THE RACE FOR BLAKE HALL 



19 



tion on the other side of the river. Upon your choice of which side of this 

 plantation you elected to go entirely depended your position in the race for 

 Blake Hall. 



The huntsman went right-handed, and of course the majority followed 

 him, for wherever he goes he always has a pretty large clientele. 

 Apparently both contingents were equally well placed, for after leaving the 

 plantation behind, hounds bore, if anything, right-handed along a boggy 

 bottom, and then suddenly swung to the left for Ongar, and then came a 

 delay, which cost so many their place, for the leaders all pulled up to scan 

 the boggy ditch. I can see the huntsman now as I write, with his horse 

 held tight by the head peering into its treacherous depths, and I can see 

 him no more until we reached Blake Hall. 





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Wood near Forest Hall 



Mr. Jones, muttering, " he is making his point after all," was quietly 

 cantering along in the wake of hounds, which just short of the Four Wants 

 swung to the right and crossed the road below the Dun Cow. No 

 time to open the black gate ; in and out went Mr. Sheffield Neave, Mr. 

 Jones, Mr. Gerald Gold, Mr. Howard Fowler, and Major Wilson, and the 

 few, very few, who were with them, the rustics gleefully pointing out 

 the line the fox had gone. We had only half the hounds, but they were 

 the pick of the basket, and none of their little band of followers meant 

 spoiling their own fun by overriding hounds, as running parallel with the 

 road for a couple of fields down hill and all plough, they leapt lightly over 

 the deep drop, and disappeared up the grassy bank on the far side. The 

 gate opened readily, and it was now a toss-up which side of the river to 

 go. A hundred yards down the road a bridge, and the fox appeared to be 

 making for Blake Hall, and in that case was bound to cross (as he did) 



