42 OBSERVATIONS ON FOX-HUNTING 



were certain of changing. Not forty yards from 

 the place where they killed him a fresh fox went 

 away ; if therefore he could have held on only 

 that short distance, we should in all probability 

 have changed. The greatest distance I ever ran 

 a fox in Essex, was from Hempstead Wood (a 

 covert notorious also for stout running foxes) to 

 between Hcddingham and Colne, where we killed 

 him, calculated at 17 miles. But the most ex- 

 traordinary run for distance was one the Hemp- 

 stead hounds (termed the Invincibles) had from 

 Great Hayles, a covert near Saffron Waldon, 

 belonging to Lord Braybrook, to within fovu- or 

 five miles of Bury St. Edmond's in Suffolk, near 

 Glemsford earth, where they killed him ; I should 

 think the distance 25 miles at least as the crow 

 flies. I could envmierate many more capital runs 

 to prove the stoutness of the Essex foxes, which 

 I had from Manwood, Brickies, Witney Wood, 

 Lord Maynard's High Wood, East End, Leaden 

 Roothing, Matching Park, Row Wood, Marks, and 

 Offrey. All the foxes found in the coverts men- 

 tioned are stub bred ; I declare to you I do not 

 remember ever finding a bad running fox from 

 Ongar to Haverhill, a distance of thirty miles. 

 The foxes in the Harding-green country in Suffolk, 

 which I once hunted, are also stout, but the 

 enclosures being rather small, and the country 



