THE MAIIDI lOI 



for a lead, Mr. Jones; gaining the open before they reached the Ongar 

 line, you had disappeared having taken a bad turn to the left. Mr. Bevan 

 and the huntsman dived under the railway arch and joined hounds as they 

 crossed the road below Blake Hall Station, and ran through the little 

 wood beyond while you were flying frantically along in the rear as Bailey, 

 cheering his hounds over the line again, made for the archway near Ongar 

 Park Farm, reaching the big woods in seventeen minutes. Horses were 

 blowing freely, for the going was very heavy and the huntsman thought 

 the hounds must have killed and eaten their fox before we arrived, as they 

 were covered with blood. We should have had a good thing in the evening 

 from the Lower Forest to Maries if we had only got away on better terms. 



A hunt breakfast is not always synonymous with good sport, and we only 

 just saved the blank after meeting at Rochetts, Mr. Coope's place, for 

 that ceremony on Monday, February 2nd, A day on the " Mahdi " (Mr. 

 Tyndale White's favourite hunter) was a thing to be remembered, as was 

 the good hour's run we had on Saturday, February 14th, from Poles Wood 

 nearly up to Beachetts, when I had the good luck to be on him and never 

 rode a better or bolder horse ; he liked going fast at his fences, so put me 

 down once when I tried to steady him out of a wood. On no other horse 

 (this is one for the " Mahdi " and two for myself) should I care to have 

 tackled the hnUfinch''- out of Navestock Park some of the thorns of which 

 remain in my head to this day, although the Doctor did his best to get them 

 out. On a capital hunting day more like November, than February, a 

 drip on the hedgerows and a slight fog with a nip of frost in the air (it 

 snowed next morning), a small but very select company met the Master 

 at Tyler's Cross Tuesday, February 17th, and they included Miss M. 

 Glyn, Colonel Lockwood, Major Tait, Mr. A. Caldecott, Mr. C. J. Bury, 

 Mr. C. E. Green, Mr. Todhunter, Mr. L. Arkwright, Messrs. R. Bevan, 

 Melles, H. E. Jones, H. Sworder, J. Scruby, G. Hart, Mr. Green of Parndon. 

 Frcm Pinnacles we had a very good twenty minutes with a curiously 

 marked fox up to Parndon Woods. After some delay reaching Latton, we 

 had to thank Mr. Todhunter for the good run which followed ; for getting 

 a view of our hunted fox just as the huntsman was on the point of giving 

 him up, hounds forced him back through Parndon, and after a very fast 

 and straight twenty minutes pulled him down on the Netteswell road in 

 the presence of Mr. C. E. Green, on his grey mare, and Mr. Arkwright on 

 his grey, Messrs. Sworder, Scruby and Hart, and others. 



Quite February Fill Dyke this month, and in the pouring rain on 

 W^ednesday, February 25th at Thornwood Common, Captain Allsopp was 

 about the only man who sported pink. Bailey was laid up, so Wesley 

 hunted the hounds over a very unusual line, from the Lower Forest up to 

 Moreton ; but I find no mention of his helping Mr. Green out of that 

 village brook into which he had slipped. 



Commencing with Saturday, March 7 — after the very unanimous and 

 successful annual meeting of the members of the Hunt, held at the Green 

 Man, Harlow, at which it was a matter of general congratulation that Sir 

 Henry Selwin Ibbetson had consented to hunt the country next season — we 

 had a capital run from Barnsleys, the wood close to the Kennels. The day 

 was sunny, a day on which it was a pleasure to live, with hounds or 

 without. They had barely been in covert ten minutes before " Forrard, 

 away ! " was heard, and as we followed Sir Henry up the right-hand side 

 of the wood, and reached the top end, we viewed hounds racing to a scent, 

 pursued by Bailey, blowing the tail hounds out. In and out of a lane, and 



It is cut down now. — Ed. 



