Inscribed on recto of first leaf: Walter J. Marshall, 1871.

Bound in quarter red morocco with red textured cloth covers. Red morocco label with title stamped in gilt on upper board: Hunting journal.

In English.

Autograph journal, in pen and brown ink, recording the hunting activity of Walter J. Marshall in the English Midlands from 1871 to 1881. The chronological notes are kept within a printed ledger designed for a hunting journal, with columns headed "18" [for date], "Hounds", "Horses", and "Remarks". The recto of each leaf bears imprint: "Printed and published by A. Webster & Stockley, 60, Piccadilly, W.". The journal records the activities of a number of hunts chiefly in Bicester (Oxfordshire), Belvoir (Lincolnshire), Warwickshire, Quorn (Leicestershire), Pytchley (Northamptonshire), and Cottesmore (Rutland). The hunts become more frequent with time--he tallies 98 total days of hunting for the 1879-1880 season--although Marshall does not appear to have participated personally in all the hunts described. The journal also contains notes on the purchase, training, sale, illness, or death of a number of horses. The stable grows with time; by 1880, an inventory names 14 horses ranging in age from 6 to 12.

The journal includes a newspaper clipping bearing an account of the Melton Mowbray steeple-chase meeting on 31 March 1880, and another clipping with details of a sale of horses held in London on 13 December 1880. The final written-on page bears three "receipts" (one containing opium, another containing vitriol) for the treatment of diseases in horses.

Fox hunting > Great Britain > 19th century.

Hunt riding > Great Britain > 19th century.

Hunters (Horses) > Great Britain > 19th century.

Hunters > Great Britain > Diaries.

Steeplechasing > England > Melton Mowbray > 19th century.

Horses > Great Britain > 19th century.

Horses > Diseases > Treatment.