Excerpt from The Works of Professor Wilson of the University of Edinburgh, Vol. 9 Now, seeing that such pastimes are in number almost infinite, and infinite the varieties of human character, pray what is there at all surprising in your being madly fond of shooting - and your brother Tom just as foolish about fishing -and cousin Jack perfectly insane on fox-hunting - while the Old gentleman your father, in spite of wind and weather, perennial gout, and annual apoplexy, goes a-coursing of the white-hipped hare on the bleak Yorkshire wolds - and uncle Ben, as if just escaped from Bedlam or St Luke's with Dr Haslam at his heels, or with a few hundred yards' start of Dr Warburton, is seen galloping, in a Welsh wig and strange apparel, in the rear of a pack Of Lilliputian beagles, all bark ing as if they were as mad as their master, supposed to be in chase of an invisible animal that keeps eternally doubling in field and forest still hoped for, never seen, and well christened by the name of Escape? Phrenology sets the question for ever at rest. All people have thirty-three faculties. Now there are but twenty-four let ters in the alphabet; yet how many languages - some six thou sand we believe, each of which is susceptible of many dialects! No wonder, then, that you might as well try to count all the sands on the sea-shore as all the species of Sportsmen. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.