44 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY 



stiffness off after the long hack home accounts for my going out after 

 luncheon the following day to have a gallop with Mr. Vigne's Harriers. 

 In the middle of a good run near Laxtons, when Mrs. Arkwnght was going 

 very well to the front, I had a very near shave of losing an eye. Jumping 

 under a tree, I tore a piece out of the eyelid, which required the surgeon's 

 scissors to make it presentable, and over-reached my horse directly 

 afterwards. We did not whip off till 4.30. George Sewell and Charlie 

 McKee having seen most of the fun on foot. Miss Wood on " Luck- 

 penny," and her brother on " Glenmore," were out all day. 



A day of accidents for horses was Monday, January 8th, when we 

 met at Passingford Bridge, and after a morning in the Pyrgo country with 

 a bad fox, in a run from Apes Grove Mrs. Thomas killed her horse, Miss 

 Wood put " Luckpenny's " shoulder out, and I lamed my horse badly. 



The grey pony, however, suited the Mate better on the good day we 

 had, Saturday, January 13th, with the wind due east, when we met opposite 

 Coopersale Lodge ; a large muster including Colonel Howard (Mr. W. 

 Sewell escorting Miss Nelly Starbuck who obtained the brush, and who 

 subsequently became Mrs. W'illie Sewell), Messrs. F. and C. Green, 

 J. Pelly, E. Ball, A. Capel Cure, Major, Mrs. and Miss Tait, &c., &c. 

 From Gaynes Park over the cricket ground, by Jordans, through Willis's 

 stack yard, hounds never checked vmtil they ran to ground at Theydon 

 Grove. Bolted by Fitch's terrier, he crossed and recrossed the line, 

 seeking refuge in Baxter's farm buildings not before he had upset a pretty 

 servant maid and ruined her clean print dress. The gallant Bailey was off 

 his horse in a jiffey, but became so blown running in and out of the 

 out-houses, that when he tried to reach the hounds, who had dispatched 

 their fox in front of the house, he went flat on his face amongst the laurels. 



Mr. Green has the head of that fox should you wish to see it. 



On the same day, in a rattling good gallop from Bush Wood in Hill 

 Hall Parkto Loughton Shaws, Bailey, who was riding " The Quaker," made 

 an extraordinary good jump over the brook on the right of Barbers where 

 it was guarded by a rail on the far side, clearing some 24 (?) feet, while Mr. 

 Hargreaves and several more of us were trying to scramble in and out ; 

 and further on, near Loughton Shaws, Mr. C. E. Green was seen doing a 

 little exploring on his own account up a brook into which his horse had 

 swerved. W^hat an enormous field we should now have, if we met on a 

 Saturday at Coopersale Lodge ! 



Of the meet at Fyfield, on Wednesday, Jan. 31st, Mr. Courtenay 

 W^arner, M.P., has probably a better recollection than most of us, for it 

 was in a run from Leaden Wood, in the afternoon, that he had the bad luck 

 to put his ankle out. The morning had been wiled away in a hunting run 

 from Witney Wood to Blackmore. A sharp burst up wind from Screens, 

 finishing off with some slow hunting near Mashbury Mill, had given most of 

 the horses enough before the afternoon run came off. 



A fine but gusty day when we met at Pleshey, on Saturday, Feb. 3rd. 

 Green gave me a lift to the King W^illiam and Tait performed the same 

 kind office for W. Sewell. After drawing Langley's, and all the neighbour- 

 ing coverts without finding, we arrived at Wilson's Springs about 3 p.m., 

 and had a capital 25 minutes from ihat covert, the first fence on the 

 left of it, if I remember rightly, a broad water ditch out of which, on 

 a former occasion, I saw Hervey Foster emerge as black as a tinker. 

 Running up towards Leaden Roothing, saddles emptied fast, and at the 

 finish of the gallop, near the banks of the river Roden in flood, " Nell 

 Gwynn," the horse the Master was riding, went head over heels into 

 a covered up ditch, giving him a thorough soaking. He had crossed the 

 river to see if the fox had taken refuge in an old pollard tree. 



