MK. OFFIN. 277 



knowing that Mr. Scratton was just behind him. Na- 

 turally it was a very trying thing for a master to 

 have the risk of his hounds getting their heads up, 

 though luckily they did not, and I deserved every 

 word he said. I don't think I have ever holloaed a 

 fresh fo.\ since to this day. On Mr. Scratton resigning in 

 1S69 there appeared for a time to be some little difficulty 

 in finding a master, but Mr. Offin, who farmed some 6,000 

 acres, was induced by Lord Petre to take the hounds, 

 as he did not want a stranger in the country, and Mr. 

 Offin's mastership was welcomed by all the landowners 

 and farmers in the hunt. He built kennels and 

 stables on one of his farms at Great Burstead, near 

 Billericay, about the centre of the country, and the 

 hounds, which he had purchased from Mr. .Scratton lor 

 ^2,000, were moved there from Prittlewell in the spring. 

 Though a welter-weight, and not a young man when he 

 took the hounds, Mr. Offin never missed a meet, even 

 during cubhunting, during the six years he hunted the 

 country. Mounting his men most admirably, and with 

 a good pack of hounds, he was able to show capital 

 spor;. He kept on Rees as huntsman till end of the 

 season 1872-3, when Bcntley, who had previously made 

 his mark as first whipper-in under .Mr. Parry in the 



