264 THE ESSEX FOXHOUNDS. 



The Rundells Meeting has proved only too attractive 

 to a rough element from the East End of London. As 

 early as 1878 it was remarked that the idea of a "private 

 meeting " was but feebly sustained, the course being liter- 

 ally deluged with a large number of the woollen-throated 

 East End betting fraternity. Welshers and card-sharpers 

 were present in force, and some excitement was caused by 

 a horse-whipping administered to one of the latter by Mr. 

 William Symonds, the Clerk of the Course. Since those 

 days some improvement has been effected, but in the present 

 year (1895) the Committee of the Hunt Club thought 

 that, as the "fields" were getting smaller, and the East 

 End element of the races was getting larger, it would be 

 well to abandon the Rundells Races and merely have a 

 Point-to-Point Meeting, with a lunch. A petition was, 

 however, presented to the Committee signed by three 

 hundred Esse.x farmers, expressing their regret at the pro- 

 posed abandonment of the races, to which they assured the 

 Committee they and their families had looked forward from 

 year to year. On finding that much disappointment would 

 be caused if the races were not held, it was resolved that 

 the meeting should take place as usual. 



The sixteenth meeting was accordingly held on April 

 1 8th, 1S95, ''^'^*^l proved as attractive as ever to spectators, 



