HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS. 13 



with those fastidious sportsmen ; but when 

 hounds do run across the Essex fields, the 

 veriest glutton may find enough of fencing to 

 gratify his desires ; and if he ride straight, and 

 get to the end of a good run without a downfall, 

 he may plume himself on having achieved a feat 

 which makes no small demand on the cleverness 

 of a hunter and the judgment of a horseman. 

 Frequently you may see strangers going well 

 there during the first burst, holding the lead 

 perhaps for a mile or two, and keeping well with 

 the hounds ; for the fences, though big and 

 treacherous, are such as a fresh hunter should 

 safely negotiate. But look for them at the end 

 of twenty minutes of hard going, when many a 

 ploughed field has been crossed, and you will 

 probably find them emerging from a ditch where 

 the over-taxed powers of their steed failed at 

 last, or stuck fast in the midst of acres of ridge 

 and furrow, across which they had tried to 

 bucket their horse too recklessly. A man, 

 wherever he hunts, should, it is true, learn a 

 lesson which might save him from such dis- 

 aster ; but, unfortunately, he never learns it 

 completely until he has made acquaintance with 

 the deep furrows ploughed by steam cultivators 

 in heavy clay. Apart from the chagrin of being 

 thrown out, however, no one need feel humilia- 

 ted at a reverse of this kind. The foremost 

 riders of South Essex are ever ready to welcome 

 a good man who can keep company through a 

 long run or a quick one ; but they are never 

 prone to glory at the discomfiture of one who 

 has made a gallant effort, and failed in its fulfil- 



