
362.

Tattersall, Messrs., 32, 51, 350, 368.

Taylor, Mr. (Low Hill), 404.

Taylor, Mr., 55.

Teck, Prince Adolphus of, 176, 201.

Teck, Prince Francis of, 145.

Theobald, Mr., 268.

Thomas, Mrs., 44.

Thompson, Colonel Anstiuther, 42.

Thurgood, Mr., 114.

Tibbies, P., 115.

Tilling, R. S., 295, 296, 334, 336, 417.

Tilling Bros., 296.

Tippler, P., 36, 72, 132, 157, 196, 252.

Todhunter, J., 17, 20, 25, 31, 32, 64,86, loi,
104, in, lis, 123, 132, 137, 152, 156, 175,
213, 230, 245, 2S4, 286, 294, 417.

INDEX

441

Todlumler, Mrs. J., 132.

Tosetti, M., 352, 353.

Torrance, M., 168.

Tower, Major, 64, 114, 115.

Tower, W. Maitland, 132.

Tower, Miss, 53, 115.

Toynbee, 288.

Trevennen, Mr., 225.

Trim, Mr. W., 98, 400.

Tucker, Mr. Josejih, 168, 183, 369, 397.

Tufnell, E.. 42, 61, 64, 72, 108, ill, 157,

345, 346, 347.
Tufnell, Capt., 317
Tufnell, Capt. G. M., 344, 345, 364.
Tufnell, John JoUifle, 345.
Turner (Enfield Stag Hounds), 403.
Turner, Jack, 13, 83, 92, no, 112, 114, 116,

158, 197, 201, 209, 234, 242, 256, 257, 258,

262, 301, 303, 317, 319, 320, 32J, 323, 337,

374, 394, 395< 396, 423, 427.
Tweed, A. J., 194, 202, 203, 251, 252, 255.
Tweed, H. R. B., 194, 196, 198, 199, 200,

202.
Tweed, Walter, 96.

U
Unwin, F. G., 115.
Upton, Mrs., 240, 277, 376, 426.
Upton, Mr., 277.
Usborne, Thomas, M.P., 52, 54, 64, 113, 118,

134, 135, 140, 176, 201, 227, 230, 247, 251,

294, Z7(i, 111-
Usborne, E. F., 376.

Vaughan, Y ., in, 157.
Vickerman, C. R., 395.
Vickers, Dick, 293.

Vigne, Henry, 37, 39, 44, Si, 161, 177, 17S,
179, 180, 184, 185, 186, 229, 239.

W

Wahab, E., 417.

Waller, C. W., 198.

Walmsley, J. V., 12, 15, 25, 29, 31, 36, 37,
52, 53, 54, 64, 73, 74, 75. 76, 77, 86, 88, 90,
105, III, 115, 117, 122, 127, 132, 148, 150,

157, 159, 169.
Walmsley, Mrs., 1 1 5.

Waltham, R., 176, 201, 204, 236, 240, 242,

243,244,291.
Ward, Alexander, 252.
Ward, Bob, 60.
Warburton, Egerton, 87, 368.
Warner, T. C. T., 44, 95.
Warner, Lady Leucha, 271.
Warwick, Countess of, 248, 261, 284, 288,

293, 410, 426.
Waters, A., 37, 42, 55, 57, 60, 62, 64, 65, 72,

105, 108, III, 113, 115, 123, 132, 144, 146,

150, 157, 177, 208, 213, 221, 227, 258, 268,

330, 369, 376.
Waters, Mrs., 37, 40, 55, 56, 60, 62, 64, in,

115, 123, 127, 130, 132, 142, 144, 156, 157,

158, 159, 176, 177, 195- 201, 204, 230, 234,
245, 271, 301, 401, 403, 407, 428, 429.

Waters, Miss G., 158, 176, 201, 204, 230, 234,
238, 240, 268, 335, 338, 369, 403.

Watlington, John Perry, 12, 37, 103.

Watson Mr. (Coopersale), 117.

Watson Farnell, Mrs., 127.

Webb, J., 132.

Webster, C, 170.

Webster, Miss, 271, 294, 410.

Wederell, Mr., 122, 419.

Wellington, Duke of, 340.

Wells, xMr., (Chelmsford), 228.

Wells (Huntsman to Tuckeridge), 82, 83,

360.
Wesley, loi, no, 112, 114, 115.
Westall, W., 157, 158, 179, 180, 195, 197,

223, 230, 239, 244, 252, 26S.
Westhorpe, Mr., 52.
Westminster, Duke of, 51.
Whipps, Arthur, 192, 193.
White, Tyndale, 71, 72, 95, 97, 99, 100, loi,

105, in, 113, 117, 132, 139, 150, 156, 157,

170, 171, 176, 177, 181, 184, 201, 204, 205,

213, 217, 221, 225, 250, 234, 240, 268, 271,

313, 314, 323, 428.
White, Mrs. Tyndale, 230.
White, Bazley, 71.

White, J. Tyndale, 294, 323, 369, 423.
White, Capt. W. H., 75, 123, 127, 129.
Whitefield, Mr., 50.
Wigram, Mr., 55.
Wigram, Alfred Money, 94.
Williams, Mr. (Debden Hall), 56.
Williams, Romer, 173.
Williams, W. Phillpotts, 353, 354, 397.
Williamson, J., 6.
Willis, Capt., 51.
Wdlis, Mr. (Coopersale), 44, 407.
Willis, George, 39, 96, 115, 150, 230, 239.
Willis, W., 115, 230.
WilHs, Mr. (N. Weald), 151.
Wilson, Major Maryon, 236, 248, 252, 255,

268, 273, 286, 292, 307, 313, 332, 336, 337,

347, 364- 366, ib-], 373, 374, 395, 403, 407,

417, 420, 422, 423.
Wilson, Mrs. Maryon, 403.
Wilson, Rev. G. Maryon, 399.
Wilson, J., 115.
Wilson, Mr. (Hyde Park), 132.
Wilson (Potters Street), 142.
Wilson, Mr. (Enfield), 221.
Winder, Mr., 81.
Wiseman, Sir William, 105.
Wodehouse, Col., 131.
Wombwell, Mr., 294.
Womersley, R., 12, 22.
Wood, Charles Page, 279.
Wood, Major-General Mark, 29, 40, 45, 46.
Wood, General Sir E., V.C., 255, 262, 267,

306, 329, 376.
Wood, Capt. H. W. (Epping Place), 308.
Wood, R., 37, 39, 40, 42, 43, 56, 95.
Wood, Miss Amy, 20, 37, 44, 93.
Woodward, A. E. , 252, 268, 361, 362.
Wroughton, P., 392.

Wyllie, A. K., 25, 37, in, 112, 115, 132.
Wythes, E. J., 250.

Y

Yeo, Dick, 9.
Yerburgh, Rev. R., 9.

442

INDEX

Yerburgh, H. B., 158, 195, 238, 362.
Yerburgh, Miss M. E., 217, 230, 244.
Yerburgh, Miss O., 230, 240.
Yerburgh, W. II. B., 354.
Yerburgh-Wardell, Rev. O. P., 82, 392.
Young, Mrs., 294.

SUNDRY REFERENCES.

Baily's Magazine, 178.

Briggin's Cup, 31.

Belgian Cavalry, 279.

Button, The Hunt, 94, 399.

County Gentleman, 82.

Dragoons, Royal, The, 177.

Duke of Wellington's Regiment, 343.

Duke of York's Own Loyal Suffolk Hussars,

272.
Egyptian War, 1882, 12.
Essex Hunt Club, 94, 99, 120, 399.
Epping Golf Links. 400.
Essex Agricultural Show, Romford, 203.
Essex Regiment, 345.

