THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



Idleness is the parent of all vice, both in man and beast ; and, 

 when I had done my day's work, I was seldom inclined for any 

 mischief. A newspaper, or a book, with one glass of grog, 

 after my supper, and then the night-cap, formed my almost 

 daily course.' 



'But, Frank,' said Lord Edmonston, 'with these studs of 

 yours, botli for the field and road, when will you be able to 

 find time to comply with the wishes of your late uncle and 

 father, and take a tour on the continent ? You will find good 

 account in it. You need not adopt the peculiarities of one 

 country or another ; but, rely on it, travelling is very essential 

 to men who are to live in the world : it not only enlarges the 

 mind and improves the understanding, but it frees it from 

 prejudices, which is a great point gained. In the last page of 

 a diary kept by my father, when he went the grand tour, is 

 this sentence : — " I am truly glad that I have taken the advice 

 of my father, though sorely against my will, to take this tour. 

 It has dispelled prejudices, short-sightedness, and caprice, to 

 which I was previously addicted. With change of place, I 

 found my ideas were changed, as also my opinions and feelings ; 

 and, having reflected on much that I saw and heard, I returned 

 to my own country a more charitable and a better disposed 

 man than I had left it." ' 



' I have not made up my mind on this subject,' replied 

 Raby, ' It is true, my uncle suggested a tour on the conti- 

 nent, but perceiving I did not exactly respond to his sugges- 

 tion, he no longer pressed it. I have conversed with several 

 of my friends, senior of course to myself, who have been 

 abroad for longer or shorter periods, and they assured me that 

 they all suffered during the first half of the time from what the 

 French call la rtialadie du pays, the result of their regrets for 

 having left their homes and friends ; and, during the second, 

 from a perpetual longing to return. To those young men who 

 labour under a sense of weariness and satiety of the good 

 things they enjoy in England, and who have no active pursuits, 

 a sojourn abroad may be an agreeable and healthful change ; 

 but by a person, who, like myself, has a pursuit for every day in 

 the year — \yhose wish is to live the life of a country gentleman 

 and a sportsman, and who has no desire to breathe the un- 

 wholesome and somewhat tainted atmosphere of courts, little 

 advantage is to be gained by it.' 



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