2 6o 



LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY 



What shall I tell you of Monday — Black Monday, it might well have 

 been called if one would have gauged its character from the despair and 

 disappointment written on all faces as preserve after preserve and covert 

 after covert were drawn blank. Not for me to weary you by dreary detail 

 of the names of all the tenantless preserves; even Courtfield — Col. Fane's 

 famous stronghold — for once disappointed us, and the cabbage field on its 

 outskirts, from which two such good runs have taken place already, failed 

 on this occasion. Methinks I gave someone else the credit for harbouring 

 a Courtfield fox instead of Col. Fane, but anyone may well feel a sense of 

 proprietary interest in a fox that has done you the honour to select your 

 fattest and most marketable chickens. A roving marauder is this Courtfield 

 fox, and he laughs in his sleeve at the Essex Hounds. 





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Myless Lodge 



Rough Talleys, on the borders of Epping Forest, saved the blank, when 

 the approaching night made it too late to be taken advantage of beyond the 

 boundaries of Weald Coppice. 



If Monday was bad Tuesday was equally disappointing, and we had 

 such an eager field out too — so many that came to see a run, and meant 

 seeing any run the Essex Hounds could give them ; and among those 

 who have survived a season's hunting, escaped the influenza, have not 

 taken flight to the Riviera, or been hurried by Parliamentary duties into an 

 early London season, were : both Masters, Mrs. Bowlby and the Misess 

 Bowlby (three), Mrs. Arkwright, Mr. W. H. Baddeley and his son, Mr. 

 and Mrs. F. Ball, Mr. F. G. Barclay, Mr. and Mrs. Barron, Mr. Basham, 

 Mr. Avila, Mr. Howard, Mr. A. Bowlby, Mrs. Bruce, Mr. and Mrs. G. 

 Buxton, Miss M. Buxton, Mr. L. Buxton, Mr. E. K. Charrington, Mr. E. 

 Cockett, Mr. R. B. Colvin, Mr. Walter Cook, Mr. and Mrs. Weston 

 Crocker, Mr. D. Crossman, Mr. Tresham Gilbey, Mr. N. Gilbey, Mr. 