Field, The, 77, 205, 334, 339, 356.

Harlow Bush Fair, 25.

Hunters' Improvement Society, 193.

Horse, Carriage and General Insurance Co.

Ltd., 320.
Liberator Society, The, 173.
Matching Green Cricket Club, 24.
Ongar Bench, 24.

Ongar and Epping Rifle Corps, 24.
Ongar Cricket Club, 24.
Peterboro' Show, 290.
Primrose League, 4.
Rundells Races, 3, 4, 62, 76, 77, 80.
Ross Horse Show, 203.
Standard, The, 370.
Sportsman, The, 339.
Spectator, The, 25, 409,
Stansted Polo Club, 401.
Truth, 25.

Vickery's Patent Bars, 215.
Weston's Patent Bars, 215.
W^est Essex Polo Club, 22, 66, 67.
W^orcestershire Militia, 193.

NAMES OF COVERTS, MEETS, &c.

Abbess Roothing, 29, 42, 410, 421, 423.

Aljbess Roothing Cliurch, 423.

Abridge, 40, 83, 85, 90, 92, 93, 105, ill,

157, 244, 335, 345.
Albyns, 94, in, 113, 365.
Alder Wood, 40.
Alexandria, 42.
Alfreton, 6, 90.
Almshouse Plain, 273.
Amber Mill, 6.

Apes Grove, 40, 44, 82, 83, 84, 92, 1 17, 137.
Arey Lane, 273.
Argentina, 196.
Ashby Folville, 393.
Ashdon Mill, 91.
Aspoll Park, 171.
Australia, 88.

Axe and Compasses, 54, 72, 133.
Aylesbury, 317.

Badby Wood, 330.

Ball Hill Wood, 26. 29, 39, TT,, 123, 124, 129,

211, 309,333-
Bank of England, 282.
Barbers, 44, 60, 61, 85, 90, 93, 108, 115, 1 17,

167, 185, 186, 187, 209, 241, 244, 285, 318,

379, 394,414-
Barking Side, 328.
Barnsleys, 40, 43,86, loi, 113, 122, 142, 144,

152, 167, 169, 187, 217, 234, 268, 300, 302,

393-
Barrington Hall, 17, 173, 221, 258,277, 304.
Barrington Park, 54, 1 13, 134, 215.
Bay's Grove, 117, 184, 215, 221, 268, 394.

Beachetts, 52, 55, 56, 71, loi, 108, 117,
121, 143, 144, 145, 1S6, 187, 230,242,
307, 318, 325, 338, 394, 396, 407.

Beacon Hill, 307, 396, 402.

Beauchamp Roothing, 29, 159.

Beauchamp Roothing Church, 113.

Bedford, 200.

Bedfords, 120, 254.

Beech Hill Park, 14, 271, 394, 402.

Beech Wood, 323.

Bee Hive, Chigwell, 93.

Belgium Wood, 25, 41, 42, 118, 141, 156,
167, 168, 182, 183, 184, 303, 397, 399,

Bell Bar, 60.

Bell Common, 184.

Bell House, 386.

Bentley Mill, 53, 156, 366.

Berlin, 334.

Berners Wood, 16, 55, 72, 79, 122.

Berwick Wood, 337, 338, 402.

Bigoods, 310.

Big Wood, 40, 83.

Billesdon Coplow, 40.

Birch Hall, 281,394.

Bird Hatch, 421.

Bishop's Hall, 45, 46, 47, 82, 84, 92, 93,
344, 347-

Bishops Stortford, 55, 115.

Black Bull, Fyfield, 423.

Black Bush Plain, 273.

Blackmore, 53, 118, 155, 226, 266, 284.

IMackmore High Woods, 42, 44, 79, 137,
175, 200, 202, 251, 282, 293, 296.

Blackmore Windmill, 113.

159.
419.

t48,

INDEX

443

Blake Hall, "^i, 117, 169, 261.

Blake Hall Station, loi, 150, 206.

Bloomer Wood, 6.

Blue Gates, 115.

Bobbingworth, 150, 182.

Bobbingworth Hall Farm, 152.

Bobbingworth Windmill, 283, 305.

Bobbingworth Wood, 305, 372, 402.

Bois Hall, 120, 235, 313, 366.

Bourne Bridge, 298.

Bower House, 299, 347.

Bower Wood, 254, 324, 325, 326, 347.

Box ted Wood, 310.

Boylands Oak, 153.

Boynton Hall, 43.

Boynton Springs, 16, 78.

Bojnton Cross, 61.

Braunstone Gorse, 332.

Brentwood, 254, 261, 386.

Brick Kilns, 12, 23, 28, 38, 42, 51, 65, 118,
145. 157, 159, 182, 183, 184, 221, 232, 247,
261, 277, 283, 294, 317. 379, 402, 410, 421.

Bridgeford Gorse, 8.

Briggins Park, 31, 76, 82.

Broadley Common, 234.

Brockle's Farm, 86, 1S3.

Brook House, 37, 62, 90, 143, 302.

Broomfield, 36.

Broomshaw Bury, 12, 113, 118, 181, 25S, 397.

Brown's Osiers, 23.

Buckhurst Hill, 62, iSo.

Bullock Springs, 118.

Bullock's Wood, 115.

Bulwell Hall, 6.

Bundish Hall, 182.

Bungay, 199.

Bunny Park, 8.

Burnt Mill, 166.

Bury St. Edmunds, 199.

Bushetts, 61.

Bush Wood, 40, 44, 60, 167, 186, 209, 241.

Bush Wood, near Boyntun Cross, 61, 115, 143.

Cambridge, 223.

Cammas Hall, 257, 261, 310, 317.

Canes, 148, 169, 182, 183, 213, 319, 370, 396,

419.
Canfield, 6.
Canfield Bury, ill.
Canfield Hart, 40, 56, in, 115, 1 18, 133, 159,

172, 173, 221, 288, 399.
Canfield Mount, 12, 160, 161, 173, 215, 311.
Canfield Thrift, iii, 119, 133, 161, 172, 173,

311-
Cart Shed Wood, 307.
Castle Farm, Ongar, 169.
Caterham, 378.
Chalk End, 43, 72.
Chambers' Farm, 271.
Champion Lodge,' 196.

Chelmsford, 36, 107, 1 13, 196, 200, 228, 329.
Chelmsford Sewage Farm, 36.
Chignall, 36, 43.
Chigwell Lane, 84.
Chigwell Lane Station, 37.
Chigwell Row, 93, 224, 273.
China, 344.
Chingford Lake, 1 15.

[67, 230, 288, 402,
1S7, 238,414.

Church Wood, Doddinghurst, 43, 113, 182,

313-
Church Wood, Slondon, 426.
Claybury, 29, 42, 118, 328, 364.
Claybury Asylum, 327.
Claybury Wood, 327.
Cobbtns Brook, 26, 27, 30, 39, 71, 73, 97, 98,

129, 148, igi, 210, 213, 216.
Cock Hotel, Epping, 36.
Colchester, 196, 198.
College Wood, 16, 61, 228.
Colman's Farm, 338.
Conduit Wood, 40.
Cook's Wood, 313, 314.
Coombe Lodge, 255, 283.
Coopersale, 93, 108, 157, ;

407.
Coopersale Flail, 115, 117,
Coopersale House, 145, 187.
Coopersale Lodge, 44.
Copped Hall, 14,20, 25, 55, 58, 88, 105, 124,

126, 129, 162, 183, 213, 250, 354, 391.
Copped Hall Green, 55, 58, 98, 141, 170, 247.
Copped Hall Lodge Gates, 271.
Courtfield Wood, 115, 428.
Creslow, 317, 318.
Crick, 392.
Cripsey Brook, 305.
Cross Keys, Thornwood, 92, 148.
Crowle Brook, 193.
Crows Wood, 139, 213.
Cuckoo Pits, 274.
Curtis Mill Green, 42, 51, 90, 94, 113, 115,

120, 137, 145, 233, 234, 23s, 236, 290, 291,

3"0, 365, 375. 387, 402.

