CHAPTER IV 



A FEW "SURREY" CELEBRITIES 



*T*0 give anything like a complete list of the many 

 * noted sportsmen who have hunted with the Old 

 Surrey at different epochs would require several volumes, 

 and, since we are restricted to one, we are obliged to 

 exercise a judicious care in the work of selection. The 

 material is so rich and abundant that one scarcely knows 

 how to pick out the nuggets. The thought of leaving 

 any behind us is naturally agonizing. 



To go no farther back than 1834, because if we are 

 lost in the " mists of antiquity " we are not likely to find 

 so many of those auriferous deposits, we may note that 

 Mr. David Majoribanks, who was raised to the peerage 

 just a week before his lamented death, was a keen follower 

 of these hounds. One of his contemporaries describes 

 him as " a very pushing man," or, in other words, as " a 

 good 'un to follow and a bad 'un to beat." 



Here a little anecdote must be interpolated : it shows 

 of what stuff our hunting ancestors were made. On the 

 last day of the season with the Old Surrey — the year 

 would be, as far as we can trace, about 1835 — Billy Bean, 

 a well-known character, was out with his drag-hounds in 

 the Streatham country — that reads funnily now, doesn't 



19 



