l6o THE ESSEX FOXHOUNDS. 



too grandly — Waltham House. Here he lived for twelve 

 years, writing with marvellous success. For each of the 

 novels, " Orley Farm," "The Small House at Allington," 

 " Can you Forgive Her," "The Last Chronicle of Barset," 

 " Phineas Finn " and " He knew he was right," he received 

 ;^3,ooo or more, and many other stories written during this 

 period brought in large sums. Though he had keenly 

 enjoyed hunting in Ireland, when he first came to Waltham 

 Cross, he had almost made up his mind that his hunting- 

 was over. As, however, the money came in, he very 

 quickly fell back into his old habits, and found his house 

 near enough to the Roothing country for hunting purposes, 

 though his average distance to the Essex meets was 

 twenty miles. 



He writes in his Autobiography :■ — " First one horse 

 was bought, then another, and then a third, till it became 

 established as a fixed rule that I should not have less than 

 four hunters in the stable. Sometimes when my boys 

 have been at home, I have had as many as six. Essex 

 was the chief scene of my sport, and gradually I became 

 known there almost as well as though I had been an Essex 

 squire, to the manner born. Few have investigated more 

 closely than I have done the depth, and breadth, and 

 water-holding capacities of an Essex ditch. It will, I 