Dagnam, 90, 153, 205, 246, 250, 251, 268,

283, 323. 387- 402.
Dagnam Brook, 42, 152.
Dagnam Park, 120.
Dagnam Warren, 120.
Dagnam Priory, 253.
Dalby Rectory, 81.
Dart, the River, 198.
Daventry, 271.
Debden Green, 55.
Debden Hall, 56, 244.
Deer Park, 14, 27, 29, 39, 74, 82, 98, 104,

123, 128, 129, 140, 141, 147, 159, 171, 1S9,

332, 333> 404.
Dewley Wood, 150, 1S2, 261, 306.
Dobb's Wood, 54, 139, 140, 330.
Doddinghurst, 118.
Down Hall, 12, 13, 17, 20, 23, 34, 38,42, 51,

52, 54, 60, 82, 8g, 102, 105, 113, 115, 116,

I (8, 157, 159, 182, 183, 218, 221, 230, 232,

246, 247, 261, 283, 284, 2S5, 286, 294,304,

315, 317, 3S2, 397>402.
Duck Lane, 217.
Duck Wood, 240, 299.
Dudbrook, 71, 72, 177, 290.
Dunmow, 52, 82, 135, 310.
Dunmow High Woods, 72, ill, 1 15.
Dunsley Green, 171.
Durrington House, 102, 182, 245.

Easton Lodge, 72, 167, 177, 203, 251, 289,
293. 300> 301, 351. 402.

444

INDEX

Eastwick, 117, 166, 167.

Edney Common, 118.

Edwinstowe, 6.

Egg Hall, 334.

Elscnham Hall, 359, 361, 362.

Enfield, 115, 50, 221.

Envilles, 28, 150, 157, 159, 316, 317, 421.

Epping, 12, 14, 15, 36, 38, 57, 122, 129, 167,

191, 193, 363, 391, 392, 409.
Epping Brewery, 98, 171, 185.
Epping Bury, 25, 26, 38, 216.
Epping Bury Farm, 25, 73, 162, 163.
Epping Church, 149.
Epping Forest, 25, 150, 167, 171, 178, 190,

192.
Epping Golf Club, 57.

Epping Green, 25, 96,97, 147, 169, 183, 426.
Epping Plain, 57.
Epping Vicarage, 148, 149, 170.

Fair mead Bottom, 30.

Felsted, 172.

Fernhills, 273.

Fitz Johns, 107.

Fitz Walters, 296.

Forest Hall, 42, 55, 80, 91, 154, 169, 182,

200, 267, 283, 378.
Foster Street, 122, 167.
Four Ashes, 115, 180, 182.
Foxboroughs, 40, 299.
Foxes Wood, 310.
Fryerning Wood, in, 118.
Fyfield, 44, 56, 117, 169, 283, 300, 421.
Fyfield Hall, 154.
Fyfield Mill, 154.

Galley Hill, 14, 20, 27, 29, 38, 56, 74, 98,
104, 105, 115, 127, 128, 140, 141, 147, 149,
157, 159. 169, 171, 189, 191, 193, 215, 226,
236, 247, 283, 292, 308, 309, 351, 402, 403,
405-

Galleywood Common, 72, 196, 198, 199, 202,
247, 283.

Gal way Co., 126.

Gardiner's F'arm, 1 15.

Garnetts, 52, 72, 119, 139, 140, 171, 172, 213,
277, 284, 410, 411.

Garnish, 376.

Garnish Hall, 29, 1 15, 179, 184, 187, 240, 241,
281, 378.

Gaynes Park, 35, 38,44, 66, 108, 119, 186,
318.

Gaynes Park Woods, 15, 40, 56, 85, 93, 97,
145, 151, 184, 209, 217, 222, 335.

George Hotel, Harlow, 122.

Germany, 202.

Gidea Hall, 323.

Gills Farm, 211.

Gilslon Park, 260, 261, 343.

Gladwyns, 23, 1 17.

Glamorganshire, 389.

Goldings, 38, 59, 129.

Goldings Hill, 281.

Good Easter, 36, 43, 50, 54, 130, 140, 227,
,330.

Grange Farm, 277.

Gravel Lane, 84, 93.

Gravel Pit Wood, 152, 167, 169, 175, 268,

394-
Great Gearies, 328.
Great Hallingbury, 132.
Green Man, Harlow, 11, 16, 86, lOi, 165, 170,

187, 193, 268, 269, 287, 425.
Green's Farm, Magdalen Lane, 182.
Greensted, 55, 150, 169, 337.
Greensted House, 100.
Greensted Wood, 56, 60, 247, 306.
Greystoke (Lancashire), 350.
Griffin's Wood, 73, 216, 75.

Haddon Little, 72.

Hainault Forest, 82, 83, 84, 90, 92, 93, 118,

120, 153, 205, 298.
Hainault Lodge, 403.
Hallingbury Park, 1 10.
Hare and Hounds, 15, 61, 77, 113.
Hare Street, 157, 238.
Harleston, 396.
Harlow, 11, 54,82, 86,90, 102, 103, 122, 156,

181, 205, 213, 268, 286, 300, 305, 391, 393,

423-
Harlow Bury, 122, 283, 315.
Harlow Bush, ^"j.
Harlow Bush Rooms, 137.
Harlow Common, 14, 25, 43, 80, 87, 89, 122,

123, 136, 137, 144, 183, 215, 225, 226, 232,

246, 302.
Harlow Park, 8, 17, 25, 43, 80, 86, 92, 122,

152, 159, 167, 169, 184, 187, 188, 205,209,

221, 224, 248, 283, 368, 399, 426.
Harlow Station, 144, 167, 221, 222.
Harolds Park, 85, 238.
Harold Wood, 254.
Hartford End, 135.
Harveys, 52.

Hastingwood Common, 25, 96, 167.
Hatfield Broad Oak, 23, 54, 65, 99, 1 13, 181,

182,215, 258, 277, 283, 288, 289, 330, 398,

402.
Hatfield Grange, 118, 174, 256, 382, 406.
Hatfield Heath, 17, 56, 109, 113, 117, 118,

130, 144, 181, 182,227, 247, 283.
Hatfield Park, 60.
Hatters Wood, 152, 299.
ILavering, 40, 90, 92, 93, 117, 120, 246, 250,

283, 297, 413.
Havering Park, 348.
Hean Castle, 395.

Heathen Wood, 17, 56, 102, 218, 245, 315.
Henham Hall, 19.
Hereford, 203.
Herons Farm, 154, 169.
Herring Grove, 150.
Hertford Heath, 60.
High Beach, 30, 58.

High Piaster, 42, 54, 120, 122, 138, 139, 140.
High Easter Bury, 36.
High Easter Brook, 8, 286, 402.
High House, Harlow, 39, 122.
High Laver, 55, 118, 145, 402.
High Laver Hall, 113, 184, 316, 370, 374.
High Laver Rectory, in.
High Ongar, 16, 42, 91.
High Ongar F'arm, 41.
High Ongar Rectory, 1S2.

INDEX

445

High Roothing, ii8, 167, 174.

