lU.OODIN'C OUR VOUN(; NIMRODS 4O3 



morning, in the year of grace 1895, ^^ the presence of, let me see: Mrs. 

 and Miss Waters, Mr, Frank Ball, Mr. R. Bevan, Mr. A. Edwards, who 

 had provided the bill of fare (his son and several others on foot), and then 

 again, riding, INIr. Bury, Mr. F. Green and two sons, Mr. Johnson, Mr. 

 Avila on a three-year-old, — Turner, Mr. Armstrong ; the latter smoking a 

 very strong-looking cigar, which made me feel positively ill at that early 

 hour in the morning ; he actually wanted to launch over a hurdle in cold 

 blood if I hadn't called out, " 'Ware cricket ground." 



Cricket it looked like much more than hunting, as the sun rapidly dis- 

 pelled the white mist which, as we had ridden meetwards, shrouded every- 

 thing and everybody in a white sheet. How the ground rattled as we 

 galloped after the second of a strong litter of cubs, which made a dash for 

 the open — with just a glimpse of their waving sterns as the hounds streaked 

 through a small plantation, and rattled him round a potato field to his 

 death ; and then came the most artistic part of the morning's proceedings, 

 as Bailey, with brush in hand, with a few strokes of a master's hand laid on 

 the paint on two youthful faces that beamed with delight as they received 

 their guerdon in the shape of mask and brush for facing the ordeal without 

 which let no youth in Essex boast himself a fox-hunter. 



And who were these youthful Spartans, never more to be dubbed 

 " Master," but Mr. Borwick, jun., and ditto Chisenhale Marsh ? Young 

 men beware! if you have not been blooded, look out, for, as sure as eggs are 

 eggs, if Mr. F. Green, of Hainault Lodge, is out, you will have to go through 

 it. For having brought up all his own boys, who can sit in a saddle, in 

 the right way, he looks after the rising generation. Parndon Wood to-day 

 (Saturday) at 6 a.m., and then KntJiout rain, it is rumoured, hounds h'ill 

 not take tlic field again. 



First fruits of the season were those which many of us gathered on 

 Wednesday, October 23rd, when, at g a.m., upon a keen, cold morning, 

 hounds were thrown into Squire Colvin's preserves, the noted Galley Hill 

 woods, and if the fruit that we garnered then may be taken as a specimen 

 of what is in store for us during the coming winter, we may heartily 

 congratulate ourselves upon having such golden opportunities within our 

 reach. 



Nine a.m., even on a morning when the wind blows with keen and 

 cutting virulence, has no terrors for Essex sportswomen, still less for their 

 hardier brothers, and there could have been but few short of a hundred if 

 the roll had been called on the morning in question. Some names I can 

 give you, but not all, for a good many new faces were discernible, if 

 several well-known hahitncs were absent : Mr. Loftus Arkwright, our 

 master, and his wife, both riding very nice bay horses ; Mr. R. B. Colvin, 

 late master of the Essex and Suffolk, back once more in his own demesne, 

 Monkhams Hall, but Essex's gain is Suffolk's loss ; his brother-in-law, 

 Col. Bonham, riding a bay horse on which, in a subsequent spin, he shoved 

 along to some tune; Mr. C. E. Green, our late M.F.H. ; Mrs. Neill, the 

 three Miss Buxtons, Mrs. Waters, Mrs. Frank Ball, Capt. and Mrs. 

 Wilson, Capt. and Mrs. Bruce, Mr. and Mrs. Howard Fowler, Mr. and 

 Mrs. W. Sewell, Mr. A. J. Edwards, Mr. Francis Dent, Mr. Newman 

 Gilbey, Mr. Audley Blyth, Mr. Crocker, Mr. Steele, Mr. P. M. Evans, 

 Messrs. G. and A. Sewell, Mr. P. S. Lee, Mr. S. Single, Messrs. 

 Horner (2), Rev. L. Scott, Mr. T. H. Harrison, Mr. Harrison (of Enfield), 

 Mr. G. H. Lee, Mr. H. Sworder, Master Jack Miller, Mr. Bestall, Mr. 

 Harris, Mr. Nevill Dawson, Mr. Cook, Mr. Baddeley, Mr. Nicholson, Mr. 

 Chapman, jun., and others. 



The morning sped on rapidly as cub after cub was viewed away from 



