ST. GEORGE 7 1 



once and fairly run into, but not before Mr. H. Sworder had gone 

 head over heels into a very blind ditch. A very quick burst afterwards 

 from Spratts Hedgerow to ground near the Warren, while causing a good 

 many croppers, gave general satisfaction. The fences, with one exception, 

 were very easy, and that exception, a rotten bank, brought man after man 

 to grief. ]\Ir. Daniel Gingell, who was jumped on, luckily escaped with 

 nothing worse than having the wind knocked out of him, and Mr. Pelly 

 had to thank an extra strong neck that he escaped so easily. How beauti- 

 fully " St. George " flew a high gate I can vividly recall. He was always a 

 good timber jumper, and with his owner, Mr. Alfred Suart, up, those 

 powers were frequently put to a severe test. With what a capital twenty 

 minutes from the Warren we finished up the day at Orange Wood. What 

 a duster Bailey went over a rail in the first fence when hounds came away. 

 How beautifully a bold bay faced the stiff fence below New Farm. What 

 a pace hounds went over the grass down to Cobbins Brook, where they 

 gained a field on most of us, thanks to Mr. B. Colvin blocking up the next 

 fence, on his black horse, after Bailey had found a way over the brook. 

 How the huntsman was too wide awake to go after a fresh fox from 

 Orange Wood. Is it not all written in my journal and here condensed ? 

 But I heave a sigh of regret at not identifying the two heavy weights who 

 shone so prominently in the van. 



Possibly they were the same two who, in company with Major Tait 

 young Evans and the Mate, rode home across country from Parndon after 

 galloping and jumping all day in that country on Monday, November 12th. 

 Note the Monday ; we don't meet that side of the country now so early in 

 the week. What a lot of falls there were, too ; Suart three, the Mate 

 on " Ajax " a couple, Chisenhale Marsh one, &c. Cording's water- 

 proof apron came in very handy even if it excited the friendly sarcasm of 

 that tough vv'arrior. Colonel Howard, when after killing two foxes in the 

 Pleshey country on Saturday, November 17th (the second a very brilliant 

 fifteen minutes from Sparrowhawks, killing in the open near Israel's), a 

 tremendous storm of rain and wind settled hunting for the day. 



It is a long cry from Thornwood Common to Dudbrook, but how we 

 arrived there on Saturday, December ist, is readily accounted for by the 

 following notes. Several coverts being closed against hounds owing to 

 shooting arrangements, Sir Henry was very much exercised where to go, 

 the hounds having been whipped off twice from the line of foxes that had 

 made for the Beachetts, one an Ongar Park, the other a Knightsland tenant. 

 At 3 o'clock we found ourselves at Sir Charles Smith's Osiers. Miss 

 Fane, for one, is never likely to forget the run we had from there ; has she 

 not in consequence been immortalised by our bard ? — 



" Miss Fane, whom rivers cannot stop ; " 



but she nearly paid the full penalty for her rashness. Mr. Bazley White, 

 who was staying with his brother, Mr. Tyndale White, for the day, seeing 

 her dilemma, (her head was held under water by her habit which had 

 caught in the pummel) jumped off his horse and s-wain to her rescue. 

 Luckily, beyond a thorough drenching, neither rescued nor rescuer were any 

 the worse, but Mr. Bazley White deserved the Albert Medal if not the 

 V.C. I am afraid, however, he lost the run, which was a clinker. 



When hounds first came away from the Osiers, running hard for Shonk's 

 Mill, they kept to the left bank of the river. The majority of us doing the 

 same, clattered in hot haste down the parallel lane ; as luck would have it, 

 the fox came across to our side, and it was in vainly endeavouring to ford 

 the Roden after hounds that Miss Fane nearly met with a watery grave. 



