16 THE KEEPERS BOOK 



science, varying under the exigencies of sense and 

 experience. 



The mention of certain famed authorities on matters 

 of sport leads us to observe how little advantage has 

 been taken of the literature of sport by the gamekeeper 

 class. No doubt the keen and intelligent master puts 

 his keepers in possession of the ideas he has accumu- 

 lated from books, but this is not in itself an absolutely 

 satisfactory state of affairs. Keepers should be en- 

 couraged to read for themselves ; in some cases to 

 correct their own opinions, and in others to add to their 

 own extensive knowledge. Many keepers are apt to 

 despise books on sport as the writings of mere theorists, 

 and to shun them accordingly. It would be as well for 

 them to understand that this is an error of the first 

 magnitude. Nothing is more fortunate for sport than 

 that its literature emanates from some of its most practi- 

 cal exponents, and it was this very fact that deterred 

 the present writers, for a time, from going to press with 

 the present volume, for up till now there has been no 

 valuable work on sport that has not been written by a 

 great sportsman. An analogous remark cannot be made 

 of other branches of literature, and this fact should up- 

 set the prejudice amongst keepers against that which 

 they regard as mere book learning. It will be found 

 that most masters are only too delighted to lend to their 

 keepers such books as the volumes of the Fur, Feather, 

 and Fin series, the volumes of the Badminton Library 

 dealing with shooting, the Encyclopedia of Sport, and 



