QUILLS AND FEATHERS. 239 



a dictionary of recreation and amusement, with copper plates 

 of hunting, coursing, and shooting. This bears date 1792, 

 and, at a time when there were few such, must have been 

 delightful reading indeed. Such miscellanies were then in 

 vogue, as the " Gentleman's Recreation," in four parts 

 viz. hunting, hawking, fowling, fishing; also the method 

 of breeding and managing a hunting horse (1721) ; or the 

 " Sporting Review," a monthly chronicle of the turf, the 

 chase, and rural sports in all their varieties, edited by 

 " Craven," with numerous illustrations (some coloured) by 

 Alken and others. This contains complete articles on racing, 

 fishing, coursing, hunting, shooting, coaching, yachting, etc. 



Some of these occasionally come to light in old book boxes, 

 and the bibliographic ardour of the age fixes a value upon 

 them above their worth. Daniel's "Rural Sports," hunting, 

 angling, shooting, fowling, etc., with numerous beautiful 

 engravings by J. Scott, in four vols., roy. 8vo, and dated 1812, 

 deserves mention as a successful example of the pleasant- 

 penned lexicographer, who thought nothing of summarizing 

 a dozen sports which nowadays would be relegated to as 

 many individuals. He is appealed to less as a guide to-day, 

 than as a historic sign-post in the annals of sporting ; and 

 any one who would know how game was shot or hunted, 

 while the century was still in bud, takes down their Daniel, 

 and rarely in vain. His contemporary, Thomas, wrote a 

 " Complete Sportsman's Companion," with descriptions 

 of the various kinds of dogs, their breeding and rearing; also 

 instructions for shooting grouse, pheasants, and snipe, illus- 

 trated with four pretty etchings of shooting scenes by Howitt 

 (1820). Maxwell's " Field Book of Sports and Pastimes 

 of the United Kingdom " is a volume full of every subject 

 connected with games and sports, with numerous woodcuts. 



These, however, are but stars of the second and fourth 

 magnitude in the firmament of our library walls, compared 

 to that brilliant luminary, Colonel Hawker. His " Hand- 

 book for Young Sportsmen" is a priceless volume, in spite 



