Foreword 



of identifying themselves with the ordinary 

 routine of country life, and that they perhaps 

 may be glad of a hint. 



I do not mean to infer for one moment that 

 a man should make hunting the sole object of 

 his life. There are those who have to do so, 

 and to them may the business part of the sport 

 be left. But anyone who hunts will be all the 

 better for taking an intelligent interest in the 

 details of the sport from year's end to year's 

 end, and for trying to see the peculiar beauties 

 which belong to it at different times. And I 

 would point out that it is far better to follow one 

 sport intelligently and well than to fritter time 

 away in half a dozen pastimes without being 

 able to attain a decent knowledge of any of them. 



To know one sport thoroughly well, to un- 

 derstand it and be able to appreciate something 

 beyond the mere excitement of its most thrilling 

 moments, goes to the making up of a sportsman, 

 of such a man as Browning wrote about. Such 

 knowledge also remains a joy for ever when a 

 man can no longer take that active part in sport 

 that he was wont to do. 



5 



