274 THE ESSEX FOXHOUNDS. 



and the large number of foxhunters present at his funeral 

 at Upminster will never be forgotten. During his last 

 illness, Rees, Mr. Offin's huntsman (who was very fond of 

 him), said one day to one of the surgeons who was attend- 

 ing him : " If you, Sir, will cure Mr. Cox, there is £^o in 

 a drawer of mine at the kennels, which is yours." This 

 speaks for itself. In iS6o.Sir Thomas Lennard, of Belhus, 

 succeeded Mr. Cox with kennels at Belhus and Ransom 

 as his huntsman, son of the stud-groom so long at the 

 Royal Paddocks, Hampton Court, now, alas ! a thing of 

 the past. Sir Thomas resigned in the spring of 1861. In 

 that year Mr. Scratton consented to hunt the whole country 

 which Lord Petre had, as before mentioned, reigned over, 

 and the division into two countries came to an end. The 

 pack was styled " Mr. Scratton's Foxhounds," and his first 

 season in the two united countries was an unprecedentedly 

 good one. Shepherd accounting for forty-four and a-half 

 brace of foxes, a score which has never been approached 

 since. It was not child's play hunting this large extent of 

 country four days a week, with the kennels situated as they 

 were on the extreme corner of the country. Mr. Scratton, 

 a very good coachman, used, when the meets were a long 

 way off, to drive his hounds and servants on in a hound 

 van with four horses to Wickford, nine miles from Prittle- 



