CHAPTER I 

 INTRODUCTORY 



THE songs and the chapters which are illustrated in 

 this book by Mr. G. D. Armour's unrivalled pencil 

 have been chosen mainly on account of the manner 

 in which they signify the deliberate, matter-of-course, almost 

 leisurely, but none the less whole-hearted, devotion to Fox- 

 hunting which was once the distinguishing characteristic 

 of the country gentlemen of England. The spacious days 

 of country life from a.d. 1750, when Foxhounds began to 

 be bred for speed, to a.d. 1900, when wars and rumours of 

 wars both at home and abroad heralded the birth of a more 

 hectic existence, must have afforded some rare moments. 

 The culminating point of the comfortable England that some 

 of us have been privileged to enjoy may fairly be said to have 

 been reached at the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. 

 Then came the Boer War, and with it the first twinges of the 

 suspicion that after all we might have more trouble and less 

 junketing in days to come. Some of us began to feel a 

 draught. It is true that peace was arranged in time for 

 the Coronation of King Edward vii. ; but the short reign 

 of that popular monarch witnessed the final flicker of the 

 luxury and leisure that had for so many generations made 

 the life of comfortable England in the country the easiest 

 A I 



