xiv INTRODUCTION. 



Frenchman would do all these things, and might be 

 no bad fellow after all. It would be his way of doing 

 it. His notion would be to make use of an advantage 

 when an opportunity offered. He would think it folly 

 to give the hare a chance of running- when he could 

 shoot her sitting ; he would make an excellent dish of 

 all the trout he could snare ; and as to hitting his man 

 when down, he would think it madness to allow him 

 to get up again until he had put him hors de combat 

 by jumping on him. Their notions of sporting and 

 ours, then, widely differ ; they take every advantage, 

 while we give every advantage ; they delight in the 

 certainty of killing, while our pleasure consists in the 

 chance of the animal escaping. 



I would always encourage the love of sport in a 

 lad ; guided by its true spirit of fair play, it is a feel- 

 ing that will make him above doing a mean thing in 

 every station of life, and will give him real feelings of 

 humanity. I have had great experience in the cha- 

 racters of thorough sportsmen, who are generally 

 straightforward, honourable men, who would scorn to 

 take a dirty advantage of man or animal. In fact, all 

 real sportsmen that 1 have met have been tender- 

 hearted men — who shun cruelty to an animal, and are 

 easily moved by a tale of distress. 



