KILLING DEER IX THE P^IELD 23 1 



now-a-days. Mr. Sheffield Neave, in reply, said he did not suppose that the 

 people who objected to deer being killed had any distaste for a leg of mutton, 

 and yet the deer were killed in just as humane a manner as sheep. He 

 considered that the hounds must be blooded occasionally, and if the deer 

 were killed in as humane a way as it would be killed in the yard, and the 

 entrails given to the hounds, it would do a great deal of good to hunting. 

 That was his opinion, and so long as he was blaster he intended to 

 carry it out. This morbid idea of some people about hunting was too 

 ridiculous. 



Mr. Tyndale White, who was presiding at the meeting, thought it only 

 right to tell Mr. Neave that there was a strong feeling in the Hunt about 

 this killing of deer, and he hoped that Mr. Neave would defer to that feeling, 

 or at least undertake not to kill more than one deer a day. Mr. Neave 

 laughingly acceded to that request. 



In a neighbouring Hunt, the Essex Union, at the annual meeting, 

 which was held at the Red Lion Hotel, Billericay, under the presidency 

 of Mr. T. H. Horton, a change of Mastership was arranged. Col. Hornby 

 having resigned, Mr. E. T, Helme was elected by the unanimous wish of 

 all the supporters of the Essex Union. 



In bringing to a conclusion my notes on the season of 1897-98, it may 

 be fairly stated that Essex was by no means isolated in having to number 

 this season as one of the uvvst on record, and that, too, in spite of its not being 

 broken by frost. 



The dry weather at the early part of the season, causing a postponement 

 of the opening meet, and the dry weather at the end of it, together with 

 absence of scent and a great scarcity of foxes in some parts of the country, 

 made, with the loss of Bailey's services up to Christmas, a combination of 

 unfavourable circumstances which it would have been very difficult for 

 any pack of hounds to successfully grapple with. 



