EAST LONDON 199 



it is a far cry to Epping Forest and the country, 

 most of the men being very poor and having 

 some occupation which takes up most of their 

 time, the decline of Victoria Park as a train- 

 ing ground for their birds is a great loss to 

 them. 



I have tried, but without success, to believe 

 that there was something more than the sport- 

 ing or gambling spirit in the East-ender's passion 

 for the chaffinch. Is it not probable, I have 

 asked myself, that this short swift lyric, the 

 musical cry of a heart overflowing with gladness, 

 yet with a ring of defiance in it, a challenge to 

 every, other chaffinch within hearing, has some 

 quality in it which stirs a human hearer too, 

 even an East-ender, more than any other bird 

 sound, and suddenly wakes that ancient wild 

 nature that sleeps in us, the vanished sensations 

 of gladness and liberty ? I am reluctantly com- 

 pelled to answer that I think not. The East- 

 ender admires the chaffinch because he is a 

 sporting bird — a bird that affords good sport ; 

 just as the man who has been accustomed to 

 shoot starlings from traps has a peculiar fond- 

 ness for that species, and as the cock-fighter 

 admires the gamecock above all feathered 



