l8o THE ESSEX FOXHOUNDS. 



September 9th at Down Hall, and found plenty of foxes. 

 This season the lady pack still held their own ; in fact, they 

 were fast becoming my favourites ; and, although not so 

 persevering as the dogs on a poor scent, they were faster 

 and drove their foxes more. We had one blank day onlv 

 (at Ashdon Mill) this season. We were stopped for four 

 days by frost, and I stopped them for three days on 

 account of the wet state of the ground, as after the 

 deluofe we had had it would have been cruel on the 

 farmers to ride over land in such a condition. 



■' I recall one very good day, February 5th, at 

 Epping Bury, when we had forty-three minutes without a 

 check and a kill, and another from Horeham Hall on the 

 9th of the same month, when we found in Bigods and 

 pulled him down, after an hour and ten minutes, just short 

 of Weathersfield, the hounds having hardly been lifted 

 or cast all the way through. And on March 2nd, from 

 Whitehouse .Springs, we had a rattling forty-five minutes 

 of beautiful hunting, killing him on the grass below 

 Felstead. Then, at our hunt meeting the next day I 

 was aeain elected master." 



As to the run of February 5th, Bailey, the huntsman, 

 writes : — 



" Found a fox in Copt Hall, and there being a good 



