NOTE ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS 



Remarkable as has been the increase in vahie of those 

 good old sporting books which the coloured illustrations 

 of that ideal delineator of British sport, Henr}* Aiken, 

 have made so highly popular, it may be referred to as 

 noteworthy that a comparatively modern publication, 

 " The Analysis of the Hunting Field," which made its first 

 appearance nearly sixty years ago, has proportionately out- 

 distanced competition, as regards the prices commanded by 

 fair copies at the present epoch. The original edition has now 

 reached an advanced monetarj' estimation which must agree- 

 ably astonish those collectors who have the good fortune to 

 find a copy in their sporting libraries ; in a word, the 

 " Analysis " has risen to prices which, like the earlier issued 

 " British Field Sports," "The British Preserve," " The Sport- 

 ing Repository" (1822), " The Life of a Sportsman," " Jorrocks's 

 Jaunts and Jollities," " The Life of John Mytton," and other 

 similarh' costly and much sought after publications, are in- 

 teresting to plutocratic collectors, and, in consequence, almost 

 the exclusive privilege of the rich amateur, and, in their "first 

 states," nowadays practically unattainable by the book-lover of 

 limited purse. 



" The Analysis of the Hunting Field," unlike " The Life of a 

 Sportsman," did not owe its enhanced estimation to the wealth 

 of its illustrations; in fact the much priced "first issue" onlj- 

 contained seven coloured plates. But in the famous hand- 

 coloured engravings, Henrj- Aiken had contri\-ed to excel his 



