Essex.
Easter Monday was formerly appropriated to the grand “Epping Hunt.” So far back as the year 1226, King Henry III. confirmed to the citizens of London free-warren, or liberty to hunt a circuit about their city, in the warren of Staines, &c.; and in ancient times, the Lord Mayor, aldermen, and corporation, attended by a due number of the constituents, are said to have availed themselves of this right of chase “in solemn guise.” But years ago, the “Epping Hunt” lost the Lord Mayor and his brethren in their corporate capacity; the annual sport subsequently dwindled into a mere burlesque and farcical show amongst the mob, and even that has died away, and is now numbered “amongst the things that were.”—Sports, Pastimes and Customs of London, 1847, p. 27.
The following extract illustrative of this ancient custom is taken from the Chelmsford Chronicle (April 15th, 1805): “On Monday last Epping Forest was enlivened with the celebrated stag-hunt. The road from Whitechapel to the Bald-faced Stag, on the forest, was covered with cockney sportsmen, chiefly dressed in the costume of the chase, in scarlet-frock, black jockey cap, new boots, and buckskin breeches. By ten o’clock the assemblage of civil hunters, mounted on all sorts and shapes, could not fall short of 1,200. There were numberless Dianas, also of the chase, from Rotherhithe, the Minories, &c., some in riding-habits, mounted on titups, and others by the side of their mothers, in gigs, tax-carts, and other vehicles appropriate to the sports of the field. The Saffron Walden stag-hounds made their joyful appearance about half after ten, but without any of the Melishes or Bosanquets, who were more knowing sportsmen, than to risk either themselves, or their horses, in so desperate a burst. The huntsmen having capped their half crowns, the horn blew just before twelve, as a signal for the old fat one-eyed-stag (kept for the day) being enlarged from the cart. He made a bound of several yards, over the heads of some pedestrians, at first starting, when such a clatter commenced as the days of Nimrod never knew. Some of the scarlet-jackets were sprawling in the high road a few minutes after starting—so that a lamentable return of the maimed, missing, thrown, and thrown out, may naturally be supposed.—Every Day Book, vol. ii. p. 460; see Long Ago, 1873, vol. i. pp. 19, 44, 83, 146; also N. & Q. 4th S. vol. x. pp. 373, 399, 460, 478; xi. p. 26.