ALDEEMAN HUMPHEEY PARSONS. 265 



beyond any price otherwise than His Majesty's acceptance. 

 The King could not resist the acquisition of so perfect a 

 hunter, even upon such terms ; consequently, it was duly 

 delivered at the Royal Stables. As a quid ])ro quo, Louis XV. 

 gave Alderman Parsons — who was a famous brewer — an ex- 

 clusive monopoly "of serving the French nation with his 

 Extract of Matte" yclept in the vernacular " London Stout." 

 It further transpired that in the course of this novel audience 

 in the forest of Fontainebleau, that His Most Christian 

 Majesty asked Alderman Parsons if all the Aldermen of 

 London were as good sportsmen. We have not heard what 

 the answer was, but we can vouch that at least the then 

 Alderman of the Ward of Farringdon Without, Sir Francis 

 Child, was a thorough sportsman, and fairly rivalled Alderman 

 Parsons in the hunting-field. The former, however, prin- 

 cipally patronised the Cit}^ Hunt, which gave grand sport 

 at this time (and, in fact, during the whole period it was led 

 by Mr. Cuttenden, the " Common Hunt," from the time of his 

 appointment to that office in September 1723 onward), and 

 was rarely out with the Royal Buckhounds except when the 

 latter pack hunted in Epping Forest. On those occasions, at 

 Sir Francis Child's house at Brentwood, there usually assem- 

 bled a large number of hunting men who {'inore civitatus) 

 were regaled with a sumptuous banquet — the menu, the side 

 dishes and the wines being circumstantially described by the 

 intelligencers of the period ; but, sad to say, never a word 

 transpires relating to the runs. Although Alderman Parsons 

 was a " common person " according to the supercilious ethics 

 of " great " folks and centurions of those and later times, he 

 could, nevertheless, boast of a pedigree dating from the Anglo- 

 Saxon era. He was a good linguist, and could adapt himself 

 to any society at home or abroad. He was a fine type of the 

 metropolitan followers of the Royal Buckhounds of his day. 

 His portrait, in hunting attire, is a rare and interesting sou- 

 venir of the chase of the early Georgian era. He was M.P. for 

 London ; served as Sheriff with Sir Francis Child in 1722 ; 

 was Lord Mayor of London in 1730 (Sir Richard Brocas 



