By GEORGE ROOPER, AUTHOR O FLOOD, FIELD, AND FOREST;' 'TALES AND SKETCHES LONDON: ROBERT HARDWICKE, 192, PICCADILLY, W. 1876. N.B.M. PREFACE. I ASSUME that the preface to a book, if read at all, is read after the perusal of the book itself;-it is assuredly so written. It seems therefore to savour of impertinence, or at least of a waste of the reader's time, to obtrude a long detail of the author's intentions upon one who is at the time in a position to judge how far he has succeeded, or otherwise, in carrying them out. In the following pages, as in all my other little works, my object has been to impart such knowledge on the subjects of sporting and natural history as I believe myself to have acquired. Some time ago I resided, during a portion of each year, in a wild corner of County Mayo, where I had purchased a tract of five thousand acres, and where I rented, for thirty pounds a year, on a long lease, the shooting over upwards of thirteen thousand acres more, and which I enjoyed |