High Roothing Bury, 3S6.

High Roothing Springs, 133, 171, 311,330,

402.
High Roothing Street, 133, 171, 213, 277, 364,

402, 410.
High Wych, 103.
Hill Hall, 42, 185, 209, 338.
Hill Hall Park, 40, 44, 56, 85, 90, 91, 93, 98,

III, 120, 143, 335.
Hinson's Corner, 373.
Hobbs Cross, 152.

Hobbs Cross (Theydon Garnon), 303.
Hoe Lane, 93.
Hogg Hill, 246, 344, 374.
Hoidenby, 396.

Hollyfield Hall, 169, 247, 275, 2S3, 292.
Honey Lane, 86.
Horse Shoe Farm, 270.
Horse Shoe Wood, 313.
Horsefrith Park, 1 15, 251, 296, 400.
Hunters Hall, 147.
Hutton Hall, 72.
Hutton Railway Arch, 43.
Hyde Hall, 245.
Hyde Hall Springs, 117, 303.
Hylands, 72, 247, 283, 399.

Ingatestone, 148, 400.
Ipswich, 196, 203.
Ireland, 35, 36.
Isle of Wight, 25.
Israels, 71, 106, 107, 115.

Jericho, 115, 223.

Kelvedon Common, ill, 246, 283, 367.

Kelvedon Hall, 313.

Kelvedon Hall Woods, 90, 120, 182, 368,

428.
Kennels, The (Harlow), 17, 31, 54, lOi, 142,

14S, 165, 180, 215, 224, 284, 334.
Kennels, The old, 169, 182.
Kennel Wood, 54.

Keillebury Springs, 60, 90, 144, 306.
Kilkenny, 2S0.
King William, 44, 72, 138, 174, 213, 221,

229, 2S6, 402, 410, 431.
Kingsmore House, 175, 183.
Kings Oak, 216.
Kitchen Hall, 302.
Knightsland, 60, 71, 167, 236, 318, 321, 337,

407.
Knowles Hill P^arm, 94.

Ladygrove, 118.

Lambourne, 46, 205, 374.

Lancaster Springs, 52, 54, 277.

Langford Bridge, 368.

Langleys, 44, 345.

Latchmore Banks, 109, 1 17.

Latton, 87.

Latton Bushes, 25, 113, 152.

Latton Park, 14, 25, 43, 53, 54, 56, 60, 82,
86, 92, 96, 97, loi, 122, 145, 156, 167,
169, 178, 180, 183, 184, 188, 189, 209,
215, 216, 221, 226, 227, 250, 268, 270,
284, 287, 368, 417, 419.

Latton Priory, 17.

Latton Rectory, 222.

Latton Street, '87, 122.

Lea River, The, 75, 140, 150.

Lea Valley, 273.

Leaden, 44, 52, 54, 286.

Leather Bottle Moreton, 145.

Leighs Priory, 172.

Lerels Green, 310.

Ley ton, 171.

Linby, 6.

Linton, 16.

Lindsey Street, 163, 192.

Little Baddow, 36.

Little Laver, 11 8, 150, 379, 409.

Little Laver Hall, 24, 25.

Little Laver Mill, 150, 221, 261, 283, 341.

Little Maries, 148.

Liverpool Street, 17Q; 282.

Long Barns, 55.

Lords, 16, 42, 54, 139, 140, 286, 330, 331,

376, 431-
Loughton, 43, 59, 82, 95, 335.
Loughton Rectory, 38.
Loughton Shaws, 37, 40, 42, 44, 55, 84, 129,

167, 205, 282, 2S8, 413.
Lower Forest, 40, 54, 56, 57, 66, 73, 80, 96,

loi, 145, 152, 184, 206, 216, 217, 250, 400,

409.
Lowesby, 393.
Low Hill, 404.
Lubberhedges, 310.
Luft'man's Earths, 282, 283.
Lufifman's Gorse, 162.
Luffman's Lodge, 56, 129, 216, 244, 250.

Magdalen Laver, 168, 205.

Magdalen Laver Hall, 41, 156, 374.

Mngdalen Laver Rectory, 41, 148.

Magdalen Laver Schools, 183.

Maldon and Chelmsford Navigation, 36.

Man Wood, li, 23, 28, 29, 34, 40, 42, 65, 80,

113, 118, 145, 157, 182, 1S3, 215, 221, 230,

232, 247, 256, 258, 261, 277, 283, 293, 294,

317, 379, 3S0, 381, 382, 4C2, 410, 413, 421,

422,431.
Marchings, Chigwell Row, 93.
Maiden Ash, 169, 306.
Margaret Roothing, 54, 122.
Mark Bushes, 80, 144.
Mark Hall, 17, 43, 54, 122, 164, 167, 169,

187, 203, 215, 217, 221, 222, 227, 268, 300,

417.
Maries Farm, Little, 86, 167, 169, 178, iSo,

210, 236, 244, 245, 303.
Maries Wood, 20, 43, 54, 56, 86, 92, 96, loi,

130, 170, 215, 270, 271, 363,426.
Mashbury, 36, 43, 44.
Matching Green, 11, 12, 23, 40, 51, 54, 56,

64, iTi, 112, 114, 131, 145, 146, 148, 157,

158, 176, 185, 195, 197,201,203, 204, 214,

230, 231, 252, 292, 293, 294, 295. 430, 431.
Matchmg Hall, 159, 184, 294, 419, 420, 421.
ALatching Park, 8, 23, 25, 54, 56, 60, 159,

1S4, 218, 261, 283, 284, 294, 315, 382, 384,

385, 397, 402, 419. 420.
Matching Tye, 262, 284, 382.
Meath County, 79.

446

INDEX

Melton, Who's for, 57.

Melton Mowbray, 81, 393.

Menagerie Wood, 52, 90, 115, 177, 262, 313.

Merry Fiddlers, 1S5, 208, 209, 241, 414.

Merryweathers Farm, 104, 169.

Mill Green, 175, 347.

Mole Trap (Tawney Common), 144.

Monk Wood, 28 1.

Montreal, 347.

Monkhams Hall, 19, 39, 104, 105, 12S, 140,

149, 171, 308, 332, 403.
Moor Hall, 17, 23. 25, 39, 54, 56, 60, 102,

103, 105, 113, 118, 122, 142, 144, 182, 187,

217, 245, 261, 315, 382, 383.
Moor Hall Farm, 167.
Moors, The, Bentley Mill, 156.
Moreton 27, 42, 82, loi, 118, 409.
IMoreton Mill, 150.
Moreton Park, 316.
Moreton Wood, 28, 154, 182, 283.
Mountnessing, 223.
Myless Lodge, 1 1 5, 307.

Nasing, 27.

Nasing Bury, 404.

Nasing Church, 86.

Nasing Common, 20, 25, 29, 52, 54, 70, 72,
73,^85, 86, 104, 124, 147, iSo, 183, 189,
236, 237, 283, 292, 307, 308, 3J2, 368.

Nasing Coppice, 25, 27, 29, 70, 73, 82, 85,
86, 104, (24, 128, 129, 140, 141, 147, 1S9,
203, 215,236, 247, 332, 333, 352.

Nasing Gate, 74.

Nasing Lodge Farm, 238.

Nasing Park, 140, 236, 238.

Nasing School, 183.

Navestock, 60, 90, 113, 120, 394, 402.

Navestock Church, 235.

Navestock Hall. 235, 366.

Navestock Heath, 152, 177, 366, 387.

Navestock Lake, 313.

Nave.stock Park, loi, 177.

Netteswell Cross, 88, 113, 152, 1S4, 222,
286, 416, 417, 418.

