Encyclopedia of Rural Sports V1: Comprising Shooting, Hunting, Coursing, Fishing, Boating, Racing, Pedestrianism, Cricket, Baseball, Etc. (1876)

And The Various Rural Games And Amusements Of Great Britain And America. The full title of this work is Encyclopedia of Rural Sports: Consisting of Shooting, Hunting, Coursing, Fishing, Boating, Racing, Pedestrianism, Cricket, Base Ball, &c. and the Various Games and Amusements of Great Britain and America. Reproduced here in facsimile is the first American edition, which was published by Porter and Coates, Philadelphia, and which is an expansion of the British edition. In his Introduction, Walsh broadly defines rural sports as inclusive of nearly all outdoor pastimes. Perplexingly little can be learned about J. H. Walsh and his voluminous compendium. He is conspicuously absent from the British Dictionary of National Biography and other major references. Nor is the Encyclopedia … noted in John C. Phillips’ comprehensive American Game Mammals and Birds, A Catalogue of Books, 1582 to 1925, Sport, Natural History, and Conservation (1930). We do know that Walsh was English, that he lived from 1810 to 1888, and was bewilderingly knowledgeable about English outdoor sports, many of which he was proficient in, during the 19th century. His work, astonishing in scope and detail, is equally enigmatic.–Henry M. Reeves.