The variety of Publications annually announced under SPORTING TITLES,
with which the contents, upon examination, are found so ill to accord,
first suggested to the Writer, the idea of forming an aggregate of
information, from whence both entertainment and instruction (to the
young and inexperienced) might be derived. From a review of the works
now extant, under titles nearly similar, it was found they were the
productions of more than a century past. These having been repeatedly
re-copied, and repeatedly transmitted from one generation to another,
are replete with matter nearly _obsolete_, and sports long since _buried
in oblivion_. From these facts may be inferred, the very trifling
utility such books are of in the improved sports and refined polish of
the present time; more particularly when one just and emphatic remark
from the pen of a most popular writer is adverted to, that there is no
subject upon which so little has been judiciously written, as upon the
SPORTS of the FIELD; and what has issued from the press under titles of
attracting similitude, have been much more the efforts of theoretic
lucubration, than the result of practical knowledge, or personal
experience.
To compensate for such deficiency, is the professed purport of the
present Work; calculated to recommend itself to public attention upon no
other ground than its originality, and the great variety of useful
information it will be found to comprehend. Numerous and diversified as
the subjects are, they will be found largely treated on, and
satisfactorily explained: not as has been too much the case in former
publications, by the effusions of _literary fertility_, but clearly
demonstrated upon the practical knowledge, and individual experience, of
the AUTHOR; who, disdaining the subservient _trammels_ of _imitation_,
has not presumed to enter into a diffuse disquisition upon any SPORT or
SUBJECT in which he has not been personally and principally engaged. If
the mind of man can be candidly admitted to derive some gratification
from its universality of rational attainment, so it is the greatest and
most consolatory ambition of his life, to have engaged in every sport,
and to have embarked in every pleasure, upon which these Volumes will be
found to treat; without a deviation from the line of consistency, a
debasement of dignity, or a degradation of character.
It is a long standing and universally acknowledged axiom, that the art
of life consists as much in knowing what to avoid, as what to pursue;
and this cannot apply with more force or propriety, than to those who
throw themselves unthinkingly upon the fascinating prospects, and
_uncertain chances_, of the SPORTING WORLD; the necessitous and
determined dependents upon which are replete with numerous barbed and
unerring instruments of depredation. To juvenile adventurers, who feel
themselves inadequate to the talk of self-denial, and who cannot resist
the predominant temptation of engaging in scenes of such _duplicity_ and
_danger_, is earnestly recommended an occasional reference to those
heads in the following Work, which are fully fraught with precautions
they may probably stand much in need of; amongst these, BETTING,
COCKING, GAMING, HAZARD, and the TURF, will not be found the least
conspicuous; the delineations of which are taken with so much accuracy,
that the most _tenacious_ professor of _the arts_ cannot feel himself
materially affected by the correctness of the description.
Professed SPORTSMEN of every other description will find no unfair
restraint laid upon their distinct or separate inquiries, or
investigations. The HORSE will be found very fully expatiated upon in
all its _states_ and _stages_, as well in SICKNESS as in HEALTH. The
CHASE, of every particular kind, will be found to have undergone the
most minute description; and its numerous appendages proportionally
explained. The existing GAME LAWS are simplified, and reduced to one
comprehensive _single_ point of view. LOVERS of the TURF will find
themselves gratified with a recital of its past and present state; as
well as with a correct account of the recent racing performances of some
of the most celebrated horses of the present time. That there will be
discovered some traits not perfectly pleasing to every individual must
be presumed; but as they are not written by the pen of prostitution, no
apology can be necessary for the unavoidable introduction of TRUTH,
particularly under the scholastic retrospection of
"Vain his attempt who strives to please ye all."
THE
SPORTING DICTIONARY.