3^^ 



I,EA\ES FROM A TIUNTING DIARY 



parish meeting, and also rural district councillor for the parish. Unfor- 

 tunately he had necessarily no seconder, so that the nominations are invalid. 

 The only way out of the difficulty seems to be an appeal to the Local 

 Government Board. 



If foxes are as plentiful at Creslow as those we came across on 

 Wednesday, December 12th, when we met at Thornwood Common, what 

 an Elysium it must be ; for with foxes galore in Gaynes Park, Ongar 

 Park, and the Beachetts, we were running from daylight till dark. A very 

 sporting day, an equally tiring one for men, horses, and hounds. Tiie first 

 item, thirty minutes as hard as we could go through the woods without a 

 check. I never saw a much hotter or steamier crowd at the end of a 

 gallop. I can't say, however, that they were all bubbling over with joy. 



The Beachetts 



Next item, a good bold fox away over the grass vale below Beachetts 

 for Barbers (we picked him up by-and-bye), and we thought we were in for 

 a treat, but hounds were back with another, and in vain the huntsman 

 blew his horn, for they were streaming through the woods right at his 

 brush, running him into a drain at Gaynes Park — I believe the squire was 

 the only one with them, and the whole field, including the huntsman and 

 staff, would have been completely dished had they gone out in half-a-dozen 

 possible directions — Shalesmore, Knightsland, Bobbingworth, Rough 

 Talleys, &c. 



But everything comes to the man who waits ; so the hounds came back 

 to us by the time we had finished our sandwiches. At Barbers we got on 

 to the first fox, and ran him by the Rectory to Brook House, and over the 

 Park to the Beachetts, where we commenced another woodland hunt, which 

 terminated somewhat abruptly at the Gaynes Park gravel pits. 



