A CAT AND MUSTARD POT DAY 1 35 



pleasure of seeing- a son takino- that place in the van which one 

 used to occup\- must compensate for any loss of enthusiasm : 

 more especially when the pleasure of enjoyini^- the society of 

 those who come out to ride about and not jump desperate 

 places, is enhanced by the companionship of two charming- 

 daughters. 



A fox from Row Wood at 2.30 in the teeth of a gale of wind was not to 

 be sneezed at, but a yawning ditch with Mr. Usborne's horse in it required 

 careful consideration, and a tail hound getting in your light just as you 

 were hesitating about having a fling at a fence gave you a bona fide excuse 

 for craning. The " Knight " made light work of a five-barred gate into 

 a lane ; the chesnut for once chanced a blind ditch, and brought the 

 first man down, and the chase swept merrily on, until headed by some 

 unseen cause our fox doubled back, which involved a lengthy cast and 

 brought hounds to their noses, and spun out an hour's slow hunting with 

 the loss of a beaten fox near Takeley Forest. 



Oh ! isn't the country VjHnd ? 

 Of course it's awfully blind, 



should be the burden of the next hunting song. It would be sung with 

 gusto by followers of the Essex Hounds at the present time. A few more 

 days such as last Friday and Saturday, followed by the necessary frost, 

 will improve matters and make the country more rideable. Rain, rain, 

 and plenty of it, formed the chief item of Friday's sport, when they met 

 at Stebbing Bran-End, but led to the discovery of a shop in Dunmow where 

 a change of raiment may be procured that will do for even a ti'dtev weight''' 

 for the modest sum of i6s. 



Saturday was a day on which nobody the wrong side of five-and-twenty 

 ought to have been out. I devoutly wished myself in bed after starting for 

 the dim and distant meet at Pleshey, on November 10, but nothing stops the 

 Major,''' and there was no backing out of a seat in his carriage if I wished 

 to be asked again. Cat and mustard pot ! Half a dozen cats and mustard 

 pots will give you a faint idea of the day — violent squalls with drenching 

 showers of rain ; no wonder that there were only about fifty men out — 

 among them our late M.F.H., Sir H. Selwin Ibbetson — (he is another 

 that nothing stops ; we had some fairly wet and rough days last year, 

 but he was always there)— Mr. C. E. Green, Mr. G. Sylvester, Mr. Back, 

 Mr. L. J. Arkwright, and Mr. H. E. Jones. By the time we reached Israels, 

 I should say that the wind had shifted a point or two nearer the N.E., for 

 it was certainly colder and scent was certainly better, and for forty minutes 

 hounds ran well, losing their fox near Hartford-end. Perhaps it was as 

 well that they did so, for the East Essex Hounds turned up at the same 

 place about the same time inquiring for a hunted fox, and there might have 

 been some dispute as to whose fox it was had either pack killed. They 

 found again at the Osiers near Roxwell, and 6 p.m. saw them still trying 

 to dig out the varmint with aid of match and light of moon, but to no 

 purpose. 



They had a good run on Monday with a fox from the Osiers near Bourn 

 Bridge, the last thirty minutes toeing the most interesting part over a good 

 country, ending with a kill in Mr. Crane's plantation. Disasters were 

 many, and excuses numerous from those who were thrown out and who 



* C. E. Green. f Major Tait. 



