PREFACE ix 



In connection with the opening chapter I am also 

 indebted to Mr. Flemming, of the well-known firm of 

 saddlers, Whippy and Steggall, in North Audley 

 Street, for assistance in establishing the fact that the 

 use of the curved hunting-horn lingered in South 

 Devon after the straight horn had come into general 

 use elsewhere. 



I feel grateful in an especial way for assistance 

 received from complete strangers. Among these, 

 Lord Robert Manners, who has no interest in the 

 hunt, took the trouble to verify the facts concerning 

 the draft that Templer sent to Belvoir, and to supply 

 in addition some very interesting particulars concern- 

 ing it ; Sir John C. H. Scale tried, as his father had 

 done, to find for me the record, known to exist, of 

 Sir Henry Scale's hunting career, and though un- 

 successful in this, he was able to supply a photograph 

 of that popular master of old ; Miss Turner, the Hon. 

 Sec. of the Hambledon, is to be thanked for giving, 

 through the kind offices of Mr. C. B. Fry, leave and 

 opportunity to copy the only known likeness of John 

 King of Fowlescombe, which is in the archives of 

 the Hambledon Hunt ; and Lady Mary Leslie put 

 at my disposal all the information she had concern- 

 ing her father's mastership, including his diary, and 

 cheerfully submitted to the ordeal of two visits from 

 a photographer. Indeed, but for her kind aid, it 

 would have been difficult, at this distance of time, to 

 glean any reliable particulars concerning Captain 

 Haworth's day. 



I have also gratefully to acknowledge the willing 



