Manual of British Rural Sports

. ' '• PREFACE. C'l y have alluded I have myself be n fully initiated, notnly in their generalfeatures, but in all their more secret operations, which the sportsman isoften inclined to leave to hisgamekeeper or other subordinate; but in the articles on Fishing aii<l Cricket, the reader will do well to consult the pages of the worksabove alluded to, where the details of these sports are more fully entered into than the limits of this book will allow. No reference will befound to Boxing, Cock-fighting, orany other illegal amusement, because whatever difference of opinion there may be as to their advantages or otherwise, there ought to be none on thepropriety ofobeying the law of the land; and while that orders their discontinuance, no good sub­ jects have any right to indulge in them. The Illustrations which will be found interspersed through the following pages are most ofthem designedexpressly for this work by Messrs. Wells and Hind, anil engraved with great fidelity and skill by theMessrs. Dalziel andMr. Hodgkin. Of the artistic effect producedby their joint labours, I must leave the public to judge; but of their truth and accuracy as copies of the subjects they profess to embody, I can speak in terms of unqualified approbation. In order to guard against the charge of wholesale plagiarism, it ay be necessary to explain that some of the chapters onthe Training ofMan have been recently published under another signature. In the Department of Natural History, the nomenclature adopted is that ofthe British Museum, by which arrangement the reader may at any time referto that beautiful series of specimens for comparison. With these few explanations of my object inputting together these pages, I must throw myself upon the indulgence of my readers, and trust thatI mayhave as favourable a receptionas on former occasions when I have subscribed myself STONEHENGB. October, IS55,