INTRODUCTION. 27 



stop a cock in a July brake, or land a four-pounder, with- 

 out a gaff, on a single gut. 



It is a fact undeniable, and there be many yet alive, 

 beside myself, who know it, that, when T. Cypress, jun., 

 was inditing those exquisite bits of natural and sporting 

 humorism, his Fire-island-ana, and other similar morsels 

 of unsurpassed simplicity and art, which and which alone 

 have made his name to be remembered ; it was under the 

 strictest seal of secrecy that he communicated his produc- 

 tions to the ftivored few, who were allowed to introduce 

 them to the world, it was in fear and trembling, in some 

 sort, that he saw himself in print ; and with a firm con- 

 viction that, if it should be once discovered, that he, a 

 practising counsellor of high standing in New York, was 

 actually guilty of the authorship of genre sketches, on 

 sporting subjects, second, if second only as I think not 

 second, but superior to Elia Lamb's best Essays, " Othel- 

 lo's occupation" were done for ever. That to be an author 

 first, and then a lover of field-sports, must be the " deep 

 damnation" of any New York lawyer, though he were a 

 Blackstone himself, and a Coke upon him. 



At that time no man, however fine a scholar, however 

 brilliant an artist, was held altogether reputable as an 

 associate, or entirely right in his mind, if he were not 

 wholly and solely devoted to business; and the only 

 business, which was esteemed business, in the eyes of the 

 wise men of Gotham, was that of making and hoarding 

 money. 



In many respects matters have mended since that 

 time. It has been discovered that there are other uses for 



