ROXWKiJ. (6.30 A.M.) or.: 



10, 



188 



within three miles of Roxvvell a fine cub was chased, killed and eaten before 

 7 a.m., in the presence of a gallery of some thirty sportsmen. Two small 

 spinneys en yonte to a larger stronghold is the next order; Fitz Johns, I 

 think, is the name of the second one. It is not a minute before hounds 

 proclaim a find, and the cub — they are all cubs at this time of year when 

 they go away — came tumbling out of coverts within two yards of a horse- 

 man's feet, a lovely bundle of brown, and, with ears pricked, went straight 

 away. Hounds are close to him, and the first few fences look uncommonly 

 blind. Bailey shows us the way, and bearing sharp to the right, some very 

 convenient headlands lead us on for about a mile, by which time horses 

 have warmed to their work, and a good scent is an ascertained fact. 



Through a small covert, not dwelling an instant, hounds are pressing 

 forward, reaching Israel Wood fifteen minutes from the start. Not a 

 moment for breathing time; they are through and out on the far side, and 

 running close up to Pleshey, which is passed on their left. At the end of 



Sparrow Hawks 



thirty minutes Bailey stops them, as it is too evident that they have no cub 

 in front of them, and there are other coverts to be drawn. Sparrow Hawks, 

 a pretty certain find, is equal to the occasion, and a fat well-to-do cub only 

 saves his bacon by the hounds going away with what must certainly have 

 been an old one, as for forty-five minutes they ran hard without checking, 

 in a half circle nearly to Chelmsford : a line of country seldom run over, 

 making about a four-mile point, and covering at least ten or eleven miles, as 

 hounds ran back to the covert from which he went away. He still lives to 

 run again ; a rare good fox, but hounds deserved blood, as for forty-five 

 minutes they hunted beautifully without any assistance, when, just as it 

 seemed a moral certainty that they would kill, their fox suddenly dis- 

 appeared beaten — foxes often do, most unaccountably. Unfortunately, 



