THE HARROW COUNTRY 155 



wet through to the skin.' ^J'lhs day they met at the ' Rose 

 and Crown ' inn, Harrow Weald, and ran through Cannons 

 Park. Londoners may hke to know, or doubtless do know, 

 that the two inspiring stone-fa9aded houses on the north side 

 of Cavendish Square were built from designs for the lodges of 

 Cannons, built in the early years of the last century by the 

 Duke of Chandos, the supposed ' Timon ' of Pope's ' Essay 

 on False Taste.' 



I spoke just now of the services rendered to the Queen's 

 field for many years past by the Great Western Railway. 

 ' Hunting,' I remember Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild 

 saying to me some years ago, in days when, if hounds really 

 ran over a gentlemanlike country, he would go like a swallow, 

 'is a charming amusement, but a detestable occupation.' At 

 the risk of a charge of heresy and schism I entirely agree. 

 But if this be true of fox-hunting, it is trebly true of 

 stag-hunting. Stag-hunting is essentially the professional 

 or busy man's playground. The stag-hunter should have 

 other occupations or interests sufficient to make his day 

 with the stag a treat and the loss of it a disappointment. 

 For this reason London is the best, and indeed the only, 

 place to hunt the stag from. In ' The Noble Science ' 

 Mr. Delme Radcliffe investigated the effect which railways 

 would be likely to have upon the breed of horses and upon fox- 

 hunting. He predicts that they will become ' the most oppres- 

 sive monopoly ever inflicted on a free country.' The most 

 narrow-spirited, he declares, will agree to this. And this is 

 his conclusion of the whole matter : ' When we consider the 

 magnitude of the convulsion which this mighty railroad 

 delusion will effect, the fearful extent of its operations, the 

 thousands of human beings thrown out of employ, the 

 incalculable diminution in the number of horses and conse- 

 quent deficiency in demand, we cannot but wonder at the 

 blindness which has countenanced the growth of a monster 



