90 LE.WKS FROM A HUN'riNC. I)IAK\ 



ford Bridge. Tuesday, September 30th, found a good show of cubs in the 

 Osiers, but had to whip the hounds off the hne of an old fox who had led 

 them from Hill Hall to Barber's ; a good many out, including the Master, 

 who was riding " Lottery," Messrs. C. and F. Green, R. Bevan, H. Philby, 

 H. E. Jones and A. Capel-Cure on wheels. Went down into Devonshire 

 about this time, which accounts for the absence of notes in October. 



However, on Monday, November loth, I find that we had a very good day 

 at Passingford Bridge. We commenced with a fox from a pond hole near the 

 Osiers, that swam the river and running parallel with it for some time, 

 suddenly went off to Howe fields, leaving us all in the lurch. After a ring- 

 ing round we got up to him at Tawney Hall, and when making for the river 

 again beyond Shalesmore, a good many forded it, but were not so well off 

 as those who rode on in tlie direction of Brook House, and at the end of 

 twenty-five minutes from the find came up to the hounds, at fault. No 

 wonder ! for the fox was at the bottom of the deep blue sea. Mr. Leonard 

 Felly, however, gallantly fetched him out (I cannot say whether he took a 

 header or not), and handed him to a farmer on the bank ; the hounds were 

 however, a bit too quick for him, and in the fox went again to be finally 

 secured with a rake and thrown across the river (not quite so wide as the 

 Trent) to the huntsman on the opposite bank. Going back to the Osiers 

 they found again at once, and it was in the gallop to Curtis Mill Green that 

 one or two of the hounds were badly spiked on the " Albyns " park palings. 

 With foxes from the Green (how they swarmed in the Monday country 

 in Sir Henry's time !) we were enabled before the day was over to visit 

 Havering, Hainault, Dagenham and Fyrgo. With a capital scent on 

 Wednesday, November 12th, we had four or five good spins, the first and 

 last briefly stated. A burst from Parndon Hall gorse to Pinnacles, a wide 

 ring and a kill in fifteen minutes, Messrs. Arkwright and Jones hitting oft 

 Todd's Brook at the right place, though Messrs. Walmsley, Bevan and 

 Green were not far out. The lower forest echoing to the whoop in the 

 evening over a fox from Weald Coppice (the pace had not given us time to 

 wait for lost hats in a bullfinch) is worth noting, for it was then as of rare 

 occurrence as it is now to kill a fox in the forest. Sir Charles Smith was 

 one of the very few who hit off the right ford over the river in the afternoon 

 run from the Navestock coverts following an Abridge meet on the 17th, 

 when hounds ran at a great pace up wind nearly to C. Fitch's, and after 

 passing close to Kettlebury Springs recrossed the river, going through 

 Kelvedon Hall Wood and on to the Menagerie when (two or three fresh 

 foxes being on foot) the Master, who was riding '' Stockbridge," had them 

 stopped. The following facetious telegram was the result of a certain item 

 in a day's sport on Wednesday, November 26th, when hounds met at 

 Thrushes Bush. 



From To 



C. J. P'ox, rishobiny, Harlow. 



And not a moment will he bide 



Till squire or groom, before him ride ; 



Foremost of all he stems the tide 



And stems it gallantly. 



The Doctor's invitation to swim it back on the polo cob when the 

 fox recrossed was not jumped at, if shortly afterwards his further offer of 

 a change of clothes and some hot whiskey at Harlow was gratefully 

 accepted. The individual in question found that the water was decidedly 

 chilly, for owing to frost the betting on the previous night at a dinner at 

 Theydon Grove had been 10 to i against hunting at all. It was in a run 

 from Shalesmore on Saturday, November 29th, that Mr. R. C. Parkes' 



