236 POLO 



play polo. In fact, I know one enthusiast, who is the proud 

 possessor of two diminutive Shelties which, when they are 

 not being driven in a tandem, are called on to furnish mounts 

 for their owner and a friend just to knock a ball about on ! 



Essentially the game of a horse-loving nation, such as we 

 may now claim fairly to be, polo appeals irresistibly to our 

 tastes, and year by year has not only obtained a firmer footing 

 at home and in India, but has spread far and wide. There is 

 something very attractive in the game : the mad ride, the mere 

 pleasure of hitting the ball, the satisfaction of outwitting an 

 adversary by superior horsemanship and strategy, are all factors 

 that must appeal to the dullest and most lethargic temperament. 



Then, too, polo comes at a season of the year when there is 

 no hunting, and the horsey man who pines for a gallop and 

 excitement with an object, finds in the game an outlet for his 

 superfluous energies. 



One word ere I conclude, out of place though it may seem 

 in these introductory lines. I have endeavoured in writing a 

 history of polo to steer clear of all information that may not be 

 considered trustworthy. I have avoided all opinions and evi- 

 dence that did not carry weight with them, and I have had the 

 advantage of being assisted in my task by the most experienced 

 players of the day, present and past, such as the Earl of Har- 

 rington, the Earl of Airlie, Mr. John Watson, Mr. F. B. Mildmay, 

 M.P., Mr. T. S. Kennedy, the Messrs. Peat, Mr. E. D. Miller 

 (i7th Lancers), Colonel St. Quintin (8th Hussars), Captain 

 C. D. Bruce (33rd D. W. Regiment), Captain 'Tip' Herbert, 

 Major-General J. F. Sherer, Captain Walter Smythe (the popular 

 polo manager at Hurlingham), and many others, to whom my 

 warmest and most grateful acknowledgments are due. My re- 

 searches in Oriental manuscripts, from which I have derived the 

 information regarding the antiquity of the game, would have 

 proved not only bewildering but impossible to any but an 

 Oriental scholar, to which title I can lay no claim, and I should 

 have failed signally had it not been for the kind aid given me 

 by Mr. A. G. Ellis, of the British Museum, who threw all his 



