THE WILLEY SQUIRE. 79 



battle-fields of the Contment the yictories which 

 made the British arms so renowned. Then, as now, 

 it was found that they led to the development of the 

 physical frame — sometimes to the removal of abso- 

 lute maladies, and supplied the raw material of man- 

 liness out of which heroes are made — a view which 

 the Duke of Wellington in some measure confirmed 

 by the remark that the best officers he had under 

 him during the Peninsular War were those whom 

 he discovered to be bold riders to hoimds. Lord 

 Wilton, in his book just quoted, goes still further, 

 by contending that 'Hhe greatness and glory of 

 Great Britain are in no slight degree attributable 

 to her national sports and pastimes." 



That such sports contributed to the jollity and 

 rollicking fun which distinguished the time in which 

 Squire Forester lived, there can be little doubt. In 

 his "Four Georges," Thackeray gives it as his 

 opinion, that " the England of our ancestors was a 

 merrier England than the island we inhabit," and 

 that the people, high and low, amused themselves 

 very much more. " One hundred and twenty years 

 ago," he says, " every town had its fair, and every 

 village its wake. The old poets have sung a hun- 

 dred jolly ditties about great cudgel playings. 



