HUNTING LOCALITIES 171 



THE HOME AND SOUTHERN COUNTIES 



Of hunting centres close to London there are some 

 which are convenient enough, but none of the countries 

 can compare with those to be found in the Midlands, 

 big woodlands and steep hills being all too common 

 on the south side of the Metropolis, while more open 

 country with much cold scenting plough is the chief 

 feature of those hunts which lie to the north of the 

 capital. Still, hunting is carried on most vigorously 

 in nearly a score of what may be called metropolitan 

 hunts, and nearly everywhere there are large fields 

 of regular followers, and an enthusiasm which is far 

 beyond that to be found in a really fashionable hunt. 

 And of boxing from London there is practically none 

 in these days, nineteen-twentieths of the London 

 hunting community having long since taken up their 

 quarters in the particular hunt they incline to, while 

 the odd twentieth, if he trains up and down from town, 

 keeps his horses in the country. 



Dealing first with the north side there are the two 

 divisions of the Old Berkeley, the Hertfordshire, the 

 Puckeridge, the Essex, and the Essex Union, all of 

 which have country, even now, within about twenty 

 miles of London. Time was when some of them 

 hunted much nearer to the suburbs than they now do, 

 and notably the Essex used to come within eight or 

 ten miles of the centre of the city, while within the 

 last few years we have ourselves seen the Old Berkeley 

 within a mile of Uxbridge, and only fifteen miles from 

 town. The Hertfordshire, too, come a long way south 

 occasionally, but the Puckeridge country has its south- 

 ern boundary further away, north of the River Lea, 



