4 THE NOBLH SCIENCE. 



once present itself, that " (jui s excuse s' accuse" with 

 regard to my having joined the class of imitatores, 

 which, from our school-boy days, we have held as 

 " servum peciis," and it will be too evident, I fear, that 

 I have never read one line of the several works of a 

 similar tendency and purport which have appeared in 

 my time, with the exception of Beckford, whom " not 

 to know argues oneself unknown." 



When I say that, although I have of course heard of, 

 I have never seen Colonel Cooke's work, or even, to 

 my knowledge, an extract from his " Observations upon 

 Hunting," I need not add my conviction that it would 

 be far better for my object if every line of it were 

 committed to my memory ; but still I will arrogate for 

 my bantling, with all its imperfections on its head, the 

 merit, if any there be, of originality, if not in conception » 

 at least in arrangement, of idea ; and in addressing it 

 more especially to my friends and acquaintance in my 

 own provincial district, I shall hope to secure one portion 

 of favourable, if not of partial, critics. 



If I am accused of quoting too freely from Greek, 

 R-oman, or British Poets, wherever the aptness of the 

 quotation is admitted, no apology need be made for 

 having endeavoured to convey, in the beauty of lan- 

 guage, ideas, which could not otherwise be half so 

 well expressed. I hope to escape the imputation of 

 having affected a scholastic pedantry, to which I have 



