HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS. 13 



the pleasures of the chase). The run pro- 

 ceeded by Dunton, over Bottledown Hill to 

 Heyden Grove and Blounts Wall, crossing the 

 Billericay road by Gooseberry Green to Mill 

 Hill (Here again there is a complete town laid 

 out and streets named — not much more in the 

 road-making Hne, except the name, but quite 

 enough to interfere with the comfort of the field 

 — I only wish one could put the clock back a 

 bit, and show our hunting friends of to-day what 

 sort of country ours was twenty years or so ago). 

 But on went man and horse, without a check, 

 to the further side of Mill Hill. Hounds 

 were working their fox through the wood ; the 

 next thing that happened was, the fox jumped 

 into the ditch near to where Mr. Offin was 

 waiting. Without a moment's pause the latter 

 was off his horse, and into the ditch he went. 

 At this moment the hounds came out of the 

 covert, and man and hounds and fox were all 

 struggling together. The fox had no chance, 

 and it was a proud moment for Mr. Offin (then 

 a youth of seventeen). After breaking up his 

 fox, and with head and brush on his saddle, he 

 started off to find the rest of the field. That Mr. 

 Offin escaped without being bitten by the 

 hounds, is a circumstance which is very 

 remarkable. 



Three men, Cobb, Stunt, and Lake, were in 

 the habit of crossing from Kent every Tuesday 

 and Saturday to hunt with the Union — and rare 

 good men they were, and took some beating too. 

 There was at that time a fox in Norsey Wood 

 (unlike the foxes of to-day) he used to break 



