THE ESSEX UNION 49 



that it can have been httle short of ten. Saturday last was not an inviting 

 day to go out hunting with any hounds, still less to embark on a long 

 journey in a strange country ; but one's curiosity had been excited, and 

 appetite whetted, by the graphic and glowing accounts of a wonderful 

 hunting run of three-and-a-half hours' duration, which had taken place a 

 fortnight previously from one of the coverts, which it was whispered would 

 probably be drawn on the day in question. So that it only required the 

 extra inducement that two of the best sportsmen in the Essex Hunt, one of 

 whom, Mr. Harry Sworder, had played a prominent part in the big run 

 already alluded to, intended to have another look at them, to settle one's 

 determination ; a determination which was not to be shaken by a falling 

 glass and blue mist, a combination so fatal to scent in the Essex country. 



What do you know about scent ? Nobody knows anything about scent, 

 cries the wise man and the still wiser woman ; but will these wiseacres 

 kindly make a note of the first good scenting day that comes under their 

 observation under the conditions named ? Do not mistake them, a 

 tumbling glass and a blue mist. 



Thus it was with a keen appreciation of the situation that found 

 us at 9 a.m. bowling along behind a swift cob for the meet at Hutton 

 Checkers, some fourteen miles distant. The rain, which at first came down 

 in a gentle mist, soon commenced falling in right earnest, but it was warm 

 and it was welcome, for who but the wiseacres could tell but that on the 

 dry ground every splash might be so much sticking-plaster for the scent to 

 cling to. 



Has not this month of months for hunting been robbed of neavly all its charm in 

 our Essex connty ? I am not now alluding to the Union county, which is 

 always very much wetter than our own, owing to the dry state of the 

 ground and the non-fulfilment of the old adage, " February fill dyke." 



Arriving in good time at the meet in company with a member of the 

 E.U.H., one, who in former days was a first flighter with the E.H., there 

 was time to take stock of the hounds and have a chat with the huntsman. 

 The veriest tyro would soon have discovered what a keen lover of hounds 

 he was as he pointed with pride to several of his favourites, a young hound, 

 one of the Pytchley " Paradox " strain particularly taking my fancy. A 

 beautiful bitch, " Saintless " by name, but with one fault, which I need not 

 point out, would attract notice on any flags ; but for that one fault she 

 would never have come into a plough country. Taking the i6| couple 

 of hounds altogether, they looked as they undeniably are, a lot of real 

 workmen — the dogs, it was a mixed pack, being fine slashing hounds, 

 capable of putting in a good hard day's work over the stiff clays of the 

 Essex Union country. Of course they were a bit fine-drawn, but what 

 pack is not just now ; hounds, like horses and men, have had no rest, and 

 as Goddard said, they have been right at it since September. 



A liberal ten minutes was allowed for tardy arrivals, and a big batch of 

 late comers took advantage of what is evidently a recognised custom ; and 

 a meet, which at first was of the smallest dimensions on our first arriving, 

 was soon swelled into a gathering of a very respectable size, about a 

 hundred, by the time we moved off" to draw the first covert. 



A good many faces of those who had come out, and who were not to be 

 deterred by the elements, were familiar to me, but my friend kindly pointed 

 out all the local celebrities, and this enables me to give you the following 

 list :— The Master, Col. Hornby ; Messrs. Courage (3), Miss Courage, Mr. 

 Horton, Mr. Kemble (the Father of the Hunt), Capt. Digby Neave, Col. 

 Wood and Son, Mr. Craig, Mr. Haydon Corser, Capt. Tufnell, Mr. Hesel- 

 tine, Mr. Helme, Mr. Barclay, Col. Maguire, Mr. Gibbs, Mr. Coverdale, 



4 VOL. II 



