Lady of the Chase

When a rare opportunity to buy some unique diaries at auction arose recently, a hunting enthusiast seized on the opportunity. By now offering them up for publication, he has opened up, via the diarist, a whole world of hunting and its characters from 1930 for the next half century. Daphne Moore is known to many in the hounds fraternity for her expert reports in Horse and Hound magazine over many decades. Aristocratically turned out and well-spoken, her appearance belied her circumstances. She lived on a shoe-string off her reporting, followed the pack on foot and in her younger days even cycled many miles to get there and back. Remarkably, after producing a professional report of each days' hunting, she then turned to writing up - and illustrating in charming watercolours - her own diaries.