The East Essex. 17 



the hard-riding men of Essex have a very strong 

 leaning towards '^^the sport incarcerate/' as Mr. 

 Burnand has termed staghunting. It gives them 

 their gallop for certain ; and is at its best when 

 foxhunting fails. For_, when the fallows are dry and 

 they can skim the crust, staghounds leather along 

 through the dust as heartily as foxhounds under a 

 clearing shower and a rising glass. And Essex is 

 very much an expeditionary ground, where men steal 

 a day and hope for a gallop. If they get it, they go 

 back to Town happy. How are they so likely to get 

 it as with the staghounds (Mr. Pet re's to wit) ; who 

 start at a given time, with a scent that never 

 fails — and most often, be it confessed, with a goodly 

 luncheon to drive the laggards up to the head. It is 

 just at the worst scenting times (autumn and spring) 

 that Essex is at its best as a riding-ground. It 

 is then that the fences are to be flown instead of 

 floundered. It is then that the broad fields can be 

 galloped, when at other times they must be trotted 

 over. The fences almost throughout are built for a 

 flippant style of jumping that the ground too often 

 forbids. They ask you to go fast. The ground bids 

 you go slow ; and if you treat its advice with con- 

 tempt, you may find yourself stopped altogether. 

 Thus, when the ground is deep there is nothing for it 

 but to go steadily and give your horse every chance 

 of arriving at his jumps collected and unexhausted. 

 The fences are all of one pattern — at least in the 

 Ruthings and in the East Essex Country — viz., low 

 hedges on little banks, with a ditch of varying width 

 and depth on one side or the other. In most in- 



VOL. II. c 



