34 STAG-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 



Whig Ministers. The place-hunter, inured ahke to asking 

 favours and to refusals, still flourished. He alwaj's will. But 

 times were changing, and a gold stick was beginning to mean 

 very little more than it looked. 



London, and indeed town life generally, was very popular 

 in the earlier years of the century. On the other hand, 

 ' mere ' was the adjective which seemed to belong of right 

 to country life and country folk. In October, 1705, Mr. 

 Pope writes to Mr. Wycherley from Bracknell of their 

 character in Berkshire. Mr. Pope is very much out of 

 humour with things in general, but ' methinks,' he says, 

 ^ these are most in the right who quietly and easily resign 

 themselves over the gentle reign of dulness.' Then he comes 

 to the hunting men of the district, ' a sort of modest, inof- 

 fensive people who neither have sense nor pretend to any, but 

 enjoy a jovial sort of dulness. They are commonly known in 

 the world by the name of honest, civil gentlemen. They live 

 much as they ride — at random— a kind of hunting life, 

 pursuing with earnestness and hazards something not worth 

 the catching,' Lord Chesterfield's letters to his son 

 abound in slighting references to these honest civil gentlemen. 

 Tested by his standard of breeding and propriety, he has the 

 least sympathy of ail with fox-hunters. A good-natured 

 fox-hunter, he says, may, of course, be ' intentionally civil,' 

 but at the best he can only mean well. Capitals, which he 

 likes extremely, are the only places to live in. There are 

 only three capitals — London, Eome, and Paris — and London 

 is the only possible one. The smaller men followed suit. 

 Thus Dr. Warner, George Selwyn's chaplain, happening to 

 arrive at Leicester in the race time, thinks it right to 

 lament the poor show made by the country squires. ' God 

 help them,' he says, ' with their triple bands and triple 

 buckles to keep in their no-brain,' and he is disgusted at 

 recognising a friend (Colonel Guise, of Highnam) with his hat 



