26 HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS. 



deserved, considering the riding abilities he 

 displayed. 



November. 



The Essex Union met at the Lawn, at 

 Rochford, Major Tawke's place; and a large 

 field sat down to breakfast. Captain Carnegie 

 has already shown his intention of hunting the 

 country with spirit and thoroughness, and ardent 

 sportsmen in the Union country are hoping to 

 see a continuance of the good fields with which 

 the season has opened. A very fair sprinkling 

 of symmetrical habits and coquettish hats is to 

 be seen careering over the flats of southern 

 Essex; and their owners, whose prowess in 

 former seasons is well remembered, are rarely 

 far away at the crisis. The Forfarshire Captain 

 has already shown the country some very res- 

 pectable sport, and foxes are understood to be 

 plentiful. The East Essex have commenced 

 their first regular season without their old Secre- 

 tary, Mr. Page Wood. The inaugural meet 

 and breakfast took place at Mr. H. R. G. 

 Marriott's, at Abbot's Hall, which was for many 

 years the headquarters of the Hunt. An hour's 

 rattling run and a double kill certainly made a 

 good beginning. Sir Henry Ibbetson met a 

 good field at Matching, when the Essex Hunt — 

 I wish the names of the Essex packs were a 

 little more distinctive — had what has been des- 

 cribed to me as " a glorious opening." 



