WARE wheat! SAM -^2 1 



(I wish his figure wasn't so hke Bailey's) ; it was really too disappointing 

 as we emerged from the woods near Toot Hill and discovered our mistake. 

 He had a good following as he turned into the fields by the side of 

 the woods. I fancy that they encountered some funny fences, and I know 

 that those who trotted and cantered down the road reached the hounds 



quickest as they came out over it and crossed the open for Knightsland as 



pretty a bit of hunting as you could wish to see, if you saw it ; I didn't, but 

 I saw Jack's horse come down at the brook, leaving me on the wrong 

 side with a blown cob. I saw a little further on a well-known* pink, 

 who rides a well-known grey, very busy pulling a rail out of the fence 

 on the further side of one of the bends of this tortuous brook, and further 

 down, just in time, a brown-coated sportsman squeezing through the 

 bushes, where a clever horse could scramble in and out of the brook. 



While further away on the left, in line of the regular ford, came a 

 rearward contingent who had been left behind in the woods ; while further 

 away on the right I know of some who never went near the brook at 

 all, but, like Sam Fitch, stuck to the I'oad. It was the bit of wheat leading 

 down to it that frightened him. I'll remember that, Sam. Leaving 

 Knightsland behind, it was a pretty, if rather provoking, sight to see 

 hounds a quarter of a mile ahead with only half-a-dozen near them, but, as 

 they turned to the left, through some small spinneys before entering the 

 Beachetts, we cut off a corner and nicked them. We had been running an 

 hour, and most of us in the woods cried "a go ! " Running on through 

 Gaynes Park, only three — I am told young Miller was one of them — saw 

 hounds whipped off in Ongar Park Woods. 



Samuel Fitch comes of a good sportino- stock of farmers, 

 and is a very popular member of the hunting field, and a very 

 hard riding one to boot. In the forty years he has followed 

 the Essex Hounds he has seen as much sport as most, for no 

 matter what horse he was on, unless led astray, he always 

 took a very forward position ; and when he rode his favourite 

 black horse, in 1879 and 1880, no one could beat Master Sam 

 over a stiff country. He has a son. Master Bernard, who 

 for a dare-devil young rider takes the cake — five-barred gates 

 in cold blood on any horse when and where you like. He 

 has missed his vocation going into the ironmongery business. 



* Mr. R. Y. Bevan. 

 21 



