[Rarebooks] FA: 1931 US Fox Hunting, ltd. to 401 copies

[Joslin Hall Rare Books, ABAA]

Ending this evening on Ebay-

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“Try Back. A Huntsman’s Reminiscences” By A. Henry Higginson

Published by New York Huntington Press: 1931. Edition limited to 401 
numbered, signed copies (signed in the Introduction)

A. Henry Higginson’s memoir of 37 years of foxhunting in the U.S. and 
Europe. Son of Henry Lee Higginson, the founder and sole initial backer of 
the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Alex Henry Higginson was instrumental in 
establishing “foxhunting after the British method, with huntsman, 
whippers-in, and
 the field in scarlet” as an organized sport in the U.S. 
This volume could almost serve as a history of American foxhunting.

Higginson saw his first hunt at age eight when his father took him to a 
meet of the Myopia Hounds at Gibney Farm and he vowed then and there that 
he would become a Master of the Hunt. Briefly distracted by yacht racing, 
Higginson didn’t get back to hunting until age seventeen when he started 
breeding beagles. His frighteningly rich and very generous father bought 
him a lovely farm in Lincoln, Massachusetts and young Alex was off and 
running. Never one to do things halfway, he acquired a draft of hounds from 
England to start the pack that later became the Middlesex Hounds and 
established the Middlesex Hunt Club.

Higginson went on to hold the positions of Master and of Huntsman in the 
Cattistock, an old English Hunt. He was instrumental in promoting and 
regulating the sport in the U.S. and served as the President of the Masters 
of Foxhounds Association of America for seventeen years.

“Try Back. A Huntsman’s Reminiscences” gives the details of Higginson’s 
vast experience in the sport of foxhunting in both the U.S. and England. 
 From hunts in Massachusetts and Virginia to hunting with the Duke and 
Duchess of Beaufort and riding to the hounds at Badminton, Higginson writes 
lovingly of the hounds, the horses and the famous Hunt Masters that he 
encountered. He also gives his account of the famous grudge match between 
his English bred Middlesex Hounds and Harry W. Smith’s American bred 
Grafton Hounds.

Higginson writes that the period spanned by his own career "has been a 
memorable one in the history of foxhunting, the growth of the sport in this 
country during that time almost unbelievable, and I have a feeling that it 
may be interesting to some of the younger hunting men to hear something of 
that period and of the men who dominated it”. And so it is.

The volume is beautifully illustrated with many portraits of notable 
Masters and photographs of Badminton, Cattistock and Middlesex.

CONDITION: Hardcover. 7.5"x11", 241 pages, illustrated with a color 
frontispiece and 20 black & white plates. A very nice copy with some light 
soil on the covers, but otherwise unworn, with tight hinges, no marks, or 
other defects to spoil your hunt. A very nice copy of an engaging book.

No reserve.
Ebay ID - joslinhall

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