1898] PRESENTATION TO CHARLES LEEDHAM. 251 



Misses Bott, Mr. and Mrs. F. J. Campbell, Mr. E. Kuowles, 

 Dr. Livesay, and many others. 



A more auspicious morning could not have been wished, 

 and the huntsmen, in their red coats, together with the 

 ladies in riding habit, and a host of horses and carriages 

 drawn up in front of the noble Hall, presented a scene long- 

 to be remembered. Scarcely had the company taken up 

 their positions when the approach of the hounds with the 

 whips, and headed by the huntsman, Charles Leedham, 

 was hailed with enthusiasm. 



Taking up a position on the entrance steps of the Hall, 

 Lord Burton, in a voice, clear and loud, which made itself 

 heard to the outside of the throng, proceeded to make the 

 presentation. He said : " Ladies and gentlemen, owing to 

 the unavoidable absence of Lord Bagot, Col. Levett, and 

 Mr. Chandos-Pole, I have been asked to discharge a duty 

 for which I am well aware many more fitting and more 

 capable advocates might easily be found ; yet, I venture to 

 say, not one who will bring to the task a more kindly 

 spirit, or one whose families can claim to have been allied 

 for a longer term of years in ties of greater friendship, with 

 that of the Leedhams, extending as my own does over a 

 period of, I think, sixty years. (Applause.) We have come 

 here to-day to welcome — I am sorry to say for the last time 

 — as huntsman, our old friend Charles Leedham (applause) 

 — the representative this day amongst us of three genera- 

 tions of huntsmen of the same family. The Leedhams have, 

 I believe, acted as huntsmen to the Meynell Hounds for over 

 one hundred years. It was at the end of the last century 

 that Charles' Grandfather came to Hoar Cross in that 

 capacity. About the year 1837, the year, by the way, in 

 which I w^as born, his father Joe began to hunt. In the 

 course of time his uncle Tom took over the reins from 

 Joe, and retired in 1872 — liked, esteemed, and respected 

 by all who knew him ; and many here to-day will remem- 

 ber our farewell meeting here on a similar occasion to the 

 present. Our friend Charles Leedham, who had been whip 

 to Lord Southampton, came here nearly forty years ago, on 



