306 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY 



hand, and there was no time to retrieve it as the men charged through the 

 fence in quick succession, Mr. Howard cutting his face badly in the boughs. 

 Mr. F. Green, to avoid the wire, had led a contingent up the side of the 

 wood, and was already coming down the lane with a wet sail. Hounds 

 simply flew along it, turning out sharp to the right towards Parndon at a 

 place where you couldn't follow them. A gallop of a hundred yards further 

 down the lane put you on the high road, and gave you the command of 

 hounds as they swept over the grass towards the road and checked for an 

 instant at this sudden turn. Bailey had them on the line at once. Those 

 on top of the hill with Mr. C. E. Green, Mr. Arkwright, Mr. F. Green, Mr. 

 E. Felly, Mr. Giles, having a decided pull over those on the right who 

 had to get in and out of the Maries Farm lane, and to shake their horses 

 out, to overtake hounds as they flew round the edge of the big wheat field 

 that runs up to the woods. 



Straight for Maries, the identical line, the identical fence we had in the 

 great run on March 17th, 1894 (see sketch, p. 270, vol. i.j. Twenty abreast 

 they went at the stiff quickset fence. The Admiral, the huntsman, Mr. 

 Howard, Mr. F. Green, Mr. Arkwright, Mr. C. Fitch, Mr. Grossman, Sir 

 Evelyn Wood, V.C., Mr. Avila, among them. The fence, a cut down black- 

 thorn, strong with the growth of years, and with a down-hill approach, 

 would not stand trifling with, and woe betide the horse that struck the 

 stubs. Mr. Fitch's good grey cleared it but pitched head over heels on 

 landing, unable to carry his rider's weight at the pace he was going, break- 

 ing his rider's collar bone, and losing him the finishing days of the season. 

 Straight through Maries and a momentary check in the road beyond. 

 Luckily, Mr. C. E. Green was there to hold the keen thrusters. Hitting it 

 off, hounds soon put a field between themselves and their nearest pursuers, 

 Mr. F. Green, the Admiral, the huntsman and Short. Where are the light 

 weights ? queried the Admiral and Mr. F. Green, as hounds flew along 

 parallel with the road leaving Epping Church on the left ; if the Admiral 

 had glanced round he would have seen Mr. Arkwright, Mr. Giles, Mr. 

 Avila, Howard and half-a-dozen more laying close up on the right. Another 

 sharp turn just short of Chamber's Farm. Hounds overshot it, but Bailey 

 quickly laid them on, and Mr. F. Green held the gap in the corner of the 

 next field until they had settled to the line. 



Leaving Orange Wood on the right hounds slipped along down the 

 grass meadows towards the Cobbin brook ; Sir Evelyn Wood, Mr. Swire, 

 Mr. John White and a few more on the left making for a ford ; but a sudden 

 turn of hounds parallel with the brook into the plantation running towards 

 the keeper's house made them alter their course, only to find themselves 

 with the rest of the hunt cornered by some unjumpable rails by the 

 plantation in which hounds were feathering. A few valuable minutes were 

 lost here before the rails were demolished and the huntsman and staff" got 

 through. In the meantime, Mr. L. Felly and Mr. G. Buxton, anticipating 

 the block, had already slipped round. Almost immediately the hounds 

 picked up the line by the brook, and we splashed through the same ford we 

 had splashed through the previous Monday ; but how different looked the 

 fence beyond, not a vestige of the wattled hedge remaining at one gap, but 

 all the same Bailey remarked that he was nearly down again, as we steered 

 for the next ditch and bank, and jumped them at the slant, as hounds 

 pressed on up the hill and made for the plantation on the Bury Farm 

 to take quite a new line beyond up to the Bury Farm. Some curious 

 fences had to be negotiated in the follow-my-leader fashion as we turned 

 right-handed and jumped in and out of the lane near New Farm ; Mr. 

 George Brown finding a way for those on the right, his bold bay horse 



