SPRING AND WINTER PASTIMES 195 



so ordinary an address as, say, 207, Roundabout 

 Terrace, Crouch End, with all the meretricious 

 glamour that attaches to such titles as " Holme 

 Lacy," " Monkey Puzzle Lodge," " Sandring- 

 ham," or even " Staggerholme." 



There are, however, few things more depressing 

 than the contemplation of row upon row of villas 

 thus unsuitably adorned, and with a sigh of 

 relief the house-hunter hastens to his humble 

 residence in Chelsea or Bloomsbury, where the 

 thought of the abodes inhabited by his feUows 

 causes him to regard the old home with renewed 

 tenderness and affection. The day's sport is 

 ended, but the chase can be resumed on the 

 morrow, and, indeed, indefinitely, until at last 

 the quarry is run to ground and the sportsman 

 turns his attention to other game. 



Among spring pastimes none perhaps is 

 pleasanter than the old-fashioned sport which 

 used to be known as " picnicking." Five-and- 

 twenty years ago, when most of us were consider- 

 ably younger than we are to-day, the simple 

 delights connected with an al fresco meal ranked 

 high in the list of rural attractions which country 

 life presented to the imagination of the average 

 man. That practice of consuming food in the 



