8 



rider on his back.) Mount Ephraim was a poser which tailed them 

 off and made the field select. It was a brilliant chase. Press said the 

 line we run was twenty miles ; if so, I rode more than fifty miles 

 this day. 



March 6, 1830. — On Saturday, the East Sussex Fox Hounds met 

 at the back of the wall, at the north end of Lord Chichester's park ; 

 it was a fine gay morning, and a field of a hundred and twenty 

 horses. At eleven o'clock the hounds were thrown off in Standean 

 furze, at the side hill,- and in a fcAV minutes the voice of old 

 ' ' Jovial ' ' pronounced the traitor nigh . Hoi ! " Jovial ' ' has him said 

 Hennesey ; the fox broke covert immediately into the valley below, 

 in a straight line for Clayton Holt ; the hounds were out immediately 

 after him, and away they went with a breast high scent, "Ruin" 

 and "Eosamond" taking the lead; the field was now in a great 

 confusion, every one making his best way in shifting the deep 

 bottoms to get to Clayton Holt ; but when the leading batch of 

 horses got here, the hounds were gone through and sinking into the 

 valley below, and now on for Clayton woods, and through these 

 coverts they slicked him, and by Danny they dashed into Randol's 

 copse ; here reynard ranged the covert and brought the hounds to 

 hunting. Now we crossed the turnpike near the pay-gate, and went 

 on through Wick wood at a smart hunting pace, from thence to 

 Woodmancote, and here we came to a check, and very near to a fatal 

 one, for the sun shone bright, and the fallows were diy and dusty, 

 the hounds were dra^vai across the line but they could not touch it, 

 but little " Wonderful," a puppy, straggling along behind, pinned 

 her nose down to the scent and cherriped merrily, but she could not 

 hunt it a yard, the old hounds were brought to see if it was good, 

 which they owned, but they could not hit it off ; this gave Hennesey 

 the point, and he trotted on across two or three large fallow fields 

 and held them round, and " Jovial " was the hound to hit him off 

 again ; we went on then for some miles at a slow hunting pace, what 

 I called a loosing one, we left Henfield to the right, and got nearer 

 to the brooks ; the scent improved, the hounds began to get merry, 

 and into the brooks we went, now the hounds stretched their length, 

 and we began to go some in the ditches, and some out, the hounds 

 crossed the river below Motesbridge ; the water was low, some 

 attempted to ride through, but nearly got mired in the mud, most 

 of us cut round over the bridge, and luckily we got a cut in with 

 the hounds again, as they were running very fast, evidently close at 

 their fox. The leaps now were numerous, and falls plentiful, here 

 Mr. Strange got an ugly one, which broke his collar bone. We now 

 crossed the turnpike near Partridge Green, and then came out on 

 Jolesfield common, the hounds were running and carrying a head as 

 if on the open down, but all at once they threw up ; the fox had 

 made a short head, the hounds cast back and hit him off over into a 

 little garden, in front of a brick cottage ; here reynard had crouched 

 himself down in one corner, but the hounds unkennelled him, and 

 out on the open common they came in full view, round the faggot 

 stacks they ran, over the hedge into the brick -yard, and into the 



