FOREWORD 



TO THE FIRST EDITION 



During the century that has just closed English- 

 men have stood foremost in all branches of sport, 

 at least so far as the chase has been carried on by 

 those who have not followed it as a profession. 

 Here and there in the world whole populations have 

 remained hunters, to whom the chase was part of 

 their regular work — delightful and adventurous, 

 but still work. Such were the American back- 

 woodsmen and their successors of the great plains 

 and the Rocky Mountains ; such were the South 

 African Boers ; and the mountaineers of Tyrol, if 

 not coming exactly within this class, yet treated 

 the chase both as a sport and a profession. But 

 disregarding these wild and virile populations, and 

 considering only the hunter who hunts for the 

 sake of the hunting, it must be said of the 

 Englishman that he stood pre-eminent throughout 

 the nineteenth century as a sportsman for sport's 

 sake. Not only was fox-hunting a national pas- 

 time, but in every quarter of the globe English- 

 men predominated among the adventurous spirits 

 who combined the chase of big game with bold 



