CHAPTER XIII 



RAILWAYS AND HUNTING 



IN whatever situation an Englishman fixes upon to 

 reside, his love for the chase accompanies him. If it 

 be his fate or his taste to lead a country life, he must 

 be a melancholy creature unless he beguiles some of 

 his leisure hours with the sports of the field. The murky 

 dull, oppressive atmosphere of the metropolis does not 

 extinguish the amor venandi; peradventure it serves to 

 increase it by the contrast it affords to the pure air of 

 the fields, and the elastic, exciting, enthusiastic, 

 exhilarating, bounding, bracing, buoyant accompani- 

 ments of the chase. We are informed that many 

 centuries ago the Lord Mayor of the great city kept a 

 pack of hounds, and that Lincoln's Inn Fields, St. 

 James's, and May Fair were the favourite places of 

 meeting; that the civic dignitaries and functionaries 

 had ample food whereon to feed their venatic appetite. 

 Increase of population drove the game further afield, 

 and however the ardour of the mind might be attracted 

 by sylvan pastimes, the difficulty of enjoying them, in 

 consequence of the distance, precluded many from 

 making the attempt. 



To trace the means which were available for sports- 

 men residing in London through remote ages would be 

 a task imposing much tedious research to very little 

 purpose ; it is quite sufficient to mention the difficulties 

 they had to encounter, up to a time considerably be- 

 yond the first quarter of the present century, and com- 

 pare them with the facilities of the present day. Pre- 

 viously to the establishment of railways, the principal 

 packs within reach of London were the Royal Stag- 



