Down Hall 



LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY. 



CHAPTER I. 



Lord Roohi'ood — Lady Rookwood — Lancelot Rollcston — Dcsdichado — Jauics 

 Bailey — Some hard riders with the Essex in 7879 — Making acquaintance h'ith 

 Essex ditches — November frost — Richard Beale Colvin — George Dau'son — 

 R. Womevsley — Harry Bagot — Epping-Bury — Albert Deacon— -J . Todhnnter — 

 Captain Meyer — Cub Hunting in 188 J — The Crane de la Crane. 



WHEN I asked Lord Rookwood's permission to dedicate 

 these " Leaves from a Hunting- Diary" to him, pointing- 

 out that it was under him that I first hunted in Essex, that the 

 best sport I ever had in my hfe was during his reign, and that 

 lie had brought the Essex Hunt, in the opinion of those most 

 quahfied to judge, to a point of perfection never before attained 

 in its annals, he rephed as follows : — "You are too flattering in 

 your recollections of the happy seven years I was most closely 

 connected with the Essex Hounds. Any success then achieved 

 is far more a result of Bailey's work than of mine, and the only 

 thing I can really lay claim to is that 1 was the means of 

 bringing into the country one of the best huntsmen I have ever 

 seen." 



There was no fiattery in what I wrote to Lord Rookwood in 

 March, '96. In spite of his modest disclaimer, I must adhere 

 to every letter of it, and add yet a few words further. 'Tis true 

 that he brought Bailey into Essex, and that no better huntsman, 



