I04 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY 



vision vouchsafed us as hounds set to work to run up wind at a pace which 

 robbed the blindest ditch of its terrors, and gave a zest to the variety of 

 fences which had to be tackled, and brought out the capacity of every 

 horse that was ridden. 



What roads or lanes we crossed I know not, but 'twas fairly early in the 

 run, Mr. Tweed, when you pushed open the gate for Bailey, and the next 

 field when you lay on your back, after coming over your horse's head when 

 he pitched heavily as he landed over the high switch fence. To pull up to 

 make sure you were all right was the work of a second — to take one's 

 bearings (as the River Roding lay almost fronting us) a delay that paid. 

 That neat, grey-coated figure,^ pressing his heels into his good black by the 

 old elm tree as he urged him into the ford, must be a native ; must, too, 

 have caught that faint halloa beyond the stream, or old Mr. Horner, Mr. 

 Tyndale White, and his son on the good little grey, would hardly have 

 followed him so quickly. 



It was provoking certainly, but bound to come ere we reached the road. 

 Nigh to Berner's Wood the fox had had about enough at the pace up wind, 

 and in the ploughed field in which Mr. Seymour Caldwell viewed him 

 turned back. Hounds went over the road without flinging themselves in 

 that wide circle which is such a pretty feature of hare hunting, and the line 

 was not recovered until Bailey, river delayed, came up and made it good, 

 to Berner's Wood, but only the afterglow remained, for whether in covert 

 or down wind in the open — note it down ! — with wind N.E. there was 

 hardly a trace of scent. It is a mistake to get into a lane. It is a mistake 

 to ride cunning on a road has hitherto been my experience in the Roothing 

 country, for you invariably find hounds turning away from you, and when 

 you set off across country on your own account, and get landed in one of 

 the deep ditches, who is to let your friends know you are missing ? For- 

 tunately, last Wednesday we rode the road in squadron. We had an 

 officer with us, a K.D.G. ; he took the country early on his charger, and 

 was all right, and we hardened our hearts to follow the pink on the chestnut 

 who lives not loo miles from Epping, when in went one of the horses" into 

 a desperately blind ditch. Some anxious moments were passed by the 

 onlookers ere the rider, who was tightly held by her habit, was released ; 

 safety or not, it clung to the pommel. Fortunately for her, the poor 

 animal's legs were wedged, so she escaped. 



Rejoining hounds as they were thrown into Nor Wood, we heard that 

 they had held a line into Screens, and found in Witney Wood without being 

 able to run. In Brick Kilns and Man Wood foxes were plentiful, but 

 scent no better. 



For change of scene we went to Lankester Springs and got away on 

 such good terms that a right merry burst ensued to Hatfield Grange almost 

 into Mr. Weston Crocker's larder, which Mr. Roly Bevan, having ridden 

 his own line on the left of the brook, was the first to reach. Taking it over 

 the Hatfield-road we had a very pretty hunt over a nerve-trying country 

 to Hatfield Heath, six ladies (two from Epping) seeing it out, and never 

 shirking a fence. 



One could see little but the points of one's horse's ears as riding home 

 one went stumbling over the newly metalled roads, but we chuckled with 

 satisfaction at the masterly way Crawley had handled that hay truss shot 



' Mr. Seymour Caldwell. 



2 Mrs. L. Felly's; its back was broken and it had to be shot. A horse belonging to Mi 

 Edwards, which came out of the same stable in the morning, met with a similar fate. 



