254 THE SPORTING WORLD. 



to consider why persons who I was quite aware 

 could not know the characteristics of those 

 whose conduct and pursuits they thus unani- 

 mously censured should thus find cause for 

 such decided dislike and censure, I felt they 

 could have no just cause for either ; it then 

 struck me that this total ignorance, as regarded 

 the persons and pursuits they vilified, was the 

 very circumstance that occasioned it, and I 

 determined, so far as my humble efforts could 

 effect it, to remove false conceptions and pro- 

 duce a more wholesome feeling in quarters 

 where I trusted ignorance, but not malice or 

 wilful illiberality, caused the fostering and promul- 

 gating opinions that I regretted to find were 



entertained. 



I am quite aware that the feelings or 

 opinions of such persons as those to whom I 

 allude can in no way affect the sportsman or his 

 pursuits, that they must be in fact, to a certain 

 extent, a matter of perfect indifference to him j he , 



