320 LEAVES FROM A HUNTING DtARY 



94-95. In 1895 a vixen fox and a litter of badgers were in 

 the same earth. A neighbouring shooting tenant wrote to Mr. 

 Pemberton- Barnes saying that he had heard that there was a 

 Htter of badgers in Bower Wood, and that he (Mr. Barnes) 

 would not move them for fear of disturbing the foxes in the 

 same earth, but as the badofers were doino- him a trreat deal 

 of damage, digging out rabbit nests, if Mr. Barnes would not 

 dig the badgers he could not expect him to keep or tolerate 

 the foxes, &c., &c. Mr. Barnes, therefore, had to dig them, 

 and a pretty tough job it was, for his eight men were hard 

 at it one day from daylight till dark, and 8.30 still found them 

 hard at work in the sand with lanterns. Eight feet below the 

 surface they secured three young ones, but had to leave the 

 old sow and one young one behind, for the sides were cracking 

 in, and by light of lantern, even for the prize they were seeking, 

 the risk was not worth the candle. The old badger got away, 

 the young one was smothered. A fortnight afterwards another 

 badger came into the next best fox earth some 10 yards away ; 

 him they dug and secured ; he proved to be an old boar weigh- 

 ing 2 6lbs. So both these two best honeycombed earths were 

 destroyed. In April, 1896, another badger came into the earth 

 that had last been dug in the previous year, but he was not 

 left long in peace, for on May 6th, 1896, they dug and got him, 

 a 241b. one-year-old boar, with very fine coat. Four days after 

 the owner of the adjoining property sent word that he had 

 a litter of foxes on his estate and wanted them moved. At 

 Mr. Barnes's request they were allowed to remain a few days 

 longer, and when smoked out they came into the earth out of 

 which the last badger had been dug only twelve days previously. 

 So that in 1896 there was another litter in the famous covert. 

 The Bower Wood. 



To close the account of the Bower W'ood without oivino- 

 some short sketch of Mr. W. H. Pemberton-Barnes, who has 

 taken so much trouble with it in the interests of fox hunting, 

 would be to leave it incomplete. I feared that I should be 

 unable to give a portrait of him, as Mr. Barnes said that he had 

 not been photographed for twenty years, and did not intend 

 to be, not being good or nice enough. Mr. Barnes, however, 

 must permit me to say he is too modest, for he is as good- 

 looking as he is a thorough sportsman, and not many have been 

 associated with a more sporting event than the one here 

 recorded. The expression of my regret at this omission was 

 actually in type, but Mr. Barnes having since relented I have 

 secured a photograph of him ; he is now Master of the Essex 



