xxii INTRODUCTION 



These Tours, written in the freshness and fulness of vigour, were 

 probably the happiest of Nimrod's productions, and established the 

 celebrity of his name. They constitute a mine of wealth in the 

 direction indicated, the historical annals of the Chase ; .and for the 

 remainder of his career and writings, " Nimrod " was perforce 

 thrown back largely upon these resources. These chronicles must 

 be recognized as an epitome of the noble science at its bravest. It 

 was part of the spirited proprietor of the Simrting Magazine's 

 original speculation that the Tours should be collected and published 

 in a separate volume. As the financial results proved somewhat 

 disastrous — Nimrod retiring to France from prudential motives ; and 

 the proprietor of the mag. finishing his career; and "several 

 other causes unnecessary to particularize" supervening, that 

 intention was not carried into effect till after an interval of ten 

 years; when, in 1835, "Nimrod's Hunting Tours" were modestly 

 issued in a collected form, without illustrations or embellish- 

 ments, by M. A. Pittman, Warwick Square. Curiously enough, 

 this unpretending volume is comparatively little known, and 

 rarely met with in any form, even in booksellers' catalogues ; 

 and while, in the present day, the current interest in the early 

 chronicles of sport has caused many of Nimrod's later writings 

 to be re-issued in more attractive forms, — his magnum oinis 

 has remained obscure, and almost a shadowy tradition, outside 

 the pages of the rare and now most costly sets of the old Si)orting 

 Magazine. 



" Nimrod's writings," says a contemporary expert (R. S. Surtees), 

 in a memoir of his eminent rival and ancient colleague, "were 

 eminently serviceable to the Sporting Magazine, though undoubtedly 

 attended with a heavy expense ; which, however, with judicious 

 management, might have been modified, and his services retained 

 with advantage to himself and to the proprietor. Such, however, 

 was not the case ; and after much bickering with the proprietor of 

 the magazine, he left Beaurepaire House, and took up his abode at 

 Calais. From this time the less fortunate part of Nimrod's life may 

 be dated ; the materials of his further writings being henceforth — as 

 regards the sporting materials, at least — drawn from his Tours and 

 previous experience." 



