PREFACE.
To what trifles do some men owe a perpetuation of their "famous memory." There is Nimrod, for instance, not but what he may have had other and greater merits, yet he is best known as a "mighty hunter," and one who "wore boots;" now, allowing the relation to be true, and that he did hunt, and he did wear boots, is there anything extraordinary attaching to either, unless indeed, it could be proved that he had wooden legs, or that he was capable of sitting on the backs of two or more animals at one time; and if such were not the case, the simple fact of itself was never worth recording; as well may it be said, a thousand years hence, that LLOYD was a great Hatmaker, and lived in a great City.
But possibly the hunting system of this old gentleman differed materially from the pastime of our modern Tally-ho's, and instead of running after hares, snipes, and conies, Nimrod's sport was on the field of battle; in whose days the most rational idea is, that all was game which caused pursuits, and all pursuits hunting: If it were not so, and his majesty's capability only extended to the riding upon a horse's back, there is not a butcher's boy, in any country village between Berwick and St. Ives, that would not have ridden Nimrod's rump off. But it may be asked by those whose inclinations and patience shall lead them to hunt through the following pages, whether this is what it professes to be, a Preface, which is supposed to explain, or prepare the mind for something to come; the answer to which is as follows: A horse that will not go without another being led before him, is not worth riding, and if what is herein written requires a Preface to render it intelligible, it is not worth the reading.
May, 1819.