176 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES. 



offence, to remind the Rev. William Henry 

 Herbert and his followers we ask Forrester's 

 pardon if we have inadvertently confounded him 

 with the sporting clergy to remind these gen- 

 tlemen, we repeat, that it is not exactly in char- 

 acter to prate too much at this season about 

 "western breezes" " torrent rays of mellow, 

 liquid lustre" " gay woodlands" "wreaths of 

 purple light," &c., because, we would gently 

 insinuate, that it is by no means the dreamy 

 skies and scenic glories of an American autumn, 

 which makes it so dear to the partridge shooter, 

 with "hie-away!" and " to-ho !" on his tongue. 

 He has little leisure, we opine, to court a 

 humorous sadness in the sunlight of its golden 

 noons, while his dogs are feathering actively 

 before him, and still less to dwell with rapturous 

 melancholy on the gorgeous dyes of the forest, 

 while marking down the scattered birds in a 

 briar bush, or watching them skim away in a 

 sylvan alley. How, we would in all courtesy 

 ask, how can he stop to seek food for thought in 

 the rustle of a sere maize-leaf, when Ponto is on 

 a trail in the furrow, or how, in the name of Pan 

 and all the wood-nymphs, can he hearken to the 

 whistling of the November blast, when the seduc- 

 tive call of " Bob White," has graver charms for 