Netteswell Hill, 89.

Newbold Revel Park, 240.

New Farm, 71, 73, 129, 170, 216.

New Hall, 311.

New Inn, Waltham Abbey, 140.

Newton Hall, 43.

Newpasted, 310.

Noak Hill, 387.

Noak Wood, 202.

Normanton, 6.

Northaw Mcarage, 60.

Northaw Wood, 60.

Northlands, 144, 394.

North Weald, 8, 11, 30, 159, 203, 402, 409.

North Weald Fort, 320.

Norton Camp, Worcester, 193.

Norton Heaih, 42, 52, 339, 402.

Norwood, 28, III, 145, 157, 317, 402, 21.

Oaks, The, Woodford, 178.

Obelisk Wood, 56, 85, 104, 105, 127, 140,

141, 171, 309, 402.
Ogston Carr, 6.
Ogston Hall, 6.

Old Park, 52.

Olives, 72, 161, 214.

Olives Farm, 52.

Ongar, 25, 36, 54, 91, 125, 150, 335, 377, 400.

Ongar Park Farm, loi, 206, 320.

Ongar Park Woods, 33, 38, 41, 54, 55, 56, 71,

85, 117, 119, 121, 137, 144, 169, 184, 206,

236, 247, 261, 283, 318, 321, 385, 394, 409.
Orange Wood, 12, 20, 26, 27, 38, 39, 70, 73,

82, 92, 115, 148, 211, 309.
Osiers, The, Bourn Bridge, 120, 135.
Osiers, The, Moor Hall, 122, 144.
Osiers, The, Roxwell, 16, 61, 77, 78, 113,

'35-
Osiers, Sir C. Smith's, 71, 72, 90,93, 94, 113,

117.
Ouston Wood, 137.

Padlers End, Moreton, 155.

Pamphilim's Earths, 23.

Parish Hall, 368.

Park Wood, 52, 262, 313.

Parndon, 12, 17, 37, 54, 55, 71,92,96, ici,

127, 137, 145, 175, 225, 238, 283.
Parndon Hall, 90, 122, 138, 144, 152, 169,

175, 217, 222, 238, 286, 394, 402.
Paindon Woods, 17, 20, 25, 32, 43, 51, 53, 54,

56, 86, 96,97, loi, 104, 122, 130, 137, 13S,

159, 167, 169, 170, 171, 175, 183, 184, 188,

189, 205, 209, 217, 224, 234, 236, 238, 245,

284, 309, 333' 368, 394. 399, 403. 421, 424.

426.
Parslow Hall Farm, 223.
Parson's Springs, 118, 148. 175.
Parvell's Farm, 129.
Passingford Bridge, 42, 44. 45, 48, 49, 120,

261, 283, 290, 291, 343, 364, 426.
Passmores, 205, 217, 222.
Patch Park, 37, 242.
Peckham, 296.
Peterborough, 319.
Pevril's Farm, 306.
Pinnacles, 17, 40, 43, 90, 104, 138, 148, 152,

159, 169, 171, 175, 183, 184, 215, 217, 224,
.234' 238, 302. 309, 394.
Pishobury, 102, 125, 142, 182.
Pleshev. 44, 54, 71, 107, 115, 135, 186, 189,

412.'
Plumtree, 8.

Poles Wood, loi. III, 113, 307, 313. 367.
Poplar Shaw, 271, 281.
Poplars, 38, 118, 215, 247, 261, 283, 310, 431,

432.
Potter Street, 152.
Powder Mills, Waltham, 56.
Priors, 105.
Pudding Lane, 93.
Punchestown, 50.
Pyrgo House, 388.

Pyrgo I'ark, 90, 95, 113, 117, 120, 153, 298.
Pyrgo Wood, 152, 303, 375, 387.

Quebec, 347.

C^uick Wood, 23, 56,

Kadwinter, 55, 341, 402.
Ram Gorse, 138.
Rancliffe Wood, 8.

[7, 245, 247.

INDEX

447

Rayleigh, 202.

Reed Hall, Colchester, 196.

Riddens Wood, 14.

Ride Butts, Gaynes Park, 217.

Robin Hood, 129.

Rochetts, loi, 152, 2Q9, 323.

Roden, the River, t,J, 42, 44, 84.

Rolls Farm, 156, 167.

Rolls Park, 58, 62, 80, ^2ii 224, 273.

Romford, 374.

Rookwood Hall, 317.

Rose Hall, 234, 313.

Row Wood, 12, 29, 3S, 54, 113, 1 18, 135, 181,

182, 184, 215, 221, 247, 261, 263, 277, 310,

317, 397, 402, 432.
Royal Gunpowder Works, Waltham Abbey,

148, 149.
Roydon Brick I'ields, 175, 408.
Roydon Lea, 161.
Roydon Park, 183, 213, 236, 245, 292, 405,

408.
Rough Talleys, 151, 217, 407.
Rowney Wood, 103.
Roxwell, 15, 16, 43, 106, 118, 402.
Rugby, 205, 386.
Rundells, 32, 35, 37, 82, 97, 129. 167, i8c,

182, 183, 184, 193, 199, 200, 202, 225, 248,

250.
Rundells Grove, 270.
Rye Hill, 97, 145, 180, 206, 209, 236.

St. Leonards, Nasing, 141.

St. Pancras, 393.

Saffron Walden, 82.

Sandown, 25.

Saundersfoot, 395.

Sawliridgeworth, 102.

School Green Farm, 372,

Screens Park, 16, 43, 44, 54, 55, 61, 62, 63,

72, 79, 91, 118, 122, 202, 330, 377, 402.
Sewalds Hall, 80, 81, 14S, 205, 369, 397, 419,

426, 429.
Sewardstone, 150.
Shafteslmry F'arm, 192, 391.
Shalesmore, 56, 60, 90, 93, ill, 119, i2r,

143, 167, 186, 223, 230, 242, 291, 292, 318.
Shatter Bushes, 82, 85,98, 104, 128, 129, 140,

141, 147, 149, 191, 203, 247, 351, 352.
Sheering Hall, 245.
Sheering Street, 54, 60, 182, 245, 247, 283,

315; '
Sheering Wood, 17.
Shelthorpe, 25.
Shenfield, 72, 223, 296, 346.
Shingle Hall, 97, 180, 236.
Shonks Farm, 80.

Shonks Mill, 71, 120, 255, 3S3, 291, 366, 368.
Shuckburgh, 332, 426.
Silver Leys, 20.
Skinner's F'arm, 379.
Sorrells Hall, 154.
South Weald, 250, 299.
Spains Wood, 42, 72, 91, 154.
Sparrow Hawks, 71, 107, 113, 27r.
Spraiton, 396.
Spratt's Hedgerow, 71, 73, 98, 105, 115, 123,

128, 129, 141, 149, 191, 275, 309, 353.
Springfield, 36, 228, 273.

Spurrier's Farm, 223.

Stanford Rivers, 55, 151, 1S4.

Stanford Rivers Hall, 52, 55, 119.

Stanford Rivers Rectory, 144.

Stansted, 82.

Stapleford Abljots, 297.

Sta\erton Wood, 330.

Stebbing Bran V.nd, 120, \t,^.

Stew Green, 117.

Stock, 175.

Stondon, 118, 175, 272, 391.

Stort, The River, 102.

Swallows' Cross, 27, 175, 246, 247, 283, 296.

Swan Wood, 175.

Swansea Barrows, 3S9.

Sun and Whalebone, 80, 250.

