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QUESTIONABLE QUARRY
Dr Hannah Clark’s article was excellent [Hunting, the haunt of the man-eating Delilah, September issue] and made me reach for the memoirs of Lady Augusta Fane (1927) – not the most accurate of historical sources but great fun. It was not just American heiresses who joined the Melton set in the heady years before 1914. Fane recalled that: “a great many Hungarians came to Melton for the winter, including Counts Charles and Rudolphe Kinsky, and Count Széchenyi. Count Heini Larishe was a yearly visitor and often stayed with us…”
Fane was daughter of the Earl of Stradbroke (Henham Hall, Suffolk), whose passion was horse breeding, hence Augusta was an accomplished and daring rider. She also hunted in Ireland with the Meath.
The old Bourbon families from France attended, too: “My formal introduction to Madame de Clermont Tonnerre took place when she was sitting on the grass without her habit skirt, which had been left hanging on her saddle when she took a toss over a fence… gallant Monsieur
