INTRODUCTION 3 



life a misanthropist. He expended his fund of wit 

 and humour on pen, ink, and paper, instead of in the 

 society of his brother fox-hunters. But, though Mr. 

 Jorrocks conducted the Handley Cross Hunt on the 

 rough-and-ready system, even in the first decade 

 of the century many hunting estabhshments were 

 organised on a sound business basis, and the principle, 

 that those who enjoy the sport should pay for the 

 sport, was recognised. 



Many years, hovv^ever, were destined to elapse 

 before railway communication brought to the hunt- 

 ing-field the commercial population of the provincial 

 towns, and the urban resident was regarded as a 

 stranger in the land. There was a jealousy between 

 the rural and urban communities, remnants of which 

 still exist at the present time. The hunting-field 

 was an agricultural club, and the town outsider was 

 dubbed " a cockney tailor," unless he could lay claim 

 to being a " Corinthian." Life in London, by Mr. 

 Pierce Egan, was first published in 1821, and in 1822 

 a burlesque, entitled Tom and Jerry, or Life in 

 London, was performed at Davis's Royal Amphi- 

 theatre. In 1823 a French version of Life in London 

 was published, entitled Le Diorama Anglais, ou 

 Promenades Pittoresques a Londres, and in 1822 

 Life in Paris, by Dick Wildfire, had been published. 

 " Corinthianism " was now a pronounced element in 

 sport, though it was unpopular amongst the fox- 

 hunting community, who regarded the Corinthians 

 as patrons of sport rather than as sportsmen. The 



