140 



LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY 



Roothings. No one knows that country better than he does ; 

 few in it do more to promote the welfare of foxhunting than 

 he and his brother Walter, whose portrait is here given. 

 Equally open-handed and generous to a degree when it 

 comes to the question of getting up a subscription for some 

 agriculturist who has met with misfortunes, a Ridley's name 

 will generally be found at the head of the list. Mr. C. E. 

 Ridley has planted a gorse covert in a favoured part of the 

 country, which will be known to future generations as Ridley's 

 Gorse. A sketch of it will be found on p. 138. 



Walter Ridley on "Fly by Night" 



I have given you this side — the gold, if you Hke it, of the medal. Will 

 you glance at the other, silver or dross, call it which you will, that stamps 

 itself on your memory as Monday's experience ? 



Do you think that the day began well, waiting some sixty minutes on a 

 rather raw morning, with a blue mist circling in and out of the hedgerows, 

 at a fixture which, for its plain surroundings, stands unrivalled in the trysts 

 chosen for the meeting of the Clans (I have certainly no longing for a 

 sketch or a photograph of a North Weald meet). 



