248 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY 



in the pigskin again, and galloped on looking for something equally 

 difficult. 



One at a time at most places, and someone wanting to Kodak someone 

 else, who had cut in with a sang fvoid that left nothing to be desired, except 

 the naughty little— word . 



After this a general adjournment to Truelove's for refreshments. Result : 

 Two men, two very first flighters,t w^ho are never left behind, might have 

 been greatly missed had hounds found in some of the outlying coverts 

 adjoining the High Woods. The one in pink, to make amends, stuck very 

 religiously to the huntsman after that, and promised, when I said adieu to 

 him at 2.30, still keeping his eye on the drawing pack, to send me the 

 account of the run of the season, should it come off on Boxing-day after all. 

 Fortune did not favour the brave, the persevering, or the fair. 



The names, if you will, of a few of those who kept Boxing-day in the 

 only way it ought to be kept in the midst of a hunting neighbourhood : — 

 Mr. C. E. Green, Mr. Tyndale- White and his two sons, Mr. F. Green, Miss 

 Green, Mr. and Mrs. Waters, Colonel and Mrs. Fane, Colonel Lockwood, 

 M.P , Mr. Usborne, M.P., and the Misses Usborne, Mr. David Christy, 

 Mr. T. Christy, Mr. J. Christy, Mr. Marriage, Mr. and Mrs. F. Ball, Mr. 

 E. Ball, Mr. W. Ball, Messrs. Sheppard, Mrs. E. Sheppard, Captain 

 Tufnell, Mr. T. R. Hull and his son, Mr. H. E. Jones, Miss Jones, Mr. 

 Seymour Caldwell, Mr. H.J. Price, Miss ]\Iorgan, Mr. Craig, Mr. Sheffield 

 Neave, M.S.H., Mr. Seal, Mr. C. E. Ridley, Mr. and Mrs. D. Grossman, 

 Mrs. Neill. 



Bentley Mill. 



Sport with the Essex Hounds has been of a very mediocre description 

 for the last two weeks, and trying to describe it is very much like en- 

 deavouring to turn out bricks without straw ; but with the advent of the 

 New Year has come, let us hope, a turn in the tide. Certainly last 

 Monday's record — the very first possible day's hunting in iSgg — stands 

 out as something quite beyond the common average. 



The day did not commence in a very inviting manner, though better 

 far than the white pall of fog that hung over the country, blotting out the 

 landscape at the birth of the New Year, until melted and dissolved by 

 sheets of rain ; for although most of us who had any distance to hack or 

 drive to the meet were caught in a drenching shower of rain and sleet — fit 

 accompaniment of the searching wind that drove it up from the Atlantic — 

 yet by the time the tryst was reached the clouds were breaking, and a 

 winter's sun w^as paling the blue vault of heaven, making the spray upon 

 every hedgerow glisten and sparkle in its rays. 



Not that hunting men, as a rule, are deterred by stress of weather, for 

 full well they know that hounds have been known to run desperately hard 

 in a gale of wind and out-distance all pursuit when March dust has fairly 

 hidden the flying pack. 



With a nip of frost in the air, following a spell of mild, showery 

 weather, when days are at their shortest, most men would sally out to try 

 their luck if they had a horse in their stables half fit to go. 



Monday, then, brought a bumper meet. How I hated myself for being 

 late. The hounds had pretty well finished drawing the ]\Ioors before I 

 arrived on the scene, to see those who had followed the huntsman on his 

 roan through the woods, coming over the bank after him into the road. 

 Mr. R. Cunliffe-Smith's horse gave a bound prodigious, a hat-guard tester, 

 as his topper blew off. Miss Jones's horse jumped off the bank most 



t Mr. D. Crossman and Mr. S. Caldwell. 



