40 Among Men and Horses. 



by competitive examination, for official posts, is not well 

 suited to India. 



At Kamptee, which was my first station in India, I was well 

 * entered ' to Eastern sport ; as there was capital pig-sticking 

 and shooting within easy reach, with occasional racing. 

 After two years of the Madras side, I got transferred to the 

 livelier one of Bengal, and gradually took up the training 

 of race-horses and chasers, for which, my previous intimate 

 acquaintance with the training of men, was an admirable in- 

 troduction. With experience to test and modify my theories, 

 I acquired in time a good deal of skill in the art of bringing 

 a horse fit to the post, and introduced many improvements 

 and innovations which have since been accepted by Indian 

 racing men. My first contributions to the local press in 

 about the year 1869, were reports of race meetings which 

 I attended. This practice with the pen appears to have 

 given me confidence ; for five years afterwards I brought 

 out a book on Training and Horse Management in India, 

 which has run into five large editions, and which is accepted 

 as the standard authority on the subject. Although I was 

 well educated, according to the usual acceptation of the term, 

 and had ' passed ' creditably in French, German, Latin, Greek, 

 Hindi and Urdu, I found extreme difficulty in expressing my 

 ideas in fairly presentable English. Even after twenty years' 

 work, I am well aware that I have attained comparatively 

 little skill in this literary art, to which I have found no royal 

 road. The branch of literature to which I have chiefly 

 devoted myself is that of teaching, in which I candidly 

 think that my success has been owing more to my method 

 of explanation than to my knowledge of the respective sub- 

 jects. It would be mere affectation in me to deny that I 

 have a fair measure of the gift of explaining to others things 

 which I know. On the other hand, I can frankly disclaim 

 the possession of vast stores of knowledge which I have 

 been unable to transfer to paper. In my ' line,' namely, 

 that of teaching, the great essential to success is, I think. 



