314 

 APPENDIX. 



LETTER, 

 ADDRESSED TO THE EDITOR OF THE OLD SPORTING MAGAZINE, 



ON THE SUBJECT OF 



IMAGINARY DAMAGE DONE BY RIDING OVER WHEAT, 



And referred to at Page 6. 



" Sir, — I take the liberty of offering a few observations 

 upon trespass, a subject affecting the sportsman and the farmer 

 — two parties naturally so dependant upon each other, that, 

 setting aside the good-will which every man is, or ought to be, 

 desirous of maintaining amongst his neighbours, a variance be- 

 tween the sportsmen and farmers of any county must prove 

 equally injurious to the interests of both. Wilful trespass is 

 not, nor ever will be, the attribute of a true sportsman ; and I 

 must confess, that it is with astonishment I perceive so many 

 farmers in profound ignorance as to this important point. Many 

 there are, it is true, in Leicestershire and in some of the provin- 

 cials, of the more enlightened : but will it be believed, that no 

 later than November last, while hunting in the Hambledon 

 country, I had what was termed ' a row' with a purse-proud 

 curmudgeon* — a disgrace to the name of agriculturist — who 

 abused me in no measured terms, merely upon the supposition 

 of my having ridden across Ms wheat ? It so happened that, to 

 my certain knowledge, as I could also prove, I had not been 

 upon his or any other man's wheat : hounds were not running ; 

 and had I at such a time, by riding over his wheat, given him 

 cause, in his ignorance, to imagine an injury, which would have 

 haunted him till next harvest, in the vision of so many ears less 

 to market, it would, in my mind, have amounted to trespass. 



" But, trusting that there are but few of his class in the king- 

 dom, permit me to quote, for the benefit of sporting farmers at 

 large (as also for that of my pugnacious old friend, */ he can 

 read), two striking instances relative to the imaginary injury of 



» Dr. Johnson was at much pains to find the derivation of this word, 

 " Curmudgeon" — it is from the French, " Cceur-mechant." 



