lo HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS. 



day he may well be proud, for it is strengthened 

 by some of the best of the Hertfordshire 

 Merryman blood, which has done so much good 

 to the Bramham Moor and other kennels. The 

 little ladies were trotted quickly off to the 

 Hockley Woods — two miles distant — which 

 have a sinister fame as possessing the deepest 

 and dirtiest rides in England. There is no 

 fear, however, of their recesses being drawn 

 blank; the hounds, in fact, found immediately 

 and, aided by an unexpectedly good scent, 

 stuck to their fox so persistently that they never 

 gave him a hope of escape. For a long time he 

 kept to the woodland, being frequently baulked 

 of his attempts to break ; but at length forced to 

 fly, he was so quickly pressed across the open 

 that they broke his heart, and, at the end of 

 forty minutes from the find, ran into him in the 

 middle of Mr. Baker's turnip field. The forty 

 minutes of hunting and racing, however, were 

 good for hounds and enjoyable to pursuers. 

 Two or three small coverts were then drawn 

 blank, and the Master, turning to the right, just 

 " looked into " Potash Wood, where, however, 

 Reynard was not at home. The chimneys of 

 " The Lawn," where Mr. and Mrs. Tawke are 

 always ready to offer the hospitality of an open 

 house to their hunting friends, were smokeless, 

 as the owner is at present sojourning by 

 southern seas. The M.F.H. always likes to 

 force his foxes towards Rochford Lawn about 

 lunch time ; not unfrequently the field comes to 

 a long check at these doors ; and there is seldom 

 an unseemly haste to make a caste forward 



