INTRODUCTION 



More than eight centuries have rolled by since the attention 

 of that keen sportsman, William our Conqueror, was drawn 

 to the excellent hunting to be enjoyed in the land watered 

 by the Avon, the Stom', and the Test, which caused him to 

 mark off the New Forest as a royal chase, and ensure its 

 preservation by laws of merciless severity. Never, since that 

 distant time, has Hampshire lost its sporting pre-eminence 

 among the southern counties ; in spite of changing fashions 

 and altered tastes, it still remains a perfect microcosm of 

 English field sports. Fresh developments, indeed, have only 

 served to bring out new points of excellence in this favoured 

 county, for it is here that the latest refinement of modern 

 sport — angling for trout with the dry fly — had its origin and 

 may be enjoyed in the greatest perfection. The Normans, 

 perhaps, had no time or mind for mere games ; war, and the 

 mimicry of war, were their only pastimes, except the sport of 

 kings. But with the establishment of civil peace and in the 

 leisure afforded by growing wealth and security, Hampshire 

 men applied themselves to excel in games of strength and 

 skill. Hambledon disputes with Mitcham, in Surrey, the 

 honour of having been the cradle of the premier British game, 

 cricket ; and the world admires the ease with which, in these 

 latter days, the men of Hampshire have applied themselves 

 to golf. 



Little wonder, then, that such a county, so rich in 

 resources, and such a people, so ready to turn them to 

 account, should have produced an abundant sporting literature. 

 When the project of the Sportsmcai's Library was about to be 



