TRANSACTIONS 
OF THE 
HERTFORDSHIRE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
i. 
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 
FIELD SPORTS AND THEIR BEARING ON THE NATIONAL 
CHARACTER. 
By the President, the Eight Honourable the Earl of Clarendon. 
Delivered at the. Annual Meeting , 21 st of February, 1890, at Watford. 
Ladies and (Gentlemen,— 
"When I look at the list of past Presidents of the Hertfordshire 
Natural History Society and the prominent position which they 
occupy in the world of science and art, I must confess that I 
approach the task which falls to my lot to-night with a considerable 
amount of diffidence, for I am alive to the fact that, whereas those 
who have preceded me in the important office I hold have been able 
to treat and to diagnose the subjects they have chosen for discussion 
in a philosophical manner and with a full knowledge of all the 
matters relating to and which bear upon the particular topic they 
may have selected, I can offer you nothing to-night save a few 
practical remarks which are the offspring of a participation in and 
observation of the field sports and pastimes of England. 
The great Duke of Wellington is supposed to have said that the 
battle of Waterloo was won in the playing-grounds of our public 
schools and in the hunting-fields of Great Britain, and although 
neither proficiency in the games of cricket and football, nor a 
thorough knowledge of “venerie,” is of itself likely to produce in 
after life a skilful tactician in war, yet it undoubtedly creates that 
spirit of emulation, that desire to excel, that promptitude in action, 
that fertility of resource and the application thereof to the exigencies 
of the moment, and that determination to overcome obstacles, which 
have in so many cases led to the Field Marshal’s baton and the 
VOL. VI.—PART I. 1 
