1 lO LEAVES I'KOM A HUNTING DIAKV 



note, for Wesley's screech of " Forrard away ! '' was heard as our fox 

 crossed the road. By the time hounds were all out he had a minute start, 

 and, bearing away over the Sewage Farm, we soon found that the rain had 

 not improved the plough, as it was very heavy going. Hallingbury Park 

 was soon reached, and across it hounds ran well up to the house and 

 through the gardens, back over the park, and we were once more in the 

 open as soon as hounds ; but it might have been different if we had not had 

 a trusty pilot who knew the intricacies of the two lines of iron fencing that 

 we encountered before crossing the road. Up the hill they went, then, 

 suddenly dipping down, crossed a brook, to which a very slippery bridge 

 was the keynote ; bearing to the right, down a long grassy mead, they 

 appeared for the moment to show two lines, but Bailey relied on the 

 forward one, which the body of the pack were holding up to a small 

 plantation. Rounding it, they slipped through a most beastly fence, 

 through which not a glimpse, but only a sound of the pack could be had. 





Takeley Forest 



Wesley solved the difficulty for us, and the next, under the railway, was 

 solved by the united efforts of Mr. Green and Bailey, who unhinged a gate. 

 Better not to have gone down that archway, for hounds very soon turned 

 back across the line, and two more railway gates defied our exertions. 

 The chestnut showed us the way over a most uncultivated bank and ditch, 

 across two fields (nearly up to horses' hocks), and a friendly archway let 

 us up to hounds again. Crawley here got a view of our fox as he crossed a 

 narrow road ; fences came rapidly as the pace quickened, and, before you 

 knew where you were, Takeley Forest was reached. On through the rides, 

 rather rough going, but not boggy. Was that a holloa at the far end ? 

 Yes, there was no mistaking it, as it came ringing up the glade. Hounds 

 required no lifting as they struck the open, where Jack was already cap in 

 air, with news of a nearly beaten fox. Over the park some deer crossed the 



