THE SPORTING WORLD. 117 



CHAPTER VI. 



In writing "The Sporting "World," I hope it 

 will be understood that I am not eulogising 

 Sportsmen as paragons of perfection, nor in the 

 aggregate do I mean to represent them as 

 better, more liberal, or more agreeable than 

 other men. I am quite content with repre- 

 senting them as not worse ; an opinion that the 

 non-sporting community, I am sorry to say, are 

 very prone to entertain. They are apt to think 

 that a man not directing his means and ener- 

 gies to some direct business must be a useless 

 being. The only utility they give him credit 

 for is in some particular in which his position 

 and pursuits tend to the encouragement of that 



