Sports & Recreation Books

The most daring and adventurous of all hunters is Mr. Roualeyn Gordon Cumming. Being an officer in the British service at the Cape of Good Hope, his love of hunting adventures led him to resign his commission in the army, and devote himself for five years to exploring the interior of Africa, and hunting wild beasts. We shall quote his own account of some of his adventures. The first incident of his... more...

INTRODUCTION The half a dozen or so of Angling books which stand to my name were headed by Waterside Sketches, and this is really and truly a continuation, if not the end, of the series. They were inspired by my old friend Richard Gowing, at the Whitefriars Club, of which he was for many years the well-remembered honorary secretary, and of which I still have the grateful pride of being entitled to the... more...

INTRODUCTION. Riding on Horseback is, confessedly, one of the most graceful, agreeable, and salutary of feminine recreations. No attitude, perhaps, can be regarded as more elegant than that of a lady in the modern side-saddle; nor can any exercise be deemed capable of affording more rational and innocent delight, than that of the female equestrian. Pursued in the open air, it affords a most rapid, and,... more...

CHAPTER I THE FIRST GUN They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. Otherwise his pelt would not have been so perfect. And why else was he put away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had... more...

The Golfer’s Rubáiyát I WAKE! for the sun has driven in equal flightThe stars before him from the Tee of Night,And holed them every one without a Miss,Swinging at ease his gold-shod Shaft of Light. WAKE, Loiterer! for already Dawn is seenWith her red marker on the eastern Green,And summons all her Little Ones to changeA joyous Three for every sad Thirteen. III AND as the Cock crew, those who stood... more...

GREETING I value more highly than any other athletic gift I have ever received, the Princeton football championship banner that hangs on my wall. It was given to me by a friend who sent three boys to Princeton. It is a duplicate of the one that hangs in the trophy room of the gymnasium there. How often have I gazed longingly at the names of my loyal team-mates inscribed upon it. Many times have I run... more...

OF HUNTING. Hunting, being a Recreation that challenges the sublime Epithets of Royal, Artificial, Manly, and Warlike, for its Stateliness, Cunning, and Indurance, claims above all other Sports the Precedency; and therefore I was induced to place it at the Head to usher in the rest. But to come to the Purpose: The young Hunter, as yet raw in the true Knowledge of this Royal Sport, with what is meerly... more...

CHAPTER I SELECTION OF STOCK AND THEIR HOME The first point to be decided by the would-be owner of wild-fowl is the locality where he intends to turn down his stock. Wild-fowl can undoubtedly be reared far from any large piece of water, but I am strongly of opinion that birds do better on a good-sized stretch of water with a stream running into it and out of it. Given these advantages, the running... more...

HIS LIFE The few events in the long life of Izaak Walton have been carefully investigated by Sir Harris Nicolas.  All that can be extricated from documents by the alchemy of research has been selected, and I am unaware of any important acquisitions since Sir Harris Nicolas’s second edition of 1860.  Izaak was of an old family of Staffordshire yeomen, probably descendants of George Walton of... more...

THE CONFESSIONS OF A DUFFER These papers do not boast of great sport.  They are truthful, not like the tales some fishers tell.  They should appeal to many sympathies.  There is no false modesty in the confidence with which I esteem myself a duffer, at fishing.  Some men are born duffers; others, unlike persons of genius, become so by an infinite capacity for not taking pains.  Others, again,... more...