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Search - Erechtheus - A Tragedy

Erechtheus A Tragedy
Author: Algernon Charles Swinburne

Colonel Hawkers position among sportsmen and writers on sport is mainly owing to the great reputation he achieved with reference to the art of killing wild fowl, and he may most justly be termed the father of wild-fowling, for he brought this sport to such perfection that his name will always suggest itself wherever duck shooting is practised in... more » our Islands. Although Colonel Hawkers present reputation is mainly based on his proficiency in this one branch of sport, it must not be forgotten that he was equally celebrated in his own day for his knowledge of and success in game shooting. The immense popularity of Colonel Hawkers book Instructions to Young Sportsmen was due to the large amount of original information it contained, and to the terseness, accuracy, and common sense with which it was written it is in fact a work every line of which was evidently penned from actual personal experience and nothing else. It is true that Instructions to Young Sportsmen may not seem original in these days, but this is because almost every writer on shooting since the first edition of the book was published has so freely borrowed from it. There is no doubt the Colonels book stood unrivalled for quite fifty years as a manual on guns and shooting, and on all connected with killing game and especially wild fowl, and in many respects its contents are, with possibly a few alterations, such as the substitution of breech-loaders for muzzle- loaders, just as useful to the present generation as they were to the last and to the one before that, particularly in regard to all details of coast fowling. The steel illustrations in the later editions of Colonel Hawkers book are splendid examples of sporting pictures, and some of them are reproduced in this Diary. I consider the one facing page 146 is the best. The best edition of Instructions to Young Sportsmen is the ninth 1544, which was dedicated to the Prince Consort. The tenth was brought out ten years later, and the eleventh in I844 . The two latter, being somewhat abridged by the Colonels son, are not so interesting as the last published in the Authors lifetime, i.e. the one of 1844. The first edition was printed in 1814, the last the eleventh in 1859. This Diary only contains extracts from its original, the whole of which if given intact would fill several more volumes. In it the Author was in the habit of setting down almost everything he did, thought, and said during fifty years, adding comments on nearly every shot he fired, how he killed, and why he missed. The Diary bears the impress of truth and close observation from beginning to end, and contains numerous quaint and highly original remarks very characteristic of the Colonel. There are some very interesting accounts of its writers journeys to the Continent both before and after the fall of Napoleon, and of his expeditions to the Sorth to shoot moor game. These latter records will doubt- less entertain sportsmen of the present time when they read of the Colonels delight at bagging a few brace of grouse at places where now hundreds are killed in one day. I should say, after perusing this Diary, that Colonel Hawker was the keenest and most hardworking shooter ever known such entries as- breakfasted by candlelight, walked hard all day in a deluge of rain, bagged 3 cock pheasants gloriously outmanceuvred all the other shooters, came home very satisfied and dined off one of the birds will show the thorough sportsman he was...

ISBN-13: 9781443754446
ISBN-10: 1443754447
Publication Date: 10/7/2008
Pages: 116
Rating:

0 stars, based on 0 rating

Publisher: Mccormick Press
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

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