I04 LKA\ES FROM A HUNTING DIARY 



Henry himself— was ever associated with the Mastership of the 

 Essex Hounds. 



Mr. Hart remembers well how he came forward with Sir 

 Henry in 1879 to supply a blank in the Mastership, and how, 

 goino- nearer home, he made his rent audit, with the aid of his 

 amiable wife, one of the pleasantest and most enjoyable 

 o-atherings of the year. 



Wednesday, March nth, 1885, Nasing Common, was productive of one 

 of the best all-round day's sport that we ha\e had during the season which 

 has just slipped away. None but the very latest comers had any excuse if 

 they did not get a good start when the hounds left Galley Hill on the Monk- 

 hams side, as they did not come very readily to Bailey's horn, or fairly settle 

 down to run until they had left Monkhams on the left and crossed the 

 Waltham and Nasing road near some brickworks, when for thirty minutes 

 they led us over a delightful country at a good pace. The country was new 

 to most of us, but one sportsman"-'' will have occasion to remember a brook 

 which came in the early part of the run (for he came out of it as black as a 

 tinker), over which Bailey was the first to fly like a bird, Mr. C. E. Green 

 taking it a little to his right on " The Joke," followed by a gentleman on a 

 chestnut. 



Alas I poor Joke, you gallant bay, 

 No longer will you show the way ; 

 For, broken down, you ne'er can stay. 

 Or live with hounds that stream away. 



Most of the others skirted off for a gate, but the brook appeared again. It 

 was a case of have it or go home, and most of us had it. A rare stiff old 

 hedge, with a jolly wide ditch the other side, into a lane soon faced us. 

 The same trio had it ; a gate was rapidly lifted off its hinges, and as they 

 squeezed through and jumped out of the lane, hounds had gained consider- 

 ably. Over a rail, which someone kindly broke, and still on the grass, they 

 caine down to another brook. A stranger who was out, and who had been 

 going uncommonly well, showed us the way over. At the next fence the 

 chestnut thought that he had had enough, and discreetly came down, 

 depositing his rider well in the next field. As hounds turned down the hill 

 before rising the big field leading to Galley Hills, Mr. George Hart was 

 seen fanning along in the van, taking each fence as it came — thirty minutes 

 to Galley Hills. Not much respite, as the chase led us towards the 

 Waltham road, but the fox was viewed into Galley Hills, and away again 

 over by Monkhams, on to Obelisk Wood, where he crossed the brook. 



Evidently a beaten fox, he soon recrossed, and hounds could hunt but 

 slowly towards Shatter Bushes, which our fox kept on his left, also Deer 

 Park, into Nasing Coppice, through which hounds showed a line ; but if 

 the fox that was viewed away at the top corner towards Parndon Woods 

 was not a fresh one he was a rare customer. For he took a line over 

 Nasing Common up to Mr. Todhunter's spinneys, then bearing away up to 

 Pinnacles crossed the road by Merryweather's Farm into Tattle Bushes, 

 running right across the grass vale to Deer Park, where he was lost after 

 some two hours' hunting. If he had been killed, there can be no question 

 who ought to have had the brush. Mr. Robin, who does not often hunt 

 with us, went brilliantly from start to finish, but had to confess that the 

 Essex country cannot be crossed with a broken stirrup-leather. 



• Mr. Roffey 



