The Essex Union, 3 ^ 3 



voice of the Master is heard, " Halloo in, Halloo in. 

 Yoi, have at him there ! " but in vain, for we draw 

 this likely looking place blank, and move off to 

 another with a similar result, and another and 

 another yet, without finding a fox. Sitting idly 

 by the coverside whilst the hounds were drawing, a 

 thought came across me as to the question of memory, 

 and I called to mind grave discussions, acute cross- 

 examinations, and ill-tempered interruptions, when 

 that "unhappy nobleman,^^ now expiating his errors 

 in a criminal gaol, was relating his career in a court 

 of justice ; telling how he remembered all about the 

 death^s head tobacco pipe his particular friend 

 smoked, though he forgot the Christian name of his 

 own mother, and many incidents of youthful days 

 which the rightful Roger could scarcely have failed to 

 remember. 



It is, as I have said, fifty years since I first hunted 

 in these parts, and I declare that I distinctly recollect 

 every inch of the country, every spinney or wood 

 that I saw drawn in those far off times. No, no, you 

 may forget where you put your eyeglasses five minutes 

 since, my friend, but you do not forget the scenes and 

 incidents of early life. So vividly did the recollection 

 of past times return, that as I passed in the morning 

 one of the trysting places, where we used to meet to 

 draw for a hare on off days, with a scratch pack, odds 

 and ends, three harriers, two beagles, a spaniel, and 

 a fox terrier, I paused for a moment almost expecting to 

 hear some once familiar voice. " But mute the echoes 

 now, which rang so loud with boyish glee," and I 

 trotted sharply away leaving black care and vain re- 

 grets behind me. Then we reach " Mallards Gardens,^' 



