PREFACE 



TO 



THE FIRST AND SECOND EDITIONS. 



" SHALL a poaching, hunting, hawking 'squire presume 

 to trespass on the fields of literature ? " These words, or 

 others of similar import, I remember to have encountered 

 in one of our most distinguished reviews. They ring still 

 in my ears, and fill me with apprehension as it is; but 

 they would alarm me much more if I had attempted to put 

 my foot within the sacred enclosures alluded to. These 

 are too full of spring-traps for my ambition, and I see 

 " This is to give notice" written in very legible characters, 

 and take warning accordingly. 



Literature? Heaven help us! far from it, I have no 

 such presumption ; I have merely attempted to describe a 

 very interesting pursuit as nearly as possible in the style 

 and spirit in which I have always seen it carried on. Ten 

 years' successful practice in the forest of Atholl have en- 

 abled me to enter into all the details that are connected 

 with deer-stalking. That it is a chase which throws all our 

 other field-sports far in the back-ground, and, indeed, makes 

 them appear wholly insignificant, no one, who has been 

 initiated in it, will attempt to deny. The beautiful motions 



A 4 



