_Twenty-five volumes, crown 8vo, 192 pages fully illustrated_
LIFE IN LONDON
COUNTRY LIFE
IN THE HIGHLANDS
SCOTTISH HUMOUR
IRISH HUMOUR
COCKNEY HUMOUR
IN SOCIETY
AFTER DINNER STORIES
IN BOHEMIA
AT THE PLAY
MR. PUNCH AT HOME
ON THE CONTINONG
RAILWAY BOOK
AT THE SEASIDE
MR. PUNCH AFLOAT
IN THE HUNTING FIELD
MR. PUNCH ON TOUR
WITH ROD AND GUN
MR. PUNCH AWHEEL
BOOK OF SPORTS
GOLF STORIES
IN WIG AND GOWN
ON THE WARPATH
BOOK OF LOVE
WITH THE CHILDREN
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Mr. Punch is nothing if not typical of his fellow countrymen in his
interest in sport. If there be any truth in the assertion that
Englishmen are neglecting the more serious affairs of life in their
devotion to all forms of athletic sports, Mr. Punch would seem to be
determined that there shall be no lack of humour in the process; for an
immense proportion of his merry pages have been occupied with the humour
of sport.
Indeed, there is no kind of open-air pastime which has escaped the
kindly attention of our national humorist, and the fact that he never
tires of poking good-natured fun at these hobbies of his countrymen,
making merry over their misadventures, indicates in some degree that,
whatever our social critics may think of the national taste for outdoor
games, these must have a humanising influence and make for manliness,
when their devotees can thus with good grace look upon themselves in Mr.
Punch's mirror, and join in the laughter at their own expense.
But it must not be assumed that Mr. Punch's attitude is one of satirical
criticism; on the contrary, his sympathies are with every form of
sportsmanship, and it is chiefly because his jovial knights of the
pencil delight to illustrate the mishaps incidental to all games that we
are entitled to look upon him as a great patron of our sports. And is
not he always ready to pillory the cad and the incompetent as further
proof of the soundness of his heart?
Certain volumes of this library are devoted entirely to one or other of
our popular pastimes, determined mainly on their varying richness in
humour, but in this "Book of Sports" we have brought together a
carefully chosen selection of Mr. Punch's wittiest sayings on a variety
of games and pastimes. Cricket might of itself have furnished forth a
volume, Football, and Racing also; but we have sought after variety
rather than repletion, and to this end even the passing craze for
Ping-pong has not been ignored, as it is not the least of the merits of
the Punch Library of Humour that within these volumes is enshrined a
comic chronicle of the passing time.
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