VI. PREFACE. 



sporting writer, well known through his pseudonym 

 1 The Druid :' was the son of a cotton manufacturer, 

 and was educated at Rugby under Dr. Arnold. 

 He contributed largely to the Press on sporting 

 and agricultural matters, but is now chiefly 

 remembered for his admirable memoirs and descrip- 

 tions of country life in ' Post and Paddock' (1856) ; 

 'Silk and Scarlet' (1858); 'Scott and Sebright' 

 (1862); 'Field and Fern' (1865); 'Saddle and 

 Sirloin' (1870); and also for his treatise on 'The 

 Law of the Farm' (1858; fourth edition, 1879)." 



Little surprise need be felt that the " Dictionary 

 of National Biography," edited at first by Mr. 

 Leslie Stephen, and now by Mr. Sidney Lee, 

 should omit all mention of " The Druid." From 

 the first commencement of that monumental 

 work down to the present hour, when it is more 

 than half completed, sport of all kinds has, as a 

 rule, been insufficiently treated, or altogether 

 ignored. It is to be regretted that the editor or 

 editors did not select for the task of dealing with 

 open-air sports some expert who was as fond of 

 them and as capable of doing justice to their most 

 conspicuous votaries as Mr. Joseph Knight is of 

 commemorating actors, actresses, and dramatists. 

 This is all the more to be regretted, because the 

 lives of the three Chiffneys (not Chifneys) have 

 been well handled by Mr. G. C. Boase. Surely, how- 

 ever, Elnathan Flatman, commonly called " Nat," 



