150 The Hunting Countries of England, 



business and holiday. Thus, a certain number of 

 Londoners are in the habit of taking train from 

 London Bridge or Charing Cross — returning by the 

 same means at night. But by far the greater propor- 

 tion of the present Old-Surrey-City-menhave brought 

 their Lares and Penates to some middle point — such 

 as Croydon, Bromley, Beckenham, Norwood, &c. — 

 whence they can easily get up to daily business, or 

 take the saddle and trot to covert from their own door. 

 Saturday has for years been given by the Old Surrey 

 to the hills sweeping southward from Croydon; and 

 he must be a very overworked man indeed, who cannot 

 at least snatch a Saturday at only twenty minutes' 

 distance from the City. 



The hounds are quartered at Garston Hall, a mile or 

 so from Kenley station, on the line branching to 

 Caterham, from the main Croydon and Reigate 

 Railway. Train to Caterham will, in fact, land the 

 visitor within easy riding distance of every meet in 

 the Hunt, whether " on the hills ^' or in the southern 

 ^^vale.^' Garston Hall is a queer old mansion, that for 

 generations has belonged to the family of the present 

 master, Mr. E. Byron of Coulsdon Court, Caterham, 

 and the pack is the property of the country — having 

 been, together with the hunt horses of the time, 

 presented by Sir Edward Antrobus on the occasion 

 of his resigning the mastership in 1843. Much of 

 the old blood still remains in the Kennel ; though, 

 owing to the difficulty which — in common with several 

 other southern packs — exists of entering sufficient 

 hounds of home breeding, it has been found necessary 

 to obtain almost yearly drafts from other sources. 



