si'ort with mk. scrattox. sqi 



"Mr. Scrattox's I'oxiiouxds. Saturday, 2ist. 

 " Gallcywood Racecourse. 

 "A larqe held of over 150 to meet the squire of 

 Prittlewell and 'the Hvely ladies.' Drew IMoulsham Thrift 

 and found no fox, thout^h there was a line through it. 

 Next, a grove by the side of the Racecourse, then Temple 

 Grove, and here one of the stoutest foxes that ever stood 

 before hounds was at home and off in a second. Setting 

 his head at once due south he seemed to have a stiffness of 

 neck that prevented his looking right or left. True as a 

 needle to the north pole was he to the south pole. Leaving 

 .Stock Ship on his right he ' slashed ' through the narrowest 

 part of Blue Hedges, crossed an offshoot of Pandan and 

 went straight to Cock W^ood, apparently his point from 

 the first. Clear of it, he bent slightly to the left (the only 

 bend in his course) appearing to mean INIoor Gardens, but 

 disdaining even that refuge he sunk the hill by Downham 

 church, and faced that splendid valley to the south without 

 a covert for shelter between him and the Thames. I'^ifteen 

 minutes more racing and Grays Hill was at hand. ' \ onder 

 he goes,' cries a leading horseman, and there he was, not 

 two fields ahead, struggling gallantly on. Crossing the 

 Wickford Road, west of the village, ' the lively ladies ' 

 tickled on, a check of two or three minutes on some 



