EDITOR'S PREFACE 



In introducing " Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour " to the acquaint- 

 ance of niy friends of the reading, as well as the riding world of 

 America, I have a few preliminary words to say ; since, although in 

 some respects it may be considered as a genuine sporting book, and 

 is undoubtedly the work of a thorough and genuine sportsman, horse- 

 man, and foxhunter, one to the manner born, and familiar with the 

 saddle and the spur as much, at least, as with the inkhorn and the 

 quill, it yet differs materially and widely from any volume which I 

 have ushered, at any time, to the notice of the public, whether in the 

 quality of editor or author. 



In the first place, it is not, as it does not profess to be, either a 

 veritable description and chronicle of sports and sporting adventures 

 in the field, combined with the natural history and habits of the 

 animals of chase, whether pursuers or pursued, and conveying in- 

 formation to the reader as well as maxims to the sportsman — or yet 

 a fictitious story, embracing the same features, aspiring to convey the 

 same sort of information, and at the same time to enlist something of 

 the feelings of the reader, by introducing an incidental romantic 

 interest, as of real life, somewhat analogous to that of the modern 

 novel of society. 



Nothing of this sort is " Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour ; " nor at 

 any of these objects does it aim. It is rather a series of caste pictures 

 of the most graphic kind, of character-paintings so droll and ludicrous 

 that, but for their inimitable verisimilitude, their perfect naturalness 

 and the breadth of their details and force of their colorings, they 



