HOSPITALITY AT MARDEN ASH 2 1 



below Bovinger Hall Farm, and still on the grass reached the Bovinger 

 and Moreton Road, down which many of us had driven that morning, little 

 recking that in an hour or two's time we should be crossing it with hounds 

 full cry. Swinging a bit to the right, hounds ran beautifully down to the 

 brook below Mr. James's Farm, and we splashed through a couple of fords, 

 and squeezed through a narrow gate. Up hill, on over a couple of fields 

 of stubble, they suddenly swung to the left and commenced running again 

 down a succession of long grass meadows that fringed the brook. Those 

 who jumped it were apparently wrong, for hounds turned, if anything, to 

 the left. Crossing the road below Magdalen Laver Hall, we dived down 

 the opposite lane, which was uncommonly deep, and came to a locked gate. 

 To turn over the fence at the side and jump the next was the work of a 

 second, and we reached Belgium Springs as hounds dashed into them. 



One field beyond they threw up, and Mr. Waltham, taking out his 

 watch, made it forty-two minutes. I shall always think that we changed 

 foxes here, for hounds never ran again with the same dash, in fact they 

 never ran at all. They hunted very prettily to Hobbs' Cross, Hubbards 

 Hall, Barnsley's, Mark Hall, and Vicarage Wood, but the fire was out, and 

 only the afterglow remained — an afterglow that will never grow dull for 

 years to come in the hearts of those whose lucky star was in the ascendant 

 in this splendid run — one, if not the very nicest, I have ever seen in 

 Essex.* 



Another good Monday, December 30TH, 1895. — I have not told you 

 of the last one yet ; suffice it to say that in the Thoby Wood country, on 

 the borders of the Essex Union Hunt, perhaps the smallest field on record 

 this season (forty at the outside) were present to participate, first in a 

 run of forty-five minutes, the preliminary twenty very fast, winding up with 

 a kill in the open, over a very rough, if impaytial, country, for it took toll of 

 everybody. Five were down at one fence at a very early stage of the pro- 

 ceedings. In the second run, for the first twenty-five minutes hounds 

 simply flew (Mr. Waltham showing us all the way), making a good point, 

 which brought in a lot of grass ; and hunting grandly for another forty 

 minutes, until the shades of night compelled the huntsman to give it up 

 some twenty miles from the Kennels. 



Lucky were you indeed if you found your legs under the mahogany 

 at Marden Ash at 5.30 p.m. While tired horses were being cared for, we 

 were entertained right royally. The two 'Varsity men must have thanked 

 their good fortune ; at last they had fallen on their feet (I can't say how 

 many times they had been standing on their heads), or it's little dancing 

 they would have felt equal to that night, Fm thinking. The hospitable 

 ownert of Marden Ash doesn't smoke (is that why his iron nerve is unim- 

 paired ?), but he has a son who does, and a very nice cigar he gave us ; 

 but it was not the first good turn the bon fils had done us that day, for 

 when hounds were running their fastest, and some of the hottest thrusters 

 were cornered by wire, he went for it and, turning with his horse a com- 

 plete somersault, came up smiling, for the wire was broken and the course 

 clear. A bird whispered to us that he was riding one of the carriage 

 horses ; if so, it would account for his previous toss over high timber, 

 over which Mrs. Upton and our secretary, Mr. Roly Bevan, had flown 

 like birds. 



Towards the end of the run Mr. Dalton's horse gave him what looked 



* Mr. W. S. Horner wrote : " I have seen some good runs, but none better than this 

 Forest Hall one." 

 t Mr. H. E. Jones. 



