INTRODUCTION. How beautiful upon the mountains are thy feet, O rosy Health! herald of hope, and peace, and happiness; the stalworth companion of hardy toil, the perfection of beauty, the zest of all enjoyment! Wealth cannot purchase thee, nor power annihilate. Without thee, the rich are poor; and with thee, the poor are rich. Thou lovest not the smoke and the din of manufacturing industry, nor the crowded mart of trade and commerce. Thy voice is heard in the melodious woods, and in the tuneful streams; in the shout of the ploughman; in the halloo of the hunter. What can surpass the healthful enjoyments of the English country gentleman? To say that his life is a life of idleness, is far from the truth; the reverse, indeed, is the fact. The country gentleman has every B means of enjoyment within his reach; he participates in all the sports of the field with a free and generous spirit; he diffuses around him contentment and happiness; and he is regarded with the warmest feelings of attachment and veneration. His board is hospitably spread; he is liberal and kind to all. He is the chief stay against political aggression; and woe betide the day, should he be driven, by internal convulsions, from the halls of his ancestors! Honour to the name of the true English gentleman!—the key-stone of the arch of society, supported by the hardy yeomen of merry England! Who is there, acquainted with the many attractions of field sports, and who can relish the excitement of these varied scenes of manly diversion, that does not feel his heart bound within him even at their bare mention? Those, truly, who maintain that to share in their numerous attractions tends to debase the mind, to blunt the affections, and to brutalise the disposition, must be wholly unacquainted with country life. A taste for the pursuit of wild animals, through magnificent woods, over far-extended moors and mountains, through golden corn-fields or green meadows, on widespread lakes or on impetuous or peaceful rivers, is inherent in human nature. This natural taste is never more strikingly displayed than in the high spirits and unbounded joy evinced by the denizens of crowded cities, when they escape from the turmoil of their confined habitations, to spend however brief an interval amid these exhilarating scenes. Their usual trammels for a while thrown off, the cares and anxieties of life forgotten, and clashing interests disregarded, their spirits become buoyant, their strength is renewed, and they return to their several occupations better men. The royal forests of old were scenes of peculiar attraction, with their sunny green slopes, their tortuous windings, their snug recesses, and majestic covers, from along whose sylvan boundaries the deer might be seen cautiously out-peeping, decked with their noble antlers, or bounding over the plain with the swiftness of the winds. To the lover of rural life and field sports, the woods of the present day present similar attractions: in spring, when they put forth their young buds; in summer, when they exhibit their fully expanded foliage; in autumn, when robes of every variety of hue are hung upon their branches; in winter, when the glory of summer is trodden under foot, presenting around a scene of apparent desolation, yet, to him, not destitute of interest; for they are the home, the resort, the protection of many of his favourites. The wily fox has his earths within their precincts; they are the haunt of the cock |