PUBLISHER'S PREFACE, 



MEMOIR OF THE ^^ OLD BUSHMAN." 



We sincerely regret to inform our readers that during the time 

 arrangements were being made for the publication of " Sporting 

 Sketches/' an accident fatal in its results deprived the Author of his 

 life, and so prevented his anticipated pleasure of revising this work 

 through the press. It fell, however, into sympathetic hands, and it 

 is hoped that the public will kindly excuse under the circumstances 

 any shortcomings. By the kind permission of the proprietors of 

 the "Field" Newspaper, we insert a Memoir of the "Old Bush- 

 man." 



Horace William Wheelwright, known as a constant con- 

 tributor to the columns of this journal under the nom deplume of 

 the "Old Bushman," was the second son of the Rev. C. A. 

 Wheelwright, rector of Tansor, Northamptonshire, and of Castle 

 and Little Bytham, in Lincolnshire, and prebend of Lincoln Cathe- 

 dral. He was born at Tansor on January 5th, 18 15, and died on 

 November i6th, 1865, in the fiftieth year of his age. He was 

 educated at the Reading Grammar School, under Dr. Valpy. He 

 was brought up to the profession of the law, and practised as a 

 solicitor at Thrapston, Northamptonshire, between 1843 and 1847. 

 From a boy, however, he expressed a strong disinclination to "settle" 



