Excerpt from Wild Sports of the West, Vol. 1 of 2: With Legendary Tales and Local Sketches

Some explanation may be necessary for obtruding upon the public the private details of a sportsman's life, and particularly when the scene of his exploits is laid within "the four seas of Britain." In the customary course of field adventure, few besides the individual concerned are much interested in the successes and disappointments he experiences: and rural sports are, in all their general incidents, so essentially alike, as to render their minute description, almost invariably, a dull and unprofitable record.

Circumstances, however, may occasionally create an interest which in ordinary cases would be wanting. From local connexions, a field almost untrodden by any but himself was opened to the writer of these Sketches. He was thrown into an unfrequented district, with a primitive people to consort with. With some advantages to profit from the accident, a remote and semi-civilized region was offered to his observation; and although within a limited distance of his majesty's mail-coach, a country was thus disclosed as little known to the multitude as the interior of Australasia; and where, excepting some adventurous grouse-shooter, none have viewed its highlands or mingled with its inhabitants.

That the scenic and personal sketches are faithful the reader is assured; some were written on the spot, and others traced from vivid recollection. Those with whom the author shot these wild moors, or fished the waters, will best estimate the fidelity of the descriptions; and me valued friend, though now beneath another sun, will probably recall the days he spent by "fell and flood," and bring to memory those light and joyous nights when he caroused in a mountain bivouac, and rested in a moorland hut.

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