THE ARMY AND NAVY 



33. 



The fog, however, was too thick for the huntsman ; he would not hft 

 hounds over the hill into the vale beyond — a vale of wire, it might in the 

 fog have proved a vale of tears. In the green ride near Deer Park we 

 laughed and chattered like a lot of starlings, waiting for the fog to lift, 

 scarcely expecting it, but it did ; but there was little life in the forward 

 movement, for there was small hope of finding in the Copped Hall country. 



In Ball Hill there are pheasants, and as it happened there was even 

 a fox, and he was away like a shot for Nasing Coppice. On the road 

 between the two coverts we wondered who the pink was who charged 

 the rails, followed by a black. As it ought to be, as it was, and always 

 will be, in this merry little isle of England — the army and the navy,''^ but 

 the navy was the first, and the admiral showed the way into the road and 

 out over it to the right of the wood. 



Ball Hill Woods 



To the left hounds were tailing out over the half-dozen grass fields to 

 the coppice, and one at least of the hedges had been lopped and trimmed 

 in time, if the bushes were not all cleared away down by the side of Nasing 

 Coppice, and five couple of hounds were away over the common. With 

 the five couple we had the huntsman, and I would sooner go with one 

 couple and the huntsman than fifteen without him. So we plugged on over 

 the common, crossed the Nasing Farm, and entered Parndon Woods by 

 Mr. Burchell's ; splashed our way through these boggy rides, to lose our 

 fox, who undoubtedly went for Latton, and at 3.30 p.m. we rode home on an 

 evening which ought to have seen a great gallop, for there was an undeni- 

 able scent, a rising glass, and a nip of frost in the air. To all Essex men, 

 whenever they go out in a strange country — 



Capt. Bruce and E. Pelly. 



