gkor(;e brown shows the way 2>'^j 



simply forcing his way through the stiff quickset fence. A field beyond 

 the lane Mr. Avila, who was riding a very good little mare, " Dolly," which 

 had been given to him by Captain Bruce, came to grief as the mare, 

 catching her legs in a binder, turned head over heels. Mr. F. Green 

 promptly went to the rescue, as Mr. Avila was hung up. Some whisky 

 and soda soon revived him, and he went sailing along in the wake of 

 hounds as if nothing had happened. x\ youth in mufti, a stranger to me, 

 having first shy at the next wattled fence on the top of a bank, luckily the 

 binders broke, as the fence could not be flown, and there was hardly room 

 to double it. The youth, however, shot ahead too far and got cornered at 

 the next fence as hounds ran on hard for the Warren, with Mr. Avila 

 and Mr. Gerald Buxton leading the van. Hounds ran beautifully through 

 the Warren, and their fox failing to get over the high palings ran 

 past the lodge gates, and getting out in the park made for Copped Hall 

 Green. No one caring to tackle the park palings (we wanted Mr. Sheffield 

 Neave" to show us the way), Mr. C. E. Green was perfectly happy, and 

 so was Bailey, for hounds had plenty of room as they ran, on by themselves 

 and we didn't catch them until they came to a check in Warlies Park. 

 Mr. C. E. Green, insisting upon the ambulance, i.e., Mr. F. Avila's con- 

 veyance, going first at the one at a time places, of which there were three 

 or four if you took the line hounds did and followed ^Ir. Arkwright and Mr. 

 C. E. Green over the drop on to Copped Hall Green. 



From Warlies hounds ran very smartly to Cobbin End, Mr. Howard, 

 of Epping, going very strong on his chestnut. At the end of the run Mr. 

 Howard told me that he would not sell the horse for ^200 ; he could drive 

 him single and drive him double, and hunt him three or four days a w^eek. 

 Crossing the brook by the ford, Mr. Bevan and Mr. Grossman splashing 

 through with the first come first served contingent, hounds ran on towards 

 Obelisk Wood, just missing it, and rose the hill beyond Shatter Bushes, a 

 quickset fence at this period causing a good many refusals, until Captain 

 Wood came to the rescue. I saw three horses run their heads into the 

 opposite bank rather than attempt the jump. Short was one, and he looked 

 (you know how Short looks, if you hunt with the Essex, when his horse 

 refuses), and you know that his horse will have to tumble into or over the 

 fence rather than be allowed to get his own way, as Short, though a very 

 judicious rider is a very determined one, with plenty of North Countrie grit 

 in him. 



If hounds had run on now at the pace they had started you would not 

 have reached the Galley Hill coverts, Messrs. Lee and Grossman, in the 

 easy way you went trotting up that last field with the pack, still less have 

 come away again Avhen they brought their fox once more over a delightful 

 line of country by Shatter 13ushes, the Rookery and Griffins Wood, to lose 

 him in the A\'arren, a forest fox undoubtedly. Several, including Miss 

 Woodhouse, who went splendidly in the run, Mr. C. E. Ridley, Mr. David 

 Christy, jun., and Mr. Gee, in spite of their long distance from home, stuck 

 to it to the end of the two hours run. 



For the last day of the season, 1899-1900, hounds met at Birch Hall, 

 Mr. Gerald F3uxton's house, on the outskirts of Epping Forest. Twenty 

 years previously the last meet of the season was held higher up in the 

 Forest, two miles nearer London, at Goldings, where Colonel Howard was 

 living. Not a large muster for the last day, the counter-attractions of 

 Stag Hounds at Matching Hall doubtless attracting some ; just a hundred ; 



*In a run this season near Bedfords, Mr. Sheffield Neave jumped some high park palings 

 (solid hoard) with ditch bevond and a l)it of a dnip info a road. He had no followers. — En. 



