PREFACE. 



THESE Sketches aspire to little more than 

 a delineation of such occurrences as are 

 naturally met with by lovers of the gentle 

 craft. They are endued by the author 

 with a colloquial form and texture, chiefly 

 because he is of opinion that, so habited, 

 they accord better with the spirit of the 

 subject to which they refer. Had it been 

 otherwise, he should not have obtruded 

 upon a mode of composition already pre- 

 occupied by the patriarch Walton, Sir 

 Humphrey Davy, and others. Further 



