The Old Berkeley, 115 



inconvenienced by a reticence which forbids approach. 

 It has been called into existence by the pressure of a 

 swarm of nondescripts^ who, starting from every 

 suburb in London, were glad to make a meet of fox- 

 hounds their excuse for a holiday on hackney or in 

 waggonette — overwhelming the whole procedure of 

 the chase by their presence, and irritating farmers 

 and landowners to the great injury of the hunt. Thus 

 it was found necessary to make known the places of 

 meeting only to subscribers, and even to take the 

 additional precaution of substituting Tuesday for 

 Saturday in the Watford country — so to escape the 

 " Saturday- outers/^ as they are termed with the Surrey 

 Union. But a subscription (it need not be a heavy 

 one) will always procure a weekly card of the fixtures ; 

 and the man for whom foxhunting is really a pursuit 

 will always find a welcome with the Old Berkeley. It 

 is not a superlatively good country — even its best 

 friends will not assign to it more than comparative 

 merit. But it has its advantages — of being within 

 the easiest possible reach of London, and so immedi- 

 ately available to the man who can only steal away 

 from business for an occasional single day ; of being 

 thoroughly hunted, and by no means deficient of 

 sport. 



Though its chief features are included in the terms 

 tuood and plough, there yet remains in the Watford 

 and Harrow district a small stretch of as good grass 

 as is to be ridden over in England. Year by year the 

 advancing wave of brick and mortar is narrowing 

 this chosen area. But, over and above the encroach- 

 ments of building, there is an inner cause mihtating 



