THE ESSEX HUNT COUNTRY. 5 



the kindness of Mr. H. R. G. Marriott we have been 

 favoured with a copy of the animated correspondence which 

 passed on the subject between his father and the irascible 

 squire of Copt Hall ; it will be found in the appendix 

 to this book. Ultimately Mr. Conyers gave up drawing 

 the neutral coverts, and they became, and now are, 

 exclusively those of the East Essex. Mr. H. R. G. 

 ■Marriott remembers that Mr. Henley Greaves was very 

 an.xious to lend his father the country between Dunmow 

 and Shalford ; but the Hunt Committee would not permit 

 it. l\Ir. Marriott remarks that, in his opinion, the Com- 

 mittee were quite right; though, as the East Essex kennels 

 were two miles only from Foxes Wood, and three from 

 Bo.xted, a slice of the Esse.x country was greatly coveted. 



The Essex country is a large one, measuring nearly 

 forty miles in length on the map, and it has usually been 

 hunted from inconveniently placed kennels. In later 

 chapters we describe how the hounds were at one time 

 kept near Brentwood, and for many years at Copt Hall, 

 near Epping. Afterwards they were established in a more 

 central position near Ongar, but before long a change of 

 management led to their removal, about forty years ago, to 

 the present kennels at Harlow. The situation of Harlow 

 is too near to the border of the country to make it quite a 



