FVFIELD, 28th DECEMBER, 1 895 



15 



enough to dry the roads, encrust the ploughs, cover the ponds with a thin 

 coating of ice, and freeze all the roadside pools, it was only one night's 

 visitation of the huntsman's bugbear, but because of the cold, dry, marrow- 

 piercing fog — a fog with no moisture in it, or it would have rimed on 

 the hedgerows and trees — for as it wrapped us in its blue embrace it was 

 freezing hard. 



Now, a curious thing about this fog ; the higher the ground the thicker 

 it became, and on the heights of Epping you could not see across a field, 

 but as we gradually dropped down to the river's bed at Moreton, hope 

 dawned upon us, for the fog was thinner and the frost not half so severe ; 

 but still the hounds w^ere not on, and 12 o'clock, you remarked, would 



Fyfield 



strike before they put in an appearance. The advent of one of the Hunt 

 servants at the meet, with the intelligence that hounds were only half-a- 

 mile behind, soon dispelled this illusion, and with it our last fears, for the 

 fog was certainly lifting every minute. 



It was a holiday gathering, a bumper meet, a representative throng, 

 most of them legitimate followers of our subscription pack, who fore- 

 gathered at Fyfield, and among them, bar printer's errors, I can vouch 

 for the following : — Masters, none ! all will hear with much regret that 

 Mr. Arkwright was too unwell to be out. However, both our popular 

 secretaries and Mr. C. E. Green — the latter in charge— Colonel Lockwood, 

 M.P., and the rest, if you have no objection, off the subscription list that 

 lies before me, with a few additions ; Mr. Askwith, Mr. Walter Buck- 

 master, Miss Ida Blyth and the Misses Blyth, Messrs. Ball (3), Mr. F. 

 Barclay, Mr. Pemberton-Barnes, Mr. Basham, Mr. Brindle, Captain and 

 Mrs. Bruce, Mr. Borwick and son, Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Buxton, the 

 Misses Buxton (2), Mr. George Brown, Mr. Cairns, Mr. W. S. Carr, Mr. 



