THE EVENING GALLOP FROM ^rAN WOOD 42 I 



a hundred yards of Matching Hall, and from more than one pair of lungs 

 rang out the shrill whoop that proclaimed the termination of as good a run 

 as has ever fallen to the lot of our noted pack. 



Sandwiches were eaten, flasks proffered, and cigars lit amid the mutual 

 congratulations of those who had struggled to the end, and who one by 

 one came dropping in to form another unit in the group of happy and 

 smiling faces who were gathered in the drive at Matching Hall. And who 

 would deny them ? Why, if they had ridden the road the whole way, it 

 would have been a creditable performance to have got to the end of such a 

 rattling burst, for, from the time he was found in Latton, allowing eight 

 minutes before hounds pushed him out of the covert, a reference to the map 

 will show that we covered 8^ miles in 40 minutes, the furthest point being 

 exactly five miles as the crow flies from Weald Coppice to Matching Hall. 

 Mr. Arkwright was the recipient of many congratulations upon having 

 found us, as he has so often done before, a fox of so game a breed in his 

 Latton coverts. He saw him unkennelled, and saw him killed, and with 

 his huntsman led the chase from start to finish ; riding the renowned 

 " Diana," and adding yet another leaf to her laurel crown. 



With few exceptions, all but those who were fortunate enough to have 

 second horses out went home, and missed what upon an ordinary day 

 would have been voted a run far above the average, covering as it did 

 another five-mile point, though in the sixty minutes hounds were running 

 they must have traversed twice that distance. W' hat a scent there was 

 upon this eventful day ! The moment hounds were put into covert they 

 found, and foxes, too, were equally alert to the fact, for they were on the 

 move in all directions. Harlow Park, Latton, Parndon, Maries Woods, 

 it mattered not where, foxes, and foxes too of the right sort, were con- 

 tinually being viewed. I will not weary you with a description of our 

 second run from Parndon Woods, but would only note that had not Mr. 

 Arkwright decided to spare the fife of a good fox, Bailey could easily have 

 killed him, as he ran the hedgerows near Hubbard's Hall. 



Wednesday, November 27th, at Fyfield, left nothing but pleasant 

 impressions, though accompanied more or less by intermittent showers of 

 rain, following a sudden rise in the temperature after a sharp frost on the 

 previous night. Yes, this is quite a weather diary, I can assure you. A 

 quick find in Witney Wood, a fierce, bloodthirsty rush of a hundred, all 

 wanting to go first, two or three locked gates, the coverts cleared, and 

 Blackmore and Stondon quite on the cards, but somehow or other, from 

 lack of scent, or other mystifying cause, it was a misdeal, and the fox as 

 trump card never turned up again in that game. In Norwood, hounds had 

 all the best of the second rubber, forcing a fat cub out in the direction of 

 Envilles, and bringing him to book at Bird Hatch at the lunch hour. 



The best of the fun was condensed into the evening gallop from Man 

 Wood. The Rector of Abbess Roding, with his daughter, was waitmg m 

 the muddy lane, at the time the huntsman had finished drawing the Brick 

 Kilns side of this noted covert. The rain was pattering down, a dull blue 

 haze surrounding everything, while scarcely a breath of wind stirred, and it 

 was quite warm enough to remove any fears of horses catching cold. So 

 the Rector was standing there, little dreaming that in half-an-hour's time 

 the hounds would have shown him such a short cut to his own dove-cot ; 

 and where he stood so did nearly all the field, quite indifterent to the fact 

 that some wild, uncultivated fields, covered with withered grass a foot 

 thick, tangled with creeping briars, were being drawn by the huntsman, 

 who was hidden from sight by a tall, straggling hedge. 



Now, if there is one man more than another who is never (luite easy m 



