38 THE ESSEX FOXHOUNDS. 



Heythrop country. Almost immediately, however, Mr. 

 Coke appears to have started a second pack there ; in 

 1775, on marrying Lord Sherborne's sister, he became sole 

 master, and in 1778 removed the whole of his hunting 

 establishment to his seat at Holkham, Norfolk, whence he 

 hunted a good part of that county and a considerable portion 

 of Suffolk. 



For seven years Mr. Coke hunted his Norfolk and 

 Suffolk country, and then in 1785 he extended his territory 

 into Essex at the invitation of Colonel Montague Burgoyne 

 of Mark Hall, whose Whig politics, though they did not com- 

 mend him to the county, as instanced by his being twice 

 defeated at the poll by Mr. Archer- Houblon, no doubt con- 

 duced to his friendship with Mr. Coke, as he was a leading 

 member of that party. Arrangements for hunting a country 

 at the period of which we are speaking were often carried 

 out on somewhat primitive lines ; but we must assume that, 

 before sending the invitation to Mr. Coke to bring his 

 hounds into Essex, Colonel Burgoyne had consulted the 

 landowners and farmers of the district. 



Colonel Burgoyne only became possessed of the Mark 

 Hall Estate (which he purchased of Mr. William Lushington) 

 in 1785, the year of the invitation to Mr. Coke, but he must 

 have lived in Essex before, or it would appear somewhat 



