286 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY 



Mr. Sewell hit off a weak place, and hounds swung down the fence, and 

 then turned to the right for a small plantation, single file through the 

 corner, and then at the bottom of the next field there was apparently no 

 way out until Mr. Fowler had pulled up some hurdles in one corner, and 

 Bailey, tucking his head down, had squeezed the black cob over a blind 

 ditch through another. Anthony, with the Devon and Somerset Stag- 

 hounds, has no more numerous and confiding followers than Bailey has 

 when the leaf is on, so we gladly followed as fast as turn and politeness 

 would permit through the only available gap in the next fence, and then 

 turning sharp to the right, through a narrow plantation, rose the grassy 

 slope to Down Hall, where close to the stables hounds ran handsomely 

 into their fat cub, one of the first up being the galloping hack,- but where, 

 oh where, was the bay ? t Many besides his bold rider did not see the 

 finish of this good burst ; a rattling fall, a cut knee, and lost hat settled his 

 hash. I am told a hedge as thick as a small plantation proved too much 

 for another, J and following the wrong man at the wrong place for the rest, 

 for they came clattering up when not even a tatter of brown was left. 



Eight a.m. is a fairly early hour to reach a meet 12 or 15 miles from 

 your door, but the Essex Hounds stick to old traditions, and their 

 popularity is confirmed by the number of those who, despising feather 

 beds, turn out for an early gallop. The King William is always a favourite 

 meet, better attended perhaps by-and-bye when sharp frosts and autumnal 

 gales have done their work and stripped the leaves off the hedges and 

 withered the grass on the banks of the deep ditches which interlace the 

 country for miles in the well-known Roothings. It certainly requires a 

 good horse and a good man on his back to ride straight to hounds in leafy 

 October in any country, but the horse must be bold and clever indeed, 

 and his rider equally keen and fearless, to see the end of a fifty minutes' 

 burst across the heart of the Roothings at the present time. 



Each year it becomes more difficult, for with wheat going down and 

 down there is very little ready cash to spend upon trimming up hedges, and 

 they are growing up to formidable dimensions. I have no intention of 

 inflicting the details of Wednesday's sport upon you, but would remark, 

 thanks, I believe, to Mr. John Gingell, who holds the coverts, Lords and 

 Leaden provided a capital show of cubs — cubs, too, of a good stock, 

 judging by the way they went for the open country with very little 

 persuasion, one leading us a dance over a big blind country for some three 

 or four miles before being lost near Pleshey, Several men credited 

 themselves with the High Easter brook early in the run, including Mr. 

 Chaffey-Collin, who had the first cut, Mr. Crocker on his new grey, Major 

 Carter, Capt. Bruce, Mr. Swire and others. It was a nice gallop, and 

 would have been voted a good thing in the middle of the season. 



Saturday's meet on October 20th at Netteswell Cross was largely 

 attended, and included the Master, Mr. L. Arkwright, Mr. Todhunter, 

 Mr. Green, Mr. R. Bevan, Mr. and Mrs. Crocker, Mrs. Neale, Capt. and 

 Mrs. Bruce, Mr. and Miss Steele, Capt. Wilson, Mr. Harris, Messrs. E. 

 and F. Ball, Mr. and Mrs. W. Sewell, Mr. G. Sewell, Messrs. T. and G. 

 Gilbey, Mr. N. Gilbey, Mr. Jones, Mr. Chaffey-Collin, Mr. Lines, Mr. 

 H. Fowler, Mr. E. Felly, Mr. Swire and Mr. Caldecott. 



There was a good scent at first, proved by the way hounds raced a cub 

 from \\'eir Hatches to Harlow Town and back, but a heavy shower about 

 the time they got away with a second cub from a small covert near 

 Parndon Hall did not improve it, so that Bailey must have been more 



* Mr. Chaffey-CoUin's. t Mr. H. E. Jones'. t Mr. Swire. 



