2y. 



LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DIARY 



Splashed, befogged, begrimed, hot, cold, contented or otherwise, we 

 were soon all back in Brick Kilns without finding, and half the field 

 witnessed the obsequies of a trap-held fox in a neighbouring covert— a 

 cause, methinks, of bitter grief to the owner, Capt. Meyer. 



The run of the day was to come from Down Hall. One rattle round 

 the covert and the fox had gone like a flash to Man Wood ; past the house 

 and down the avenue surged the throng, and as they gained the open 

 country they took open order, and hot, impetuous youth sought the bubble 

 irpiitafioii in a Roothing ditch, and the man of wise saws and modern instances 

 kept out of the whirl. For sixty minutes hounds ran on, fast and merrily 

 too, somewhat circular, no doubt ; but what did it matter, you could never 

 see more than half a field at a time, and the fences came thick and fast 

 enough to satisfy a Jones or a Roly— and the country was dotted with 

 straggling strugglers. 



The Gorse, Down Hall 



The leaders with flushed faces and keen enjoyment rode on the back of 

 hounds, one of them being Mr. Seymour Caldwell, who held pride of place 

 from start to finish and shared honours with the huntsman. Then came 

 those who rode alternately at hounds and at the leaders, and rode with zest 

 and took what Providence sent them in their stride, contented and happy 

 to be able to live at all with hounds in such a sea of fog, and they included 

 Mr. Hart, Mr. H. Sworder, Mr. W. Sewell, and Mr. Balloch. Then 

 others who had never fairly started, and never succeeded in getting into the 

 same field with hounds until it was about all over ; and then others who 

 had meant well and had gone astray on their own line ; and yet more 

 who never meant it, and where they had been to we never learnt. 



Wednesday, January 25th, Harlow Common. A very large meet, in- 

 cluding Lady Brooke, Sir T. F. l^uxton, Lord Rookwood, Messrs. Ball, 



