DIARY OF OTTER HUNTING. By James Lomax, Esq., Clayton Hall. From A.D. 1829 to 1871.

1892 1st edition. 8vo (180 x 220mm). Ppii,304. Frontispiece portrait photograph, b/w photograph at rear. Mid-brown quarter calf over grey cloth, gilt otter vignette to upper board, spine titled in gilt.

" In the middle of the 19th century, many believed the best pack [of otter hounds] to be that of Squire Lomax of Clayton Hall, hunting the Ribble, the Lune, the Kent and the Hodder in Lancashire. Squire Lomax inherited these hounds and so their pack type was long established". Colonel David Hancock in, Conserving the Otterhound". October 2nd, 1829. Trailed the same otter we had hunted the preceding day down Little Ribble, and found him at Titty Wheel, just opposite Hodder Place [nr. Great Mitton, Lancashire]. We swam him a very short time, and then took him on to the field and worried him. He found the hounds some hard work. This otter weighed 25 1/2 lbs". Diary entries with brief descriptions of otter hunting in north Wales and north-west England in the middle five decades of the nineteenth century. This first edition was privately printed for the author by Henry Young and Sons and is very scarce.