28 HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS. 



Then came a break of four years, after which he 

 resumed office as Master of the East Essex 

 Hounds on the resignation of Mr. Humphrey 

 R. G. Marriott, of Abbots Hall, Stratford, by 

 whom, and his father before him, the county 

 had been hunted for two years. During the 

 first five seasons of this Mastership, 1869-74, 

 the hounds were always hunted by the Master, 

 and were out three days in the week. From the 

 sixth season, 1874- 1875 onward, the number of 

 days was five days a fortnight, but the Master's 

 task, instead of being lessened, was soon gravely 

 increased, for, on the resignation in 1875 of 

 Lord Petre's tenant and friend, Mr. Thomas 

 William Offin, Mr. White, whilst continuing in 

 office with the East Essex, undertook in addi- 

 tion to hunt Mr. Offin's country, which, having 

 in earlier days been divided between two packs 

 of hounds, has since Captain White's succession 

 been known as the Essex Union Hunt. The 

 Kennels of the two packs, one near Braintree 

 and the other near Billericay, were not far short 

 of twenty miles apart. Mr. White achieved the 

 task of hunting the entire county for four 

 seasons. 



In 1880 he gave up the reins of office to 

 Captain Carnegy, of Lour. The retiring 

 Master was now in his fiftieth year, and after 

 one season with the East Kent he retired into 

 private hfe in 1882, though his love of sport 

 continued to the end of the chapter. On March 

 15th, 1909, he wrote in a letter, "My work is 

 done." Two months later, within a month of 

 his eightieth birthday. Old Billy went to ground 



