CHAPTER III. 

 BIOGRAPHIES IN A NUTSHELL 



I AM afraid that to many of my readers the 

 last chapter must have proved tedious. But 

 statistics always are tedious in my opinion. The 

 investigation of them has often landed me in a 

 veritable arsenal of archaeology, when I was longing 

 to write about the magic-lantern slides of memory. 

 The necessity of antiquarian research has been 

 brought home to me on many occasions, and in many 

 different ways, but few people know the difficulties 

 of the literary sporting resurrectionist. I allude to 

 these difficulties because, though I have made every 

 endeavour to make this book an amusing book of 

 reference, I am aware that I must have made some 

 mistakes ; but the following anecdotal memoirs are, 

 to the best of my belief, authentic. There may be 

 many sins of omission in regard to them, but I have 

 taken every precaution in my power to see that there 

 should be no sins of commission. There are many 

 giants of the hunting-field, whom I ought to have 

 H 97 



