DEDICATED 



BY PERMISSION TO 

 MINETY HOUSE, WILTS. 



My Dear Sir, 



In asking your permission to dedicate 

 my little book to you, I did so on three grounds : 

 first, that I know you to have been a thorough 

 sportsman for nearly half a century. It is not 

 every man who is equally at home across country, 

 with the gun, and the fishing-rod ; but I know 

 that I may say so of yourself without a particle 

 of flattery. 



The man who could forge his way to the front 

 over the walls of the Cotswolds, or the strongly- 

 fenced and deep clay of the far-famed Braydon 

 country, on a "Jovial," or creep, and have the best 

 of it, on a mule, who could do all but climb a tree^ 

 needs no pen of mine to proclaim a fox-hunter. 



Of your quickness in killing a cock I might 

 quote an instance, and your zeal as a fisherman 



