FOR THE HONOUR OF ESSEX 339 



me in the road turn in their saddles to observe what I should 

 do, I concluded it was a w^ide place, and therefore selecting a 

 portion of the bank which seemed sounder than the rest, I 

 put "Cognac" smartly at it "for the honour of Essex," and 

 he cleared the whole superbly, alighting right on the top of 

 the bank of earth on its opposite side causing Goodall to 

 exclaim "Well done! " It proved to be a regular Lincolnshire 

 dyke, with the width and difficulty much increased by having 

 been recently cleared out and the earth thrown up on both 

 sides. It certainly w^as a place to startle weak nerves, for I 

 could see when crossing it that the sides were perpendicular 

 and about ten or twelve feet deep, so that there would have 

 been little chance of getting out in the event of a mistake. 



" Cognac "' pleased me much in his timber jumping ; he 

 cleared beautifully a very stiff tiight of rails in the early part 

 of the run ; just after having taken my own line and kept it for 

 some time, I observed the hounds ahead of the rest of the 

 field and joined them by taking these rails, shaking off all who 

 had followed me to that point. We afterwards drew the woods 

 and plantations round Keythorpe Hall, a fine old mansion in 

 an antiquated style, but could not get our fox away, who finally 

 went to ofround in a corner of the covert. 



Thursday, November 5th. I got up this morning rather 

 tired from my exertions of yesterday, but lightsome and in 

 good spirits, for to-day we were to meet in a capital country, 

 Stanton Wyville, in High Leicestershire, sixteen miles from 

 Melton as I was told ; but I see by my map that it is nineteen, 

 and I am sure I must have made twenty-four or twenty-five 

 of it by following the directions of the elder Mason, who meant 

 well but did not certainly tell me the shortest way. It was 

 well that I had the o-allant little " Chancellor " under me as a 

 hack (albeit fretting at my red coat), he cantered in excellent 

 style through Burton, Little Dalby, Pickwell, Somerby, 

 Ouston, Loddington, East Norton, Keythorpe, and thence to 

 Stanton Wyville ; all this was wrong as I afterwards learned, 

 since I ought to have gone by Burrow to Tilton, Skeffington 

 and Rolleston, and by Rolleston Spinney right across to 

 Stanton Wyville. With the exception of going so much 

 further than was necessary, I managed pretty well with such 

 a hack as " Chancellor," notwithstanding the faintness of the 

 morning, until I came to East Norton, and then in endeavouring 

 to follow a direction given to me by a woman, I got completely 

 bewildered in the great grass grounds of High Leicestershire, 

 rising in undulatino- swells in all directions around me with 



