Il8 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY 



And what a plough it was ! No wonder Mr. Price had a good following as 

 he trotted the headland. No wonder few were really riding in wake of 

 hounds across it, but were hugging the sides and making tracks for the 

 grass, for the going was heavy and fences stiff in the line hounds were 

 taking. Just time to catch sight of Mr. Waltham plunging through the first 

 wood, followed by Miss M. Morgan, and to get clear of the ruck — and it 

 struck me that there was a ruck and ample occupation for the secretaries on 

 a blank day — and reach the road below Bower House, with hounds and 

 their very few attendants a long way off on our left, and to find ourselves in 

 good company — if pink cloth counts for anything — up to Bower House, to 

 turn in opposite to it, pull up, and hear the maddening chorus of hounds in 

 the wood at our feet, and Easterby's wild cheer as he viewed them away. 



" A good turn," said Mr. L. Pelly, as we pressed on through the farm- 

 yard, with Sir Evelyn Wood, V.C, Miss M. Morgan, Mr. Waltham, 

 Easterby, and half-a-dozen more, and struck the road at the same moment 

 hounds crossed it into the park, with something left in our horses and 

 something to be thankful for that we had caught them fairly at last, and 

 with no intention of leaving them again while a kick or a jump was left in 

 our nags, ^^■hat a pace they went over the park ! How quickly Mr. 

 Waltham swung open the first iron gate, yet how long he seemed. 

 " Bellows to mend ?" we asked the huntsman as he overtook us in the next 

 grass field, and " bellows to mend it was," he replied, for he, at any rate, 

 had come the line. Up and down hill from Pyrgo Wood, and the best of the 

 fun was nearly over, though the water flew up as horses were sent along 

 over the fields fringing the brook and Hogg Hill. Mr. F. Green's stately 

 residence was within easy distance as hounds drew up after this sparkling 

 seventeen minutes, and there was time to note a few of those who had 

 enjoyed it— Mrs. Bowlby, Mrs. Mcintosh, Mrs. Bennett, Mrs. Grossman, 

 Miss Fane, Miss Morgan, Miss E. Jones, Miss M. Morgan, General Sir 

 Evelyn Wood, V.C, Colonel Lockwood, M.P., Colonel Fane, Major 

 Wilson, Mr. F. Green, Mr. E. T. Helme, Mr. Tyndale White, Mr. Ford 

 Barclay, Mr. D. Cunliffe-Smith, Mr. H. J. Price, Mr. R. Y. Bevan. 



Ongar Park. 



Methinks any schoolboy or young lady who attended the 

 meet of the Essex Foxhounds at North Weald on Monday, 

 January 4th, in the year of i^Tace 1S97 (and there was a merry 

 band of them), will, when he or she has grown up, cherish 

 a very tender regard for the noted woodland of Ongar Park, 

 from which such a famous run took place on this memorable 

 occasion. 



Few large coverts within the confines of the Essex Hunt 

 offer greater difficulties, whether to the tyro or the old stager, 

 for getting away on good terms with hounds ; and many a man, 

 unless steeped as deep in the mysteries of woodcraft as a Hart, 

 a Sworder, or a Waltham, has been left behind in many a 

 famous run to gnash his teeth and bewail his fate. Let a good 

 fox take but one turn round this extensive covert ; let him, as 

 he is nearly safe to do, put up a comrade which, may be, a few 

 of the tail hounds will set to work to hunt noisily and vigorously 



