INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



pickled salmon and Yarmouth bloaters his in- 

 tercourse with game, to an autumnal brace of 

 birds and bread sauce, and you discover him 

 shaping a pin into the "weak invention ' of a hook, 

 or, armed with a pop-gun, giving token of the 

 spirit which presently shall move him up to the 

 blue Highlands and the purple Moors, 



Where the hunter of deer, and the warrior, trode 

 To his hills, that encircle the sea." 



The pastimes of stream and woodland, cham- 

 pain and valley, are the characteristic exercises 

 of many of the noblest properties of man's nature. 

 They call into exertion courage, perseverance, 

 sagacity, strength, activity, caution : they are the 

 wholesome machinery of excitement : of hope 

 and fear, joy and sorrow, regret and rejoicing: 

 they are at once the appetite and the food of 

 manhood. The progress of science and civiliza- 

 tion has taken from the pursuit of field sports 

 many of the natural and moral ills to which they 

 were once exposed. Instead of being antagonist 

 meanings, the sportsman and the gentleman are 

 become synonymous terms. It is an excellent 

 thing that the youth of England may now adopt 

 the hale bold pastimes, which have ever been 



