The publishers of the present Edition of this popular little volume had a double purpose in entering upon the undertaking,—namely, to offer a carefully-revised copy of Walker’s Manly Exercises, and an outline of Rural Sports, to which they serve as the best elementary introduction. As the execution of that design was committed to me, I can only allude to the nature of the task, and hope that I have not quite failed in the enterprise. This I may be permitted to say,—that if the publishers’ desire to make the work a source of instructive and rational amusement be realized, even to the tithe of its extent and earnestness, the labour of his Editor will not have been wholly without success.
CRAVEN.