Takeley Forest, 22, 56, 109, no, 113, 117,

133, 135. 173, 174. 277.
Takeley Street Coppice, 113.
Talbot, The, Tyler's Green, 261, 429.
Tattle Bushes, 40, 104, 159, 169, 183, 213, 215,

245, 275, 292, 405, 408.
Tawney Common, 169.
Tawney Hall, 29, 37, 40, 82, 90, 121, 122,

142, 143, 242, 3C0.
Tawney Hall, Little, 330.
Tawney Rectory, 407.
Terlings, 166.

Thaxted, 16, 50, 152, 167, 310, 402.
Theydon Bois, 30, 86, 115, 129.
Theydon Bois Station, 413.
Theydon Garnon Church, 34, 184.
Theydon Garnon Rectory, 35, 37,60, 167, 1S6,

413-
Theydon Grove, 44, 90, 117, 264, 334.
Theydon Hall, 56, 84, 244, 288
Theydon Hall Farm, 154.
Theydon Mount, 117,206.
Theydon Mount Church, 143.
Theydon Place, 66, 68, 69, 184, 334.
Thoby, 118, 223, 296.
Thorley Wash, 11.

Thorn wood Common, 40, 71, 95, loi, 184,318.
Thornwood Gate, 12, 20, 51, 56, 8c, 95, 167,

206, 217.
Thrushes Bush, 90, 156, 248, 283, 315.
Thundersley, 202.

Todd's Brook, 31, 90, 167, 172, 238.
Toot Hill, 56, lOQ, 119, 121, 144, 151, 206,

394-
Toppersfield, 91.
Totnes, 198.
Trent, The River, 90.
Truant School, Fyfield, 169.
Tyler's Green, 118, 182.
Tyler's Cross, 15, 40, 86, loi, 183, 213, 217,

330-

Upminster, 120.
Upshire Hall, 86.

Vicarage Wood, Latton, 43, 122, 215, 222,

234, 268.
Vicarage Wood, South Weald, 299.

Wake Arms, 55, 56, 95, 129, 162.
W'ake Valley, 281.

448

INDEX

Wall Wood, 113.

Wallbury Dell, 22, 109, 117.

Waltham Abbey, 29, 30, 55, 140, 147, 226, 272.

Waltham Marshes, 75.

Walthamstow , 412.

Waples Mill, 52, 377, 423.

Ware, 55.

Warley Barrack?, 56.

Warlies, 29, 30, 39, 74,98, 127, 128, 129, 141,

147, 14S, 171. 203, 215, 351.415-
Warren, The, 55, 62, 71, 123, 162, 170,

213, 216, 250, 354, 402,
Warren Hill, 224, 398.
Waterworks Springs, 313.
Weald, North, 184, 221, 226, 283.
Weald. North, Bridge, 41, 205.
Weald, North Brook, 8, 169, 182, 217,373,
Weald, North, Church, 80, 182, 261.
Weald, North, Hall, 80.
Weald, North, Hall Coppice, 59, 90, 96,

184, 217, 319, 355, 370, 402, 409, 419, 4
Weald, North, Station, 151.
Weald Hall, Little, 1 5 1, 217.
Weald, South, Park, 152.
Weir Hatches, 103, 113, 122, 166, 175,

222, 286, 302, 417.

[45.

187,

Wheatsheaf, The, Daventry, 330.

Whitechapel, 328.

Whitehall, Chigwell, 93.

Whitehouse Springs, 310.

White Roothing, 29, 113, 118, 221, 255, 257,

283,310,376,402.
White Roothing Church, 259.
White Roothing Mill, 43 1.
Willingale, 55, 72, I15, 117, 154, 3^0, 341, 429.
Willingale Spain, and Willingale Doe, 342.
Wilson Springs, 44, 133, 159,215,221, 277,288.
Wimbledon, 189.
Wintry Farm, 391.
Wintry Wood, 115, 400.

Witney Wood, 42, 44, 154, 177, 251, 267, 421.
Woodbridge, Suffolk, 202.
Woodford, 45, 75, 125.
Woodford Bridge, 327.
Woodham, 200.
Woodridden Wood, 170, 281.
Worcester, 193.
Writtle, 113, 118.
Writtle Park, 148.
Wynter's Grange, 183, 184, 369, 419.

PORTRAITS.

Arkwright, Loftus W

• • 131

Hill, James Duke

132

Arkwri'ght, Loftus J. W.

., 165

Howard, Colonel S. L. ...
Hurrell, William ...

58
179

Bagot, Harry

.. 168

Bailey, James

7

Jones, Mrs. Handheld ...

190

Bambridge, William

41

Barclay, Edward ...

• 349

Lockwood, Colonel, Mrs.,

and others ...

45

Barnes- Pemberton, W. H.

•• 327

Lockwood, Colonel, M.I

. (very good

Bosley, Thomas

•• 355

over iron railings)

46

Bowlby, E. Salvin

.. 263

Bruce, Captain C. D

•• 343

Meyer, Captain Herman

24

Buxton, -Sir Thomas Fovvell

.. 416

McKee, C. F

Mills, T. J

108
241

Caldecott, Andrew

.. 124

Cohin, C. Chaffey

.. 257

Petre, Hon. Henry

212

Colvin, Richard Beale

18

Colvin, Lady Gwendoline

.. 19

Rolleston, Lancelot

5

Darnley

.. 194

Sparrow, Newman

172

Dawson, Nevill ...

.. 424

Sworder, William

142

Deacon, Albert

.. 28

Du Cane, Captain J. B

.. 214

Tait, Major J. C

Tait, Miss Hattie

67
70

Ethelston, Edmund

.. 362

Tufnell, Edward M.

346

Foster, Hervey ...

■■ 33

Vigne, Henry

177

Foster, Major J. F.

35

Wahnsley, J. V

75

Gibson, Edward

62

Watlington, T- Perry

103

Gilbey, Tresham and Guy

•• 358

White, Tyndale

100

Green, C. E

.. 228

Womersley, R.

22

Green, Frederick

.. 87

Wood, General Mark

43

INDEX

EQUESTRIAN PORTRAITS.

449

Allsopp, Lieut. -Col. Hon. W. II.
Arkwright, Loftus J. W., on "Diana"
Arkwright, Mrs. Loftus J. \V., on

"Charlie"

Avila, Frederick

Ball, Edward Ash, on " Harcourt" ...

Ball, R. C. (Bob) and his favourite
hunter " Boycott "

Barclay, Edward, on " Greystoke "

Bowlby, E. Salvin, on " Foxmaull " ...

Bowlby, Mrs. E. Salvin, on "Char-
lotte"

Bowlby, Miss Eva, and her sisters on
their favourite hunters...

Bowlby, Arthur Salvin

Brown, George, on " Norah " ...

Bruce, Mrs. C. D., on " Roy"...

Butler, Mrs. H., on "Ladylove"

Caldecott, Mi.ss Maude M., on "Mickey"
Cockett, E. E., on "Bouncer"
Crawley, Charles, and others, eu route
to the A.\e and Compasses, Nov. 21,

'96

Crocker, Weston, on " Blizzard"
Crocker, Mrs. Weston, on "True Blue "

Darby, Alfred, on "The Cat" ,.

Dawson, George Hogarth

Deacons, The, on their favourite hunters

Dickinson, B., and Gallagher

Dobson, Stephen...

Drybrough, T. B., flying a stone wall ...

Fane, Rev. Frederick

Fitch, Sam, on " The Grey Cob "

Gilbey, Newman ...

Glyn, Miss M., on " Mliss "

Green, F., jun. ...

