PREFACE TO NEW EDITION. 



The success which has followed the publication of 

 the two first editions of " Sport " encourages the 

 hope that a new and less costly edition will be even 

 more widely read and appreciated. The book may 

 be regarded as a defence and justification of the 

 amusements of an English country gentleman, an 

 exposition of the ignorance and misstatements of 

 many who have treated the same subject without 

 knowledge or experience, and a condemnation of 

 some few who have written with the direct intention 

 of throwing discredit upon those " Sports " in which 

 the English people have always excelled, and which 

 are still in some degree open to all who care to 

 enjoy them. If the Author has succeeded in proving 

 that these " Sports " are each in its different way 

 deservedly popular — not necessarily cruel nor in any 

 want of legislative interference — the main object 

 with which he wrote has been attained. 



December 14, 1SS5. 



