CHURCH WOOD, DODDINGHURST 



175 



will require the drying wind of March ere it is fit for tillage, and in an 

 atmosphere as soft and warm as a day in June. With a little luck we 

 might have had a great day, for up wind there was a scent, but the foxes 

 had it in the changes they secured as they threaded the numerous coverts. 

 At the same time no one went home discontented, everyone seemed 

 cheerful and gay, and where men's voices are heard in morning trains it 

 was voted " good." 



It would be quite impossible for me to describe the interesting route by 

 which we reached Blackmore High Woods, with their open earths, from 

 Church Wood, Doddinghurst. If I can readily picture the clever way 

 Mr. Tyndale W^hite's roan walked down the ditch side and hopped the 

 plank at the bottom, and recall how much I maligned Mr. Hull in 







Church Wood, Doddinghurst, from the road 



supposing that there was a yard of wire within a mile of Jericho. Near 

 this Mr. Sworder (on the chestnut thoroughbred "Pinafore," own sister to 

 " Midshipmite") gave a specimen of his horsemanship as he landed her over 

 first the rails, then the bank, and after clearing the wide ditch into the 

 road would have no denial, as he took her straight out of it, up a bank 

 like the side of a house : Captain Kortright jumped at the same time, and 

 i\Iiss Jones recalled a narrow escape from charging the wire netting over 

 which the huntsman had led. 



To those who were not with hounds we appeared to have travelled 

 fast over a good line of country. Mr. Edwards was one, having, unluckily, 

 had a nasty fall at the second fence, smashing his glasses and hurting his 

 neck : also he got up so completely encased in mud that Mr. Avila, who stayed 

 behind to render assistance, had to have recourse to a handy pond to 

 make him presentable. 



