82 LEAVES FROM A HUNTIN(; DIARY 



We could liunt Monday, January 7th, and after running a fox from 

 Pinnacles over the railway and up to Briggins, hounds pulled him down 

 at Parndon, close to Hervey Foster's carriage. This was the day on which 

 Col. Lockvvood, writing to the County Gentleman under the noni de plume of 

 " Black Cap," wanted to know how the few who saw the finish of a good 

 fifty-five minutes from Latton Park to Moreton got over the brook at 

 twenty minutes to five without a candle ; but I ken the Colonel, his brother, 

 Messrs. W. and G. Sewell, C. E. Green, and a stranger from Lougliton, 

 were among the little band who wanted the light. The Colonel, who in the 

 continued absence of Sir Henry, was acting as Field Master, was very 

 undecided about putting hounds into covert in the fog, on Wednesday, 

 January i6th. To make matters worse, the huntsman was laid up, and 

 Brooker carried the horn. The result was foreseen. Getting on to a fox at 

 once in Apes Grove, they ran a cracker through the mist up to Hainault 

 Forest, where the pack divided ; the half that went on through the forest 

 were lost, and many hounds did not reach the kennels before the following 

 Friday ; the other half, coming back on the line of a fox to Bishops Hall, 

 were recovered, but a run in the fog was not attempted again. 



Orange Wood was a pretty sure find in these days, and the line from 

 there to Nasing Coppice, Deer Park, Shatter Bushes, and up to the Forest, 

 was the one selected in a very fast gallop the afternoon of Monday, January 

 28th. Messrs. Colvin, R. Ball, C. E. Green, Hargreaves Tait, and a 

 stranger on a chestnut horse, alone being up with hounds as they crossed 

 the lane by Shatter Bushes, the rest of the field being dispersed all over the 

 country, and few succeeded in catching hounds e'er they reached the Forest. 



On February 4th, in summer-like weather, we met at Down Hall at 

 10.30 a.m. Mr. F. Green, overtaking me near Rundells, gave me a lift to 

 Harlow, the cob leading well behind his trap ; falling in there with 

 MacEvans and Matthews, we appear to have jogged on together and done 

 ample justice to the good breakfast which had been provided by the Master. 

 There were foxes galore, but no scent, so the sport was indifferent. In the 

 remarkable run on February 8th, of which such a capital account is given 

 by Lord Rookwood elsewhere, I find that even Mr. R. Ball's famous 

 " Boycott " had more than enough, and was left at Dunmow ; his owner not 

 i-eaching home before 1.30 a.m., voted it almost too much of a good thing. 

 On Monday, February nth, we had two of the heaviest hailstorms it has 

 ever been my luck to be out in ; the first accompanied by vivid flashes of 

 lightning. I mention this, these storms being peculiar to the season of 

 1884. That it is not the biggest fence that causes the worst accidents in 

 the hunting field, Charlie Green's roll over on the way home after hunting 

 near Tawney Hall, two days previously, resulting in a broken collar bone, 

 proves. 



A day with the Puckeridge, February 13th, when Wells, who used to 

 whip-in to the Belvoir, was huntsman, is the next entry in the journal; 

 Hargreaves giving me a mount on an animal he wanted to sell to Colonel 

 Gardner. Whether the Colonel ever bought him deponent knoweth not. 

 The meet was at Perrils, some 5 or 6 miles from Saffron Walden, and 

 young {sic) Chisenhale Marsh, who was staying at Stansted, came out. 

 Wells, in reply to the question, did he remember the parson brother who 

 used to ride a well-known chestnut horse, called the " Scout,'"'- with the 

 Belvoir Hounds, after I left that country ? " I should think I do, Sir ; Mr. 

 Oswald he gave me a photograph of himself and a copy of ' Jorrocks,' so 

 I am not likely to forget him and the way that horse of his used to jump 

 high timber, if he did drop a bit short in the fen dykes occasionally." Before 



See Appendix. 



