A/5 



PREFACE 



TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



SOME explanation may be necessary for obtruding upon 

 the public the private details of a sportsman's life, and 

 particularly when the scene of his exploits is laid within 

 " the four seas of Britain/' In the customary course of 

 field adventure, few besides the individual concerned are 

 much interested in the successes and disappointments he 

 experiences; and rural sports are, in all their general 

 incidents, so essentially alike, as to render their minute 

 description almost invariably a dull and unprofitable 

 record. 



Circumstances, however, may occasionally create an 

 interest which in ordinary cases would be wanting. From 

 local connexions, a field almost untrodden by any but 

 himself, was opened to the writer of these Sketches. He 

 was thrown into an unfrequented district, with a primitive 

 people to consort with. With some advantages to profit 

 from the accident, a remote and semi- civilized region was 

 offered to his observation ; and although within a limited 

 distance of his Majesty's mail-coach, a country was thus 

 disclosed, as little known to the multitude as the interior 



