X PREFACE. 



when desirous of jumping over an obstacle. Other- 

 wise, I am as much pleased with hunting a mouse 

 or rat, iishing for a gudgeon or perch, — when 

 no other pastime is to be had, — as I used to be when 

 a boy ; and this fondness for the most trivial sport 

 I treasure, for it would be melancholy to find that, 

 one by one, the humours of youth were departing. 

 Enough, alas ! will depart, whether we like it or not, 

 that once rendered life agreeable : I therefore bid the 

 aging and aged, as the might of their limbs leaves 

 them, to cling, if they can, to the calm contemplation 

 of nature ; to the singing-bird, the flower, and the 

 fossil. To see an old beau, with a bald head bobbing 

 about like an apple on the sea, or a dreadful wig, 

 dancing, anxious to leave the ball before day-light 

 and the growth of the white stubble on his chin con- 

 trasts with the deadly hue of his stained and blue- 

 tinted Avhiskers, — that " ruling passion, strong in 

 death," — used to be to me, as a young man, so disgust- 

 ing, that, long before I had a white hair in my head, 

 I resolved such a sin should never be laid at my 

 door. 



In concluding this Preface, which has already car- 

 ried me, perhaps, too far, I hope the rising generation 

 of sportsmen will take this advice : Never to neglect 

 any graceful accomplishment, either of mind or body ; 

 never to let the pleasures of the field, the forest, or 

 the river override or obliterate the nobler ambitions 

 of life. My ambition in that phase has, perhaps, 

 been ruthlessly thwarted and strangled ; but let that 

 pass. A gentleman, by the enjoyment of any sport, 

 from the horse-race and cock-fight to the boxing- 

 match, may be the chivalrous knight and gentleman 

 still, and remain unsullied by the people he sees, and 



