COLONEL FAIRFAX'S AfASTERSHIF. i4<; 



Fairfax was a fine horseman, always with his hounds. It 

 was a loss to the country when failing health called upon 

 him to resign, and his resignation and his death, which took 

 place a few years afterwards,^ were regretted by everyone 

 who had come in contact with him, and by many whose only 

 knowledge of him was his reputation as one of those fine 

 sportsmen of whom Yorkshire has had so many, and of 

 whom her sons are so justly proud. 



Of the sport which Colonel Fairfa.x showed let his 

 diary speak. 



1873-74. — His first day as master and huntsman of the 

 York and Ainsty was Friday, September 5th, when they 

 met at Overton Wood, at 6 a.m. The following is an 

 account of the day's sport given in the diary : — 



' Took out the young pack. Found plenty of cub.s in wood, 

 ' ran hard but could not kill, owing to having too few 

 ' old hounds. Young ones did well e.Kcepting Fancy. 

 ' A lot of old ones condemned. Went to Moorlands, 

 ' found one old fox instead of three litters as reported. 

 ' Went to Court House Wood, found some cubs but could 

 ' do nothing. Scent poor. Radical, a good dog from 

 ' Middleton's. Hall's, no use. Booth's Rallywood, a useful 

 ' dog, but riotous. Layman, no use. .Self, Cardinal ; 

 ' Truman, Durando ; Jim, Bachelor.' 



It will be seen from this account of the first day's 

 cubbing that there was a difficult task set the new master, 

 and it cannot be said that he had a very encouraging 

 beoinnincr. The beCTlnnintj of the season was characterised 

 by bad scenting weather, and though hounds found plenty 

 of foxes, the dog pack were very unlucky in not killing their 

 fo.'ces at first. The drafting had to go on, however, but 

 Colonel Fairfax was getting matters more to his mind, as 

 is evidenced by the following quotation from the diary : — 



(i) Colonel Fairfa.x died February 8th, 1884. 



