278 HUNTING. 



Watford, Rickmansworth, and Hemel Hempstead are con- 

 venient points of departure. The Hertfordshire can be reached 

 four days a week, on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and 

 Saturday, from Luton, St. Albans, and Hitchin ; the Pucke- 

 ridge, on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, from Bishop 

 Stortford and Hungerford. With the Burstow one may 

 hunt twice a week, on Wednesday and Saturday, getting to 

 them best from Reigate, East Grinstead, Horley, and Eden- 

 bridge. Of all the packs to which we are at present limiting 

 ourselves, this is perhaps the most favoured in the matter of 

 country. Indeed, the members of that hunt have a saying, 

 that if a horse can go in their country, he can go anywhere. 

 We have thus very slightly indicated where a Londoner, bent 

 on a moderate participation in the pleasures of fox hunting, 

 may turn his head with the best chance of getting what he 

 wants. For further particulars we must refer him to ' Brooksby's ' 

 ' Hunting Counties of England,' Stanford's Hunting Maps, an 

 excellent article on ' Hunting from London ' in * Baily's Maga- 

 zine' for February 1884 (to the unnamed writer of which we 

 hereby tender our best acknowledgments), and to the expe- 

 riences of his own friends. 



The question remains, in what style will he elect to take his 

 hunting ? Will he keep his horses in London and carry them 

 backwards and forwards with him by rail, or will he settle them 

 in quarters at the town most convenient to the fixtures of the 

 pack with which he intends to hunt ? Much can be said for 

 either plan, much against it. Let us take the former first. 



The advantages of this course are clear. His horses will 

 be under his own eye, and he will be able to vary his country 

 at his pleasure. On the other hand, he will have to make an 

 earlier start ; unless, of course, he sends his hunter down with a 

 groom, and himself follows with a hack by a later train, or even 

 sends horse and man down the day before ; both of which plans 

 will obviously swell the expenses not a little. If he go down 

 with his horse he must necessarily, unless the place of meeting 

 be very close to the station, start in good time, to allow of that 



