LIFE OF THE AUTHOR xxv 



best he could, and welcomed any opportunity 

 for a walk or a scull which he could get — or 

 rather make, for the vast majority of his open-air 

 jaunts he did in overtime taken before or after 

 a hard day's work. 



With his wealth of open-air lore he naturally 

 came to interlude among the strictly " Sporting 

 Notions " country notes and descriptions of way- 

 faring by river, road, and footpath, such as only 

 he could write, and these came to form a feature 

 of the paper. They attained a spontaneous 

 popularity widely beyond expectations, '' no one 

 more surprised than the striker," as he used to 

 say. People who not only knew nothing of 

 ** sport " in the technical sense, but who dis- 

 approved of it, took in the Referee year after 

 year, as their letters testified, in order to enjoy 

 ** Mr Notions' " country writing. To all sorts 

 and conditions of men and women it seemed to 

 appeal equally. He was looked upon as Richard 

 Jefferies' successor, and the literary descendant 

 of White of Selborne and William Cobbett, while 

 his originality was praised by all. The contents 

 of this book are selected from his later open-air 

 writings for the Referee, The easy, cheery 

 vivid style that appealed to every one never 

 betrays at what cost the writing was sometimes 

 done. Severe illness might oblige my father to 

 dictate '' Sporting Notions " instead of writing it 



