Transcribed from the 1873 Bunny and Evans edition by DavidPrice.
OLD SPORTS AND
SPORTSMEN
Or, the Willey Country
WITH SKETCHES OF SQUIREFORESTER
AND HISWHIPPER-IN
TOM MOODY
(“Youall knew Tom Moody the Whipper-in well”).
By JOHNRANDALL, F.G.S.
AUTHOR OF “THE SEVERN VALLEY,”ETC.
LONDON:
VIRTUE & CO., 26, IVY LANE
SALOP: BUNNYand EVANS; and RANDALL,
Bookseller,MADELEY
1873
p. ivLONDON
PRINTED BY VIRTUE AND CO.,
CITY ROAD.
p.vPREFACE.
It is too much to expect that thesepages will altogether escape criticism; my object will have beengained, however, if I have succeeded in collecting and placingintelligibly before the reader such noticeable facts as areinteresting matters of local history. Should it appear thatthere has been imported into the work too many details touchingthe earlier features of the country, the little that is generallyknown on the subject, the close connection of cause and effect,and the influences the old forests may have had in perpetuating alove of sport among some members of a family whose name appearsto have been derived from pursuits connected therewith, must bemy excuse. Dr. Arnold once remarked upon the closeconnection existing between nature and mankind, and how each inturn is affected by the other, whilst a living writer, and adeeper p.vithinker, has gone still further, in saying that“He is great who is what he is from nature.” Ofcourse it is not intended to claim greatness for Squire Foresterin the sense in which the word is ordinarily used, or qualities,even, differing very much from those bearing the impress of thecommon mould of humanity; but simply that he was what he was fromnature, from pre-disposition, and from living at the time hedid. Also, that he was in many respects a fairrepresentative of the squirearchy of the period, of a class ofsquires in whom we recognise features discoverable in those inthe enjoyment of the same natural vigour in our own day, but whomay have chosen different fields for its development.
It did not appear to come within the scope of the work toenter to the same extent upon the doings of other sportsmen ofSquire Forester’s time, or to dilate upon those ofgentlemen who subsequently distinguished themselves. Itwould have required many additional pages, for instance, to havedone justice to the exploits of the first Lord Forester; or tothose of the present right honourable proprietor of Willey, whoupon retiring from the mastership of the Belvoir hounds waspresented with a massive piece of plate, representing an incidentwhich hap