24 



LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY 



Few better-hearted or more hospitable men ever kept 

 hunters than the late Captain Herman Meyer. How few of 

 us who commenced hunting- in the seventies or eighties 

 have not quaffed at some time or other his famous hunting- 

 beer ? Coming of a stock that had owned land in Essex for 

 many years, he succeeded his father, Christian Paul Meyer, 

 who built Little Laver Hall, and for a period of some thirty 

 years, ending in 1886, hunted regularly with the Essex Hounds. 



Captain Herman Meyer 



He took a keen interest in the Volunteer movement, and com- 

 manded the Epping and Ongar Corps from 1875 to 1886: at 

 their annual dinner he was a very good hand at inducing fresh 

 members to join his corps, the audior falling a victim to his 

 persuasive eloquence on one occasion. Cricket found in him a 

 staunch supporter, for he captained the Matching Green and 

 Ongar Club with great success, and as a Justice of the Peace 

 on the Ongar Bench he tempered justice with mercy. That he 

 was a close observer of nature the following letter, culled from 



