LONDON SPORTSMEN 219 



hounds; the late Earl Derby's stag-hounds; the Old 

 Berkeley fox-hounds, given up in 1842; those which 

 hunted the country now hunted by Lord Dacre; the 

 late Mr. Conyer's; the Surrey Union; the Surrey fox- 

 hounds, and the Surrey stag-hounds. There might have 

 been some others, which I do not recollect to have 

 heard of; that, however, is immaterial; but to meet 

 any of them it was imperatively necessary to send a 

 horse to sleep out on the night previous to hunting, and 

 it was by no means improbable, if the hounds ran to a 

 distant point, that he would also have to remain 

 out the night after hunting a most vexatious 

 necessity; for nothing tends to injure a hunter's con- 

 dition more than a journey on the day after a severe 

 run with hounds. It is a time when the loose box is 

 most essentially necessary for the resting of his wearied 

 and jaded limbs. Under such circumstances a horse 

 would not be fit to come again oftener than once in >a 

 fortnight ; therefore to make it a; general practice was 

 out of the question. The only alternative was that of 

 keeping horses in the country within reach of whatever 

 pack of hounds were chosen to hunt with. 



The Royal Stag-hounds at one period took pre- 

 cedence in the estimation of the aristocratic and 

 fashionable devotees of Diana, and they still have a 

 few fixtures, Hayes, Bedfont, and the Magpies, within 

 about thirteen miles of London ; but their best country 

 cannot be reached under twenty miles. Croydon 

 formerly attracted the fast men from the east ; and fox- 

 hunting, as I have been informed, was perpetuated in 

 those parts ; but I speak not from experience, never 

 having hunted in Surrey, with the exception of a few 

 days with Colonel Sumner's hounds. 



Irrespective of the inconvenience connected with the 

 horse department, another obstacle stood prominently 

 in the way of the London sportsman's pleasure, that of 

 getting to the place of meeting himself. To ride a hack 

 twenty miles to meet hounds, hunt all day and return 

 afterwards, was an exertion few would venture to en- 



