A MEET AT EPPING BURY 25 



the Spectator of January 29, i 89S, clearly indicates. He could 

 hardly be otherwise, living- in a house miles away from a 

 station, surrounded with woods full of foxes and pheasants : — 



FASCINATION BY A FOX. 



\To the Editor of the " Spectator.''] 

 Sir, — I see Truth has cast doubts on the accuracy of the account of a 

 fox fascinating a pheasant by circling beneath its perch, described by your 

 correspondent in the Spectator of January ist. Mr. Meyer, of Little Laver 

 Hall, near Ongar, Essex, told me many years ago a parallel story. He saw 

 a fox, which had got into his hen-roost, circling round and round under a 

 cock, which would unquestionably have fallen off his perch into the fox's 

 jaws had not my friend shown himself and frightened the beast away. 



I am, Sir, &c., 

 Shelthorpe, Sandown, Isle of Wight, H. J. Lister. 



January 14th. 



Wednesday, November gth, the meet was at Harlow Common, where 

 the celebrated Harlow Bush Fair, lately done away with, used to be held. 

 A finer day could not have been chosen for hunting ; it was as balmy as 

 May. To see the way the ladies worked in covert (Harlow Park) was a 

 sight alone worth coming for. They were soon racing after a fox, a 

 gallant one, for, not heeding the carriage and foot people in Harlow Road, 

 he went straight across it into Latton Park. By the way, hounds were 

 running, there was no time to be lost to seek for a way through the wood 

 or gallop round it. Which was it to be? Seeing Mr. Sworder and his 

 son slipping round the wood, I luckily followed, and galloped fast, to be 

 just in time to see hounds come out the other side and race towards 

 Parndon Woods which they soon reached. The scent was bad in Parndon 

 Woods, but hounds went through them both on to Epping Green, which 

 a gentleman in pink must have found more damp than pleasant to sit 

 down on. Taking to the fields again, they ran over Nasing Common to 

 Nasing Coppice, where he was lost. Another fox was found at Latton 

 Bushes, and ran through Harlow Park over Hastingwood Common to 

 Belgium Woods, where the ladies were close on to him ; but, managing 

 to give them the slip, he ran to Matching Park, and through that to Moor 

 Hall, where he got to ground only a minute in front of hounds, and saved 

 his brush. From the line he took, I think he was the same fox we had 

 given a good bustling to about a week previously from Belgium Wood. 

 It was a capital run — time, fifty-five minutes. Mr. J. V. Walmsley and 

 Messrs. Sworder were among the few lucky ones who saw it. 



Wednesday, Nov. i6th, 1881. Meet, Epping Bury. Present: The 

 Master, Sir H. Selwin Ibbetson, M.P., riding " Multum in Parvo," Mrs. 

 Arkwright, Lieut. -Col. Howard, Mr. and Mrs. R. Wood, Mr. Hervey 

 Foster, Mr. Todhunter, Lieut. -Col. Lockwood, Mr. G. Dawson and Miss 

 Dawson, Mr. F. Green, Mr. C. E. Green, Mr. R. Ball, Mr. W. F. Roffey, 

 Sir Lumley Graham, Mr. H. R. Bagot, Mr. B. Dickinson, Mr. and Mrs. 

 Keppel, Mr. O. Finlay, Mr. Steele, Mr. Wyllie, Mr. W. Sewell, Mr. H. 

 Sworder, Mr. Melles. Trotting through the Bury Farm fields to covert, 

 it was some satisfaction to think that the foxes, which generally make for 

 the Epping Forest from the Copped Hall Coverts, would hardly be able 

 to reach it in the face of the strong wind that was blowing. The forest 

 is a pretty safe harbour of refuge for foxes, scent being generally very 