Green, James

Grubb, R. T., on " Ardilaun "

192
166

267
153

79

94
350
262

264

265
266
151

344
220

125
395

229

405
406

; Ibbetson, Sir Henry Selwin, on " Mul-
tum in Parvo"

! Jones, II. E., on " The Colonel "

I Lockwood, Robert

I Lockwood, Mrs. Robert

i Marriage, Jacob, on " Eliasin II."
I Melles, J. W., on "Solomon," and
Melles, W. E., on "Jumbo"

Miller, Henry John

Morris, William, on his favourite grey

Neave, Edward

Neave, Captain A. T. Digby, on " Lein-
I ster"

! Oldham, A. C

Peel, Archibald, on
Peel, Miss Ethel, or

Foxhall "
I reel, iviiss i!.mei, on " Blanche "
Pelly, Leonard, on " Granger "

Horner, W. Sims ..

Hull, T. R., on " Marigold"

83
320

285
los
246
57
314

365
155

123

74

48
53

312

274
91
207

208

280

384

218
219

377

Roddick, Andrew
Rookwood, Lord...
Rookwood, Lady...

Sands, John, on "Victor"

Seweli, George

Sewell, W. II., on "Jack"

Seweli, Mrs. W. H

Smith, Drummond Cunlifife, on " Chan-
cery "

Sorrell, T- Brockett

Steele, A. R

Swire, John, on " York "
Sworder, Harry

Tait, Major J. C, on " Qui Vive " ...
Tilling, Richard S., on " Star "

Todhunter, James

Tosetti, M., on the "Martyr"

Tufnell, Captain G. M., on the "Pig'

Usborne, Thomas, on "Basalt" ... 134

Waltham, Richard, on " Peggy" ... 243

252
391
398

401

222
210
411
287

68
295

31
352
345

COUNTY SEATS, COVERTS. &c.

Ball Hill Wood

Barnsleys ...

Beachetts, The '.. ,',

Beachetts, The

Bedfords ...

Bishop's Hall, drawing the gorse below

Bobbing worth Wood

Bower Wood

29

333

CanfieldHart

133

393

Canfield Mount

160

Canfield Thrift

161

338

Cart Shed Wood

307

254

Courtfield Wood

428

47

Curtis Mill Green, coming away from ..

233

305
325

DobbsWood

139

450

INDEX

PAGE

I'AGE

Down Hall

I

Moor.s, The, Bentley Mill

156

Down Hall Gorse

232

Nasing Common, Full cry across

237

Envilles

316

Navestock Hall and Church, By

235

Forest, The Lower

66

Obelisk Wood

Orange Wood

127

39

Garnetts

410

Osiers, The Ro.xwell

78

Gaynes Park Wood

15

Gaynes Park

322

Parndon Hall

130

Gilston Park

260

Parndon Woods, Coming away

from,

261

across Epping Long Green ...

96

Griffins Wood '.'.'.

216

Pilgrim House

Pinnacles, Running for

386
138

Havering Park

348

Poles Wood

367

Harlow Park

188

Poplars

431

248

Pyrgo House

388

High Roothing Springs ..

311

Pyrgo Wood

375

Horse Shoe Wood

234

Horsefrith Park

251

Row Wood (Mr. Poole counts twenty)...

181

Roydon Park, Coming away from

408

Israel's Wood

106

Rundells Grove ...

249

Latchmore Banks

109

St. Leonards, Nasing

141

Lord's Wood

331

Screens

63

Luffinan's Earths (Epping Forest)

282

Shalesmore, Running for
Smith's, Sir Charles, " osiers " ...

143
336

Mcintosh, Mrs., (Goise with Hainault

Sparrow Hawks...

107

Forest in the distance)

298

Spratts Hedgerow

128

Man Wood, Coming away from

380

Mark Hall

164

Takeley Forest

no

Maries Wood, Full cry past

270

Takeley Forest, Running for ...

174

Matching Green

430

Theydon Place

69

Matching Hall

420

Mills' Fagot Stack and Theydon Garnon

Warlies

415

Church ...

242

Weald Hall Coppice

370

Moor Hall

383

White Roothing Church, Full cry

past...

259

MEETS.

Brook House

Copped Hall Lodge Gates

Dagnam I'riory ...

Easton Lodge, A Meet at, in 1884
Epping Bury

Fiddlers, The Merry

Green Man, A Meet at the (after a paint

ing by Edmund Elhclslon)

Gretn Man, Tne

Green Man, The ..

Hare and Hounds, Roxwell

Harlow Common, A Meet at

Havering- Atte-Bower

Kennels, The

302

126

253

301
26

170
269
425

61
136
413

224

Little Laver Mill...

Matching Green, 18S5
1885
1887

1889
1889
1892

Nasing Common ...

Norton Heath

Netteswell X

Passingford Bridge

Thornwood Gale ...

Willingale Spain and Willingale Doe

341

112
114
146
158
195
197
176
201
204
231

308
329
4i8

291

95
342

Blue Beard

Cedric

Desdichado

Druid

Duchess

Dynamite and Waterford

Friar

Gamecock...

INDEX

451

HORSKS.

i'.\i;e

PAGE

... 88

Grafton

... 89

... 256

Harlequin ...

... 76

4

Lord Alfred and Richard Driscoli

... 199

••. 59
... 390
... 81

Marshall

Pilgrim

... 422

... 34

... 49

Stratford

Steele's, A. K., horse

.. 278
... 412

... 324

Wood.side

... 203

HOUNDS.

Trouncer

290

MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS.

A fast 40 minutes in Essex, after a paint-
ing by Edmund Ethelston

Down Hall, In the Park

Down Hall, In the Park

Epping Church, Full cry past ...

Essex Stag Hounds, 1893

Essex Hounds, a group of, shown at

Peterboro
Essex Hounds, The (1892)

1S3

149
276

319

427

PAGE

Hatfield Heath 227

Hatfield Broad Oak, En route to ... 99

Herts and Essex, The (1893) 360

Homeward Bound, after a painting by

Edmund lithelston 225

Vigne's, Mr., Hunting card.
Quiet"

Wake Arms, The...

' ( )uite

185
162

HORSES.

52.

Ai,5i.

Acrobat,
Actress, 189.
Aeronaut, 198.
Ajax, 56, 71.
Architect, 196.
Ardilaun, 314, 315.

Badger, 51, 122.
Bartiara, 198.
Batbillion, 200.
Baron, The, 91.
Bar One, 198.
Basalt, 134.
Bay Heighington, i;
Beaconsheld, 98.
Berserker, 245, 334.
Bill Richmond, 117.
Binjimin, 186.
Bird Catcher, 1 18.
Bird Tenter, 51.

Bismark, 427.

Blair Adam, 196.

Blair Athol, 202.

Blanche, 219, 220.

Bbzzard, 405.

Blood Royal, 31.

Blue Beard, 88, 211.

Blue Posts, 51.

Bones, 274.

Bosphorus, 36, 61, 118.

Bouncer, 395.

Boycott, 60, 82, 94, 95, 147, 176, 201.

Brigadier, 274.

Brown Stout, 314.

Bryn, 202.

Bull's Eye, 50, 51, 91, 92, "3. 120, 152.

Burke, 80, 85.

Cadean, 50.
Candidate, 9.
Carlsbad, 199.

452

INDEX

Cat, The, 119.

Catapult, 257, 258, 396.

Cedric, 256, 257, 258, 260, 324.

Centurion, 51.

Chaff, 202.

Chambord, 54.

Chance, 60, 85.

Chancery, 222.

Charley,' 51.

Charlie, 267.

Charlotte, 264.

Chasseur, 77.

Christy, 265.

Coastguard, 51.

Colonel, The, 74-

Colonel, The (E. Tufnells), 346,

Comical, 51, 52, 54.

