CHAPTER XXXII. 



DEIVTNG EED-DEEE. 



"EssEx/' says Camden, writing the history of that 

 county, in days long past, " is a country large in coin- 

 passe, fruitful, full of woods, plentiful of saffron, and very 

 wealthy ; encircled as it were, on the one side with the 

 maine sea, on the other with fish-full rivers." From 

 time immemorial this, my native county, has been 

 noted for sport of every description, for history tells us 

 how "that simple saint, Edward the Confessor/'' granted 

 a charter to Eanulph Peperking, of the Hundred of 

 Chelmer and Dancing. 



It was, then, with mingled anticipations and retro- 

 spects that I repaired, a few days since, to Thorndon 

 Hall, near Brentwood, the seat of Lord Petre, in order 

 to join in the sport of driving red-deer, his lordship 

 having determined to do away with the herds of 

 fallow and red deer which have so long roamed over 

 the grand old park. At one period the herd consisted 

 of somewhere about 2000 of these graceful animals, 

 who rested beneath the shade of the countless oaks, or 

 cropped the herbage in the verdant glades, and, when 

 disturbed, disappearing amidst the luxuriant ferns, start- 

 ling the pheasants, causing the rabbits to scuttle into 



