DOBSON S FIRST SEASON. F 5 I 



rcsio-nation he served the late Mr. Harvey Bayly, going 

 from him to hunt the Essex, in the year 1867. 



As already mentioned, Dobson hunted the Essex 

 Hounds for a dozen years, and for that period we have a 

 complete record of sport in the form of his excellently- 

 written and welhkcpt diaries, to which we are largely 

 indebted for notes of what tool<^ place. 



The new huntsman's first season in Essex opened well. 



During the first month of regular hunting, a brace 

 of foxes on the southern side of the country furnished 

 remarkable runs of an hour and a-half and upwards. 

 One of them was brought to hand near Brentwood, the 

 other witliin two fields of the Laindon Hills, in the 

 Union country, twenty-six miles from the kennels. 



Two particularly good runs are recorded in the 

 huntsman's diary during the following January : on the 

 20th from Kelvedon Hall Wood to a "gentleman's 

 garden at Epping, " where they lost their fox ; and two 

 days later, from High Roothing Bury Springs, by Row 

 Wood and Down Hall to Moor Hall, where they killed 

 close to the front door. 



During this season there appears to have been no 

 lack of foxes in the country. On January 20th, two 

 brace were found in Kelvedon Hall Wood; and during 



