40 OBSERVATIONS ON FOX-HUNTING 



to Lord Maynard's High-wood, near Dunmow, a 

 line of country the foxes formerly took, and from 

 the latter to Lord Petre's High-wood, near Writtle 

 Park, are still greater distances. The country 

 is chiefly under plough, but well drained, and 

 it rides light in comparison with other ploughed 

 countries : the ditches are rather wide, but not 

 blind ; and the scent, after Christmas, is invariably 

 good. I believe there never was an instance of 

 an old wild Roothing fox having been killed with 

 a hunting scent : if you do not go away close 

 at him, at the very best pace, he never will be 

 caught ; and if you come to a check with a hunting 

 scent, it is twenty to one he beats you. One 

 thing ought always to be attended to, which is, 

 when your fox is gone, to be as quick in getting 

 your hounds after him as possible. 



Leaden-Roothing is thought to be the best 

 covert in the hunt ; but I preferred Old Park 

 Coppice, a covert at the extremity of the Roothings 

 towards Chelmsford, probably because I had the 

 best runs from it, and the foxes found in the 

 latter are reckoned the stoutest in Essex. A pack 

 that hunted the Dunmow country before I took 

 it, managed by all the " talents " in that neigh- 

 bourhood, (nor was their hvmtsman considered 

 otherwise than a celebrated one,) found from 

 experience that an Old Park fox was not so easily 



