THE ESSEX 



TTie drag-hunting is very good. Lines are laid in the valleys, which are 

 grassland and good going, the fences for the most part being post-and-rails, 

 with here and there a stone wall sandwached in, and a well-schooled, tem- 

 perate horse has been found to be best suited to the country. 



The landowners are good sportsmen and encourage the hunting, turning out 

 in goodly numbers on points of vantage to see the Hunt on a holiday. As 

 yet, they do not participate, for lack of suitable mounts and because of inex- 

 perience, but one can never tell what future years will bring forth, and the 

 Master may yet have the pleasure of seeing them in the Field. 



In 1 90 1 , and during the four following seasons, Mr. Pfizer took a few 

 couples of his draghounds to Southampton, Long Island. They were hunted 

 there, in September and October, with moderate success, until 1 906, when, 

 finding that more satisfactory hunting could be obtained in the home country, 

 Mr. Pfizer gave up this short autumn season on Long Island; the result 

 being the organization of the Suffolk County Hunt, which now hunts that 

 country. 



As this article goes to press, the following note of interest is received from 

 Mr. Pfizer : 



" I am now keeping a separate pack of English foxhounds for hunting native 

 foxes, which are on the increase, owing to careful stocking of some coverts 

 every spring ; and if the poor beasts do not fall a prey to the local gunners, 

 active fox-hunting after the real article — not a bagman — will be finally estab- 

 lished in our section. I am trying to work up some general interest among the 

 landowners, and have every hope that it will be a success in future years." 



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