2 ENGLISH SPORTSMEN. 



cultivate all matters pertaining to rural sports, of 

 whatsoever kind they may be, but particularly 

 hunting, shooting, and angling, with that perse- 

 vering ardour, comprising passionate study and 

 active practice, which leads to perfection. In 

 their efforts to acquire the surest, most amusing, 

 most health-giving, and, I may say, most elegant 

 modes of pursuing and capturing their game, be 

 it the produce of field or flood, they call to their 

 aid several ancillary studies, amongst which stands 

 prominent one of the pleasantest of all, viz. that 

 of the natural history of animals, and of other 

 living things ranking not so high in the scale of 

 creation. The hunter studies the habits of horse 

 and dog, and of the ferce naturce he pursues with 

 them, the fowler of the birds of the air, and the 

 fisherman of the fish of the water. The general 

 sportsman, a practical naturalist, if I may use the 

 epithet, studies the habits of all. Hence know- 

 ledge, skill, and success ; hence the accomplished 

 sportsman, rarely found except amongst the best 

 types of Englishmen, whether of high or low 

 degree. 



Though angling has been jeered at more than 

 any other sporting practice, still no other subject 

 connected with field-sports has been more minutely 

 and extensively written upon, No sporting writer 

 is so generally known as Izaak Walton, and his 

 c Complete Angler ' has earned for him an im- 



