426 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY 



scent with renewed gusto, I sailed away and increased my 

 lead ; nor did he join me until within a few fields of the High 

 Woods, the hounds not going then so quick or so straight, the 

 fox having evidently dodged and twisted about a little before 

 reaching the covert. Just before he joined me I had a very 

 narrow lane to cross, a very wide ditch, and high bank and 

 hedge into it, and then almost before a horse could collect 

 himself, a bushy bank and ditch out of it ; either little " Tip." 

 or myself twisted in accomplishing this, as when I landed in 

 the next field both feet were out of the stirrup irons, and while 

 restraining my horse while I recovered them, James Stallibrass 

 joined me, and then he and I in our several lines had it to 

 ourselves for the remaining four or five minutes. Just before 

 reaching the covert the smaller Chafey came up having nicked 

 in up a lane : the time was exactly twenty-two minutes, distance 

 a good four miles as the crow flies, country very heavy ; this 

 gallop was admitted by all to be the sharpest and most decisive 

 thing of the season, as far as I could learn from concurring 

 testimony, and especially Dawson, who placing himself last 

 (having had a fall with Julius Arkwright) was entitled to 

 credence, the following was the order of the first ten, viz., 

 Vickerman (1), James Stallibrass (2), younger Chafey (not 

 related to the older Chafey, subject to query as to nicking) (3), 

 Big Chafey (4), Cox (5), Sam Reeve (6), Round (7), George 



SuUins (8), ~ (9), Dawson (lo). The first of the 



establishment was Charles the Huntsman, who came up by 

 the road after we had been at the Hiofh Wood some five 

 minutes. It was amusing in the latter part of the day to hear 

 the remarks of the field, about the run ; each man of the 1 20 or 

 130 had his own special reason why he was not first or 

 thereabouts. 



(Mr. Vickerman says that it was not without a tinge of 

 melancholy that he cast a last look at the staghounds at 

 Roper's Mill, on April 17th, 1858 (they had met in the morning 

 at Ingatestone Hall, to finish the season, and had had a very 

 good run), and he felt he could scarcely realise that six or 

 seven months must elapse before he could again meet them 

 with alas! who can say what chance and changes in the interval, 

 and he records as an unprecedented occurrence for him that he 

 had not missed one day during the season with the staghounds, 

 not excepting the first bye-day early in the morning.) 



Season 1858-59. 



November 9th. This year has been remarkable for drought 

 and for the appearance of Donate's Comet, whose orbit is 



