SPORT ANCIENT AND 



MODERN 



INTRODUCTION 



THOUGH Middlesex still occupies 

 a prominent position with re- 

 spect to pastimes such as rowing, 

 cricket, football, polo, tennis, 

 and archery the last-named 

 three of which originated in it the higher 

 forms of sport formerly pursued in the county 

 may be said to have now become, practically, 

 subjects of archaeological interest. 



As in other counties, the pursuit of ' the 

 nobler beasts of venery, such as the stag, the 

 wolf, and the boar,' which, to quote a well- 

 known writer of the last century, ' gradually 

 faded away upon the increase of population 

 and the advancement of agriculture,' l was 

 for a time replaced by ' the noble science ' 

 of fox-hunting, which was introduced into 

 Middlesex very soon after its first adoption 

 as a popular form of sport in England. The 

 increase of population and the advancement 

 of agriculture were both, however, from the 

 first materially accelerated by the fact that 

 Middlesex is not only the smallest county 

 in England, except Rutland, but also the 

 original seat of the English capital, and, owing 

 to the recent rapid expansion within its limits 

 of the largest city in the world, both fox- 

 hunting and covert shooting have now shared 

 the fate of the older forms of the chase. At 

 the beginning of the nineteenth century 

 Middlesex was a purely agricultural county. 8 

 In 1 80 1 it was possible to walk from Hadley 

 through Enfield Chase, Epping and Hainault 

 Forests without leaving the turf or losing 

 sight of forest scenery ; and, in addition to a 

 wide extent of pasture land which rendered 



1 Scrutator, Horses and Hounds (ed. 1858), 63. 



1 Cf. Lysons, Environs of London (1792) ; J. A. 

 Cooke, Topographical and Statistical Survey of the 

 County of Middlesex (1819) ; and Brayley, London 

 and Middlesex ( 1 8 1 o), passim. 



it eminently suitable for a hunting country, 3 

 the county comprised Hounslow Heath and 

 Finchley Common ; Harrow Weald Common 

 and eight other commons in the parish of 

 Harrow ; Uxbridge Moor and five other 

 commons in the parishes of Uxbridge and 

 Hillingdon ; Ruislip, Sunbury, and Hanwell 

 Commons, and Wormwood Scrubbs.* In 

 the present year of grace Hadley Woods, 

 Hadley Common, and the ' Rough Lot ' in 

 Trent Park are the only remains of Enfield 

 Chase, and such of the few commons as 

 remain have been reduced to insignificant 

 dimensions. At the census of 1 90 1 the popula- 

 tion, which in 1801 was only 70,000, had 

 increased to 798,736, or over eleven-fold 

 during the century, the increase during the 

 last decade being 45-8 per cent. ; 5 and of the 

 total extent of 149,668 statute acres within 

 the county 88,105 acres are comprised in 

 urban districts. 6 Of the twelve principal 

 estates within the rural districts there is only 

 one of 1,000 acres Trent Park, belonging 

 to Mr. A. F. Benson and one of 500 acres 

 Osterley Park, belonging to the Earl of 

 Jersey ; while of the remaining ten, eight are 

 between 100 and 300 acres, and the other 

 two are under 100 acres in extent. Covert 

 shooting has thus ceased to be of any practical 



3 Cf. Hon. G. C. Grantley Berkeley, Remi- 

 niscences of a Huntsman (ed. 1895), 49-50 ; and 

 ' Brooksby,' The Hunting Counties of England (i 878), 

 115. Though the first edition of Mr. Grantley 

 Berkeley's book was published in 1854, cultivation 

 had then considerably increased and the expansion 

 of London had begun. 



4 Topographical and Statistical Description of 

 Middlesex, 101. 



* Census for Middlesex, 1901. Accts. and P. 

 1902, cxx (ed. 121 1), i, ii. 



Ibid. 



253 



