240 LKAVES FROM A IIUXTINC DIAKV 



wattle-defended bank, saw the little pack, carrying a capital head, as they 

 went streaming over the pastures. Crossing a brooklet at the bottom, and 

 threading a straggling bullfinch, they made a wide circle round these 

 meadows, and then swept up hill again through a wood on its slope. 



A regular Essex bank had to be negotiated to get round the wood — 

 straight and steep as the side of a house. No wonder Mr. Fitch's horse 

 came back with him ; but, getting clear and remounting, he sent him at it 

 again, this time with better success. Leaving the wood behind, hounds 

 fiew along over the grass, and once more crossed the road (what a beastly 

 drop into it !), over some cold ploughed land to a plantation, where she 

 vainly tried to shake off her pursuers. Failing to do so, she went away 

 in the open agam, and, taking very much the same course, was viewed into 

 the wood, every nook and corner of which she tried before she would leave 

 it. What a chorus there was as the pack came tumbling out of covert in 

 close pursuit of her ! Surely, 



A cry more tunable 

 Was never holla'tl to, nor cheered with horn. 



Gaining the road, she nearly succeeded in baffling these hounds, matched 

 in mouth like bells, and for the first time they were at fault. But Mr. 

 Pease, who demonstrated that he could hunt as well as ride, padded her up 

 the road, and Mr. Barclay, taking up the clue, traced her exit into a 

 ploughed field, where she broke in full view of the pack, who, coursing 

 her over two fields, ran into her in the boundary fence of the plantation, 

 which sanctuary she had vainly tried before. All were delighted with the 

 run — none more so than old Hurrell, who was in at the death ; unless, 

 perhaps, we except two little girls,'' to whom the Master gallantly pre- 

 sented pads. 



In a splendid hunting run of one and a half hours from Duck Wood, 

 Dagenham, on Friday, February 24th, when we killed at Hare Street, Mr. 

 R. Bevan and Mr. Horner both took a roll over wire without any 

 serious damage. There is no doubt that we must have changed once at 

 least, as at the pace we went no fox could have lived in front of hounds so 

 long. Mr. Harry Sworder, riding my bay horse " Melton," was leading all 

 the way, and young Jerrard, on my big black (a horse that once nearly 

 broke my neck over some rails out of Newbold Revel Park, in the Atherstone 

 country), was whipping into him very well. A double at starting, and the 

 Dagenham brook half way through the run, thinned out the crowd, which at 

 no part of the day was a very big one. The following were among those 

 who were out: — Mrs. Bowlby, Mr. Arkwright, Col. Lockwood, Miss 

 Morgan, Mr. Tyndale White, Mr. Pemberton-Barnes, Mr. J. Pelly, Mr. 

 P. M. Evans, Mr. Waltham, ]\Irs. Upton, Major and Mrs. Carter, and 

 Mr. Sellar. 



The hitc Mr. T. j. Mills, of Garnish Hall, Theydon Hois, 

 was a conspicuous fiL^Lii-c for man)" years in the hunting' held 

 with the Essex Hounds. A kind,j;ood-hearted fellow, a thorough 

 gentleman in every sense of the word, he was as straight as 

 a gun-barrel in his dealings, and faced the bad times that set in 

 in '79 with pluck and determination, though the struggle in 

 his case was a hard one, making him fear that when his time 

 was up that he might not ])a\ 20s. in the £. This fear was 

 never realised. Most of his hinuing was done on one horse. 



Miss G. Waters and Mibs Osylh Veiburt-h. 



