HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS. ii 



before the dining room covers have been well 

 tried. 



Coming back to the big woods, the hounds 

 soon got on another of the right sort, and hunted 

 him, fast and slow, for a couple of hours, until 

 dusk compelled the Master reluctantly to whip 

 off. The scent, however, had been getting 

 worse, as heavy rain began to fall, and there was 

 little chance of pressing a stout fox then. 

 Among the many out were Major and Mrs. 

 Goodeve, several Artillery officers from Shoe- 

 bury, Messrs. F. A. and C. A. Tabor, Mr. S. 

 Baker and his brother, and that very keen old 

 sportsman, Mr. Kemble. On Thursday, when 

 we had looked forward to meeting the hounds 

 at a favourite trysting place, Hazeleigh Hall, in 

 the midst of a capital country, snow began to fall 

 heavily, and about the time that one should 

 have been drawing on his " leathers and tops " 

 there were some six or eight inches of snow 

 over all the land round about Chelmsford. 



SPORT IN SOUTH ESSEX. 



January, 1880. 



" Knee-deep in mud " was a condition of 

 things that always delighted a Brocklesby 

 huntsman of old, and his brethren in many a 

 quarter where ploughed lands prevail would 

 assuredly welcome it as an essential element of 

 good sport. Then, and only in such places, a 

 scent lies well ; hounds can run with heads up 

 and sterns down; and, most material point of 



