52 Mr. Henry Walker's Lecture:
Such is the vision we get of the country of the ancient
Thames Valley in this our Saturday afternoon ramble at
Ilford by descending some twenty feet down into the old
and deserted bed of the river on the Essex shore.
But to our story. The great annual elephant-hunt in
the Ilford district of the Thames Valley came off about six
weeks before our arrival. On that occasion, although no
elephants were taken, no less than five head of bison
rewarded the prowess of Sir Antonio Brady and his party.
These creatures were of a celebrated and historical species.
It was the huge shaggy bison, and the great horned orus,
we remember, that startled the Roman soldiers when first
they penetrated the forests of Germany and Britain.
These wild and primitive European cattle were occa-
sionally captured and exhibited alive in the shows of the
Roman amphitheatre. They are described by a modern
poet, in the well-known lines,—
Mightiest of all the beasts of chase
That roam in woody Caledon,
Crushing the forest in his race,
The mountain bull comes thundering on.
Sir Antonio may well feel proud to have bagged such
rare and notable creatures as these. We who have come
down from London to-day can hardly expect to enjoy such
sport as this. The gigantic game of the Essex wilds has
been thinned by so recent an invasion of these famous
geological preserves, and we find ourselves left to unearth
the smaller prey that may still be lurking around. But
the game which we have so far bagged, humble as it is
in its powers of resistance, will at least serve to commemo-
rate an afternoon spent in this wonderful country for the
sportsman and naturalist, the old Thames Valley.
So far, then, our afternoon's sport in these old Essex
hunting-grounds has not been marked by moving accidents
or hair-breadth 'scapes. As yet, no tusky thick-skinned
monarch of the herd has charged us through the hedgerows,
trumpeting furiously with proboscis aloft, to avenge our
intrusion ; nor as yet have any of our cortege drawn their
tulwars ready if needs be to ham-string the monster on his