CHAPTER XXIII 



CHAIRMANSHIP OF LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL, 



(1890) 

 (Age 56) 



Towards the end of the eighties there are fewer 

 references in Sir John Lubbock's diary to the 

 games of fives which he had been able to enjoy 

 for many more years than such violent exercise 

 as they demand is permitted to most men. Some 

 years before this his brother Henry had removed 

 from the High Elms kennels a pack of beagles which 

 he had kept there for a long while. The brothers 

 used to go out in the early morning before 

 starting for business and have a run with them. 

 Nevertheless, though the kennels of the little 

 hounds were no longer there, the master occasion- 

 ally brought them over, and Sir John several times 

 records that they had a hare hunt. But in 1889 

 the beagle pack was given up and we hear neither 

 of the hare-hunting nor of the fives any more. 

 The game that began to assume the place of these 

 more athletic exercises for Sir John was the less 

 violent one of golf. Taking up the game when he 

 did, it was not to be expected that he would 

 become a great player, but a keen player he 



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