74 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY 



of the first gate, " Needle Gun " broke it, and hitting the other 

 gate with his knees, he blundered so badly that his owner had 

 to part company. Mr. Saunders goes on to remark that "in 

 my day we used not to jump timber in Essex, and any one that 

 came out and jumped a few of the very low gates found in the 

 Roothings was put down as a wonder. The best thing about 

 the horse was his capacity for going through the dirt,* and in 

 my day there was a lot of steam plough ; after a field or two 

 of this he could always put himself at the head of affairs." Mr. 

 Saunders further adds that in his opinion "the staghounds of 

 fifteen (?) years ago went a great deal faster than they do now 

 — forty-five to sixty minutes, no stopping them, and about 

 thirty minutes of it best pace was what they called a ' clinker ; ' 

 and if the days were short few of the horses wanted any more 

 after forty-five minutes." Before "Needle Gun" had ever seen 

 a fence, let alone been over one, Mr. P. C. Barker, who 

 eventually sold the horse to Mr. Saunders, gave ^loo for him, 

 and got eleven falls the first day he rode him. the horse 

 showing temper and running through his fences. 



Mr. Washington Single is here represented on " May 

 Morn," one of his three best known hunters with the Essex 

 Hounds, the others being " Once too Often " and " Stella," of 

 whom more anon. 



" May Morn " won the second jumping prize at the Essex 

 Agricultural Show, when it was last held at Waltham Abbey, 

 being ridden on that occasion by Mr. P. Tippler. She was a 

 nervous mare with the lightest of mouths, and, in fact, was just 

 the kind of animal on which many a man would have been 

 turned out of the ring at starting. A delightful mount in a 

 quick thing, she never made the least fuss or fault at a big 

 fence, and was away on landing in a style peculiarly her own 

 that was truly fascinating to witness ; for one possessing so 

 much quality, she galloped high, consequently was by no means 

 a fast mare, but she could jump on the shortest notice and go 

 the shortest way. 



"Once too Often," another of Mr. Single's favourites, 

 was bought at Messrs. TattersalFs out of a stud of the Hon. 

 Hugh Lowther's, now Lord Lonsdale, by a well-known man on 

 the borders of the Essex country and returned on the ground 

 that he was suffering from mud fever and in too weak a 

 condition to be capable of being hunted. There was no 

 doubt at the time that the objection would have held good, 



* He had the best of shoulders. 



