56 THE ESSEX FOXHOUNDS. 



highly of the country, and remarks that " Leaden Roothing 

 is thought to be the best covert in the hunt ; but I pre- 

 ferred Old Park Coppice,' a covert at the extremity of the 

 Roothings, towards Chehnsford, probably because I had 

 the best runs from it, and the foxes found in the latter are 

 reckoned the stoutest in Essex." 



" I had four very superior runs from it in one season, 

 and killed each day ; and it afforded me several good days' 

 sport besides. I will mention a few of them. One run of 

 an hour and twenty minutes, and killed at Colonel Strutt's, 

 near Maldon, twelve miles on end at least. Another, with 

 a fox of the year, the quickest thing I ever saw, and killed 

 him a few fields from Takely Forest, the pack running into 

 him in the open. Again, a run of one hour and ten 

 minutes, ten miles on end and killed. But a run I had 

 from a covert, a short distance from Old Park, was one of 

 the most brilliant things I witnessed during the time I kept 

 hounds. When we found him we considered him an Old 

 Park fox, and as he went away, a friend of mine, an old 

 member of the Talents Hunt, said to me, ' There he 

 goes ; he is one of the old sort, my Master ; he is not to 

 be measured to-day ! You will never see him again ! ' 



' This covert disappeared many years ago. It lay midway between 

 Gariietts and Pleshey. 