Constance, 76.

Coroner, 193.

Correze, 256.

Covertside, 199, 256.

Curate, The, 213.

Daybreak, 307.

Derby, 79.

Desdichado, 4, 42.

Diana, 166, 167, 171, 215, 217, 221, 250, 256,

302, 421.
Dodger, 56.
Double X, 314.
Dreadnought, 40.
Druid, The, 59.

Duchess, 215, 250, 324, 390, 391, 392.
Dynamite, 81.

Eclipse, 390.
Eliasin II., 312.

Fallow Buck, 50.

Fatherland, 198.

Foxhall, 218.

Foxmaull, 262.

Friar, 49, 50, 91, 115, 117, 118.

F"ritz, 12, 20.

Frog, The, 51, 55.

Gallagher, 9, 12.
Gamecock, 150, 324.
Gamester, 40.
Gehazi, 43.
Gipsy, 61.

Glenmore, 42, 43, 44.
Glynn, 12.
(iolden Dream, 198.
Golden Lady, 198.
Golden Ring, 198.
Gonalstone, 50.
Grafton, 88, 89.
Granger, 377.
Grantham, 61.
Greystoke, 349, 350.

Iladgi, 202.
Hnmpton, 100.
Harcourt, 79, 80.
Hardware, 1 6.
Harkaway, 9.
Harkaway, 215.

Harlequin, 76, 77, 167, 231.
Hawk's Eye, 36.
Highflyer, 72.
Hop Bine, 200.
Hop Bitters, 200.
Hypatica, 196.

Imp, 265.

Ireland, 20.

Irish Thunderbolt, 49.

Jack, 398, 399, 401.
Jackdaw, 198.
Joke, 32, 104.
Jumbo, 274.

Katafelto, 36.
Kaiherine, 32.
Katinka, 62.
King Charming, 31.
Kingston, 77, 150.
Kitty, 67, 68, 69, 70.
Knave of Hearts, 280.
Knight of Kars, 134, 135.
Knight Templar, 198.

Lady Betty, 106, 117.

Lady Godiva, 52.

Ladylove, 220.

Legion, 51.

Leicester, 10.

Leinster, 278, 280.

Leisure Hour, 236.

Limerick, 61.

Lord Alfred, 198, 199.

Lottery, 90.

Lovett, 49.

Lowlander, 30.

Luckpenny, 44, 51, 52, 55.

Lucy, 177, 223, 225.

Luxury, 187.

Madrid, 39, 56, 74, S5.
Mahdi, 99, loi.
Maloom, 265.
Mareschal, 422.
Marigold, 155.
Marshall, 422.
Martyr, The, 352, 353.
Marvel, 196.
Melton, 240.
Mermaid, iii.
Merrylegs, 187.
Merrythought, 196.
Mickey, 125, 126.
Mile, 265.
Misunderstood, 77.
Mliss, 105.
Mornington, 202.

Multum in Parvo, 25, 35, 40, 56, 64, 116,
123, 204.

Newman Noggs, 22.
Nell Gwynne, 40, 44.
Norah, 151.

Orangeman, 40.
Outfit, 49, 76.

INDEX

453

Paddy, iS6.
Peggy, 243.
Phantom, 64, 92, 123.
Philammon, 202.
Pig, The, 345.
Pilgrim, 34, 158, 195.
Phim, The, 142.
Polly, 184, 206, 241.
Polly (Mellis'), 274.
Pride of England, 202.
Priest, The,' 245.
Promotion, 51.
Protector, 51.

Quaker, The, 44.
Qui Vive, 67, 68.

Rattle, 50.
Robin, 91.
Rosa, 217.
Rose of Devon, 1
Roy, 344.
Royal Horn, 52.

Sandy, 148.
Satanella, 36, 278, 27(
Schehallion, 202.
Scout, 82.
Shah, 52.
Shamrock, 61.
Signalman, 51.
Sir John, 182.
Sir Peter, 206.
Slapper, 17.
Smuggler, 51.
Snowstorm, 427.
Solomon, 274.
Speculation, 52.
Spitfire, 387.
Squealer, 100.
Star, 295.
St. Devereux, 198, 202

98.

St. George, 71, 73, 84.
Stockbridge, 28, 37, 40, 90.
Stratford, 278, 279.
Stud Groom, 30, 31.
Success, 397.
Sweetbread, 202.
Syntax, Dr., 215.

Tallyho, 278.
Templar, Miss. 36, 205.
Thunderer, 398.
Thunderbolt, 39S.
Tinker, 217, 221.
Tippler, 213.
Too Much, 199.
Transit, 42.
Treasure Trove, 22.
True Blue, 406.
True T^ove, 202.
Trumpeter, 52.
Trumps, 251.

Ugly Boy, 43, 56, 74, 84.

Venison, 50.
Vera, 202.
Verbena, 202.
Victor, 252.

Watcher, 51.
Watchdog, 51.
Watch-fire, 51.
Watchman, 50.
Water ford, 81.
Witchcraft, 98.
Wild Oats, 345.
Woodman, 345.
Woodside, 202, 203, 255.

York, 287, 288.

Zata, 40, 112.

PACKS OF HOUNDS— FOX, STAG AND HARE.

Atherstone, The, 50, 205, 240.
Belvoir, The, 11, 82, J03.
Buccleuch, Duke of, 356.
Colvin, R. B. (Beac^les), 19, 118.
Devon and Somerset Stag Mound
East Essex, 19, 91, 135, 140.
Essex and Suffolk, 19, 294.
Essex Union, 37, 56, 72, 75, 175, 21

296.
Essex Stag Hounds, 16, 205, 276, 327
Grafton, 290.
Herts and Essex, 360.
Hertfordshire, 60.
Meynell, 8.
Newmarket and Thurlow, 324.

I North Warwickshire, 205.
Old Surrey, 59, 303.
Puckeridge, 11, 23, 72, 76, 82, 83, 103, 180,

359, 301-
286. Pytchley, 126, 205, 284, 330, 332, 396.

(^uorn, 8, II, 302.

Ruftord, 6, 8.
202, 252, South Notts, 5, 6, 8.

Surrey St.ng, 59.

Vale of While Horse, 81.

Vigne Henry (Harriers), 39, 80, 108, 327,

353-
Warwickshire, 426.
Whaddon Chase, 290.

454

INDEX

HOUNDS.

Abigail, 78.
Bachelor, 290.
Banker, 129.
Bellman, 129.
Chanticleer, 27.
Dancer (Grafton), 29
Fairplay, 382.
Fallible, 382.
Fearless, 213.
Felix, 113.
Gambler, 113.

Sonnet, 310, 402.
Stanley, 84.
Startle, 210.
Tempest, 213.
Trimbush, 319.
Trouncer, 290, 319, 382.
Truelass, 290.
Trusty, 211.
Tuner, 290.
Tyrant, 319.
Workman, 211, 213.

Lady Chelsford, 397, 40
Miss Thoby, 148.

DEER.

I The Surrey Deer, 154.

ERRATA— Vol. I.

For Lady Gwendolen Colvin, p. 19, read Lady Gwendoline Colvin.

For Dagenhani in these " Leaves " read Dagnams.
For Dagenbam Priory read Dagnam Priory.

Note. — Author puts this error down to Bailey. He feels pretty certain
the Hunt cards always read "meet Dagenbam." He can't however palm oft
Boyton Cross on Bailey or anyone else ; it should be Boywton Cross, Boy«ton
Hall, &c. Any other mistakes Author declares must be Printer's errors, subject to a
big ? by the Editor.

iX.

y»

c

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