THE Author is desirous of expressing his thanks to Mr. Mowbray Morris for allowing him to print the hitherto unpublished verses given on pages 6 and 7. He also wishes to acknowledge the great courtesy of Mr. E. North Buxton, Verderer of Epping Forest, who most obligingly supplied him with information as to the present numbers of the fallow deer which, thanks to judicious preservation, still inhabit the woodlands into which they were introduced many hundreds of years ago. 452897 UNIV. OF SPORTING DAYS AND SPORTING WAYS THE I HE closing years of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth may be called the "Golden Age" of the man of pleasure who was then a recognised type, much toleration being extended to the most unconventional ways and doings. Sport, often of a somewhat rough description, was the life-long occupation of a large number of people, and not infrequently the meaning of the term was stretched to include much that would to-day seem unalluring, if not positively brutal. London was an altogether different city from the one we now see. Luxury was only for the privileged few, but the populace had a good deal of rough enjoyment of a sort unknown to our more fastidious age. The ordinary conveniences of life, now so perfect, left much to be desired. To begin with, the facilities for locomotion were of a primitive description, the only public vehicles being the old-fashioned hackney coaches, with a pair of horses that never exceeded five miles an hour. There were no omnibuses or hansom cabs, the first of the former having been |