4 THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



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

 sunilar 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, 

 Roman, 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 

 no pretension ; and that those who may look over (I 

 trust with the intention of overlooking) these and other 

 failings in the following pages, may find them not wholly 

 deficient in a redeeming portion of plainer English. 



I have already stated, that much has been written 

 upon subjects far less important to the good of man 



