6o THE ESSEX FOXHOUNDS. 



one of his friends said of him, " he had a peculiar knack 

 of making corks fly almost as fast as he did his foxes." 

 The Dunmow gatherings were a great success, and a 

 writer deckired that he never met an old Essex sports- 

 man of those by-gone days who did not mention these 

 meetings with pleasure and delight. 



Colonel Cook's mastership was completely successful. 

 In Essex he found both gentlemen and farmers very civil 

 and obliging. Then, as now, a race meeting was one of the 

 forms of entertaiment most appreciated by Essex farmers. 

 This was provided annually on the Galley Wood race- 

 course, where a fifty-guinea cup was run for by gentlemen 

 farmers in the district of the Essex Hunt. These races 

 were in existence as long ago as iSio, when it was one of 

 the conditions that the horses engaged must have been in 

 at the death of four foxes. 



The annual hunt meetings were held at the " City of 

 London " tavern. Cook had many subscribers amongst 

 City men, whom he describes as "good sportsmen, well 

 mounted, and riding well to hounds ; they never interfere 

 with the management of them when in the field, contribute 

 liberally to the expense, and pay their subscriptions regu- 

 larly." 



At the end of the season 1812-13 Colonel Cook sold 



