Connections

Much of my working life has been spent in the City of London.

Walking to my office through Leadenhall Market, I used to pass a shop which sold clothing and equipment for hunting. I was intrigued by the presence of this ancient pursuit at the very heart of the city, and used to visit the shop and study its stock.

I was especially interested in the ties. Printed with images of game and dogs, they brought the iconography of the chase from the field into the office. There, today’s hunters turned traders sport icons of their former prey as motifs on their silken ties while they pursue their current quarry, money.

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But the city is very old, and it has a long memory.

High above St Helen’s Place, a quiet courtyard off Bishopsgate, the golden head of a stag crowns the weather vane which tops the Leathersellers’ Hall. Founded by royal charter in 1444, the Leathersellers’ Guild is one of the oldest in the city. When the wind is in the right direction, the stag’s head looks west, its gaze reaching far beyond the city boundaries.

Far west of the city’s square mile, but still within London, lies Richmond Park, site of the ancient royal hunting grounds, where deer still roam free. Somehow, it seemed to me, those city gents in their patterned ties hurrying beneath the golden stag’s head still manifested, however obliviously, that ancient connection between hunting, power and wealth.