Transcriber's Note:
Variations in spelling, punctuation and the use of hyphens have beenretained. Apparent typographical errors have been corrected.
His Majesty's Harriers.
THE
SPORTING DICTIONARY,
AND
RURAL REPOSITORY
OF
GENERAL INFORMATION
UPON EVERY SUBJECT APPERTAINING
TO
THE SPORTS OF THE FIELD.
INSCRIBED TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
THE EARL OF SANDWICH,
Master of His Majesty's Stag Hounds.
BY
WILLIAM TAPLIN,
Author of the Gentleman's Stable Directory.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
LONDON.
Printed by Thomas Maiden, Sherbourn-Lane,
FOR VERNOR AND HOOD, LONGMAN AND REES,
J. SCATCHERD, J. WALKER, AND J. HARRIS.
1803.
DEDICATION
TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
THE
EARL OF SANDWICH,
MASTER OF HIS MAJESTY's STAG HOUNDS.
Itis now twenty Years since your Lordship'sAppointment to the Head of his Majesty'sHunting Establishment, during which it has acquireda Degree of Perfection and Celebrity,hitherto unprecedented in the Annals of SportingHistory. From the impressive Influence of yourLordship's philanthropic Representations, everySubordinate within the utmost Limits of yourLordship's Department, has derived an annualAddition, by which the domestic Comforts of hisFamily have been most happily encreased. TheHospitalities of Swinley Lodge[1]are universallyknown, and at all Times gratefully recollected,by that Infinity of Sportsmen who have so repeatedlyexperienced their salutary Effects.
To have had the inexpressible Happiness of partakingwith your Lordship the Pleasures of theChase during the Whole of that Period; to havewitnessed your Lordship's humane, polite, andcondescending Attention to various Individuals,upon the most distressing Emergencies; to havebeen repeatedly honoured by your Lordship'spublic Patronage and private Favor; are Gratificationsof so much Magnitude to the Ambition of aSportsman, that it is impossible to resist theTemptation of dedicating to your Lordship, aWork solely appertaining to the Sports of theField; and of publicly soliciting Permission tocontinue,
Respect and Gratitude,