Introductory 



fashionable an occupation as it was in the days of the Greeks 

 and the Romans, and perhaps for many thousands of years 

 before their time. Those who were born about 1820, 

 possibly ten years earlier, to the unfettered and affluent 

 enjoyment of field sports, and departed this life at the age 

 of threescore years and ten, would almost seem to have 

 skimmed the very cream of the English countryside. From 

 the picturesque point of view they had the advantage of 

 seeing what England looked like before the railroads. They 

 saw with their own eyes the post-chaises, the private travelling 

 carriages, and the stage-coaches, at that time in the very 

 zenith of efficiency, so well described by * Nimrod ' in his 

 famous chapter on ' The Road ' which appears presently. 

 From the sporting point of view there was little or nothing 

 to hinder them from doing what they liked. The even 

 tenor of their way received occasional shocks, such as the 

 Reform Bill, the introduction of the railroad, and the Repeal 

 of the Corn Laws. On each of these occasions the world 

 was without doubt coming to an end. But strange to say, 

 in spite of these hideous portents, they contrived to enjoy 

 those glorious gallops with Mr. Corbet and Mr. Osbaldeston, 

 and the Fox-hunting parties at the great country houses. 

 The contemporary portraits by pen and pencil give forth a 

 delicious atmosphere of permanence, prosperity, and pro- 

 prietorship. Sir Francis Grant has caught the spirit of the 

 whole thing in such pictures as the Meet of the Cottesmore 

 Hounds during the famous Mastership of Sir Richard Sutton. 

 It is true that some of the Hounds look as if it would take 



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