INTRODUCTION 



WILLIAM SCROPE'S fresh, spirited way of describing 

 scenes and characters in which he found his delight, 

 is not the only temptation for including a second 

 work from his hand in the limited list of the 

 "Sportsman's Library." There are other writers 

 of the past Lloyd, W. H. Maxwell, Tom Stoddart, 

 Wildrake, the Druid, etc. not yet represented 

 in the series, which can scarcely be considered 

 thoroughly representative without them. It was 

 hard to put them aside, yet Scrope has qualities 

 which distinguish him from almost all other writers 

 on sport. He never degenerated into a hack. If 

 Dr. Johnson was right in affirming that none but 

 a blockhead ever wrote except for gain, Scrope 

 furnished a singular exception to the rule. He had 

 no occasion to supplement his sufficient income by 

 the labour of his pen. Born in 1772, of an ancient 

 and once famous house, he succeeded his father, 

 the Rev. Richard Scrope, D.D., in 1787, as owner 

 of Castle Combe in Wiltshire, part of the old 

 Scrope estates, and in his person, in 1852, ended 

 the male line of the Lord Scropes of Bolton. 1 



Having acquired a fastidious taste in literature, 



1 The name is pronounced as if written Scroop. 

 b 



