CLASS MAMMALIA. 71 



Blacks," who surreptitiously carried off large num- 

 bers. It is obvious, however, that White's reference is to 

 Waltham Chase, a district in Hampshire, on the borders of 

 the New Forest. It appears by the Court Rolls of the date 

 that an order was made to the effect that the stock of Red 

 and Fallow Deer in Waltham Chase being so low that they 

 were likely to be extirpated, no more were to be taken for 

 three years. 



In the early part of the eighteenth century, the Royal 

 buckhounds hunted the Essex Deer. The Treasury Records 

 show that in 1729 his Majesty's Hounds killed thirteen stags, 

 and in 1730, nine. Later, the Deer in the Forest were hunted 

 by Mr. Tylney Long Pole Wellesley, who kept his pack of old- 

 fashioned staghounds at Wanstead House, and dressed his 

 servants in Lincoln green. A writer in The Sporting Maga- 

 zine for April, 1809, states that Mr. Wellesley's hunt was called 

 the Ladies' Hunt, because so many ladies of the neighbour- 

 hood joined in it. The meetings were generally at Fence- 

 piece in Hainault Forest, and upon Easter Monday was held 

 the anniversary meeting, ending with a dinner and a ball. To 

 this, it was customary for many Londoners to resort. Some, 

 of course, were invited guests : others were merely strangers 

 and lookers on, who had come to enjoy the holiday sports. 

 During the mastership of Joseph Mellish, Wellesley's pre- 

 decessor, although the ball and entertainments had not then 

 been instituted, the annual Easter Hunt was kept up, and 

 obtained great notoriety as an outing for cockney sportsmen. 

 It was ridiculed in drawings, and on the stage ; verses were 

 published in The Sportsman's Vocal Cabinet ; and, finally, 

 Hood, during his residence at Wanstead (1832-4), immor- 

 talised it in his well-known and witty poem of " the Epping 

 Hunt," in which he celebrates the little town, justly famed 

 for butter, and sausages, 



