GEORGIAN STAG-HUNTING 31 



declared he owed all his knowledge of hunting, was himself 

 a master of the hounds. He wrote his poem ' The Chase ' in 

 George II. 's reign. It was still the age of elaborate similes, 

 and the poet seizes the opportunity of paying a tribute to the 

 king's military talents in a comparison of a level pack of 

 hounds to a body of troops : 



As some brave captain, curious and exact, 



By his fix'd standard forms in equal ranks 



His gay battalion ; as one man they move. 



Step after step ; their ^ize the same, their arms, 



Far gleaming, dart the same united blaze ; 



Eeviewing generals his merit own. 



How regular ! how just ! And all his cares 



Are well repaid, if mighty George approve. 



So model thou thy pack, if honour touch 



Thy generous soul, and the world's just applause. 



But although he had his fixed hunting days, George II. 

 had very little complaisance for other people who wished 

 to go away from London for their hunting. Lord Hervey 

 tells us that when the king got back from Hanover 

 in November, 1735, nothing English suited him ; no Eng- 

 lish horses were fit to be ridden or driven ; no English 

 coachman could drive, no English jockey ride. The men, 

 he said, only talked of their dull politics, the women of 

 their ugly clothes. It is true that he had upset himself. 

 Lord Hervey adds, by travelling in ' a violent manner, 

 only for the pleasure of bragging how quick he moved,' 

 but on arriving in London he was annoyed at finding Sir 

 Eobert AValpole gone off to Norfolk for his hunting ' congress,' 

 a thin Court, and a more or less empty town. This — Sir Eobert 

 being away — he put up with rather crossly, as he said no 

 man worked harder than Sir Eobert Walpole, and that his 

 mind wanted rest and his body exercise ; ' but he had no 



' Sir Robert Walpole only took thirty days' holiday in the year, ten in 

 August and twenty in November, when he entertained a large hunting party at 

 Houghton. 



