PREFACE. & 



Teviotdale sits among his equally hairy darlings, 

 with his Lord Chancellor " Sandy" at his side ; the 

 scene at Knockhill typifies the Turf, the Leash, and 

 the Chase in Scotland ; and my own mare stands 

 hooked to an out building, and, to all appearance, 

 quite resigned to her sadly vagrant life. 



From first to last, this work has been very nearly 

 three years in hand ; but, spent as much of them has 

 been among such new and varied scenes, they seem 

 to comprise a lifetime. No one but those who have 

 been regularly " in the mill" can tell how difficult it 

 is to reconcile and winnow conflicting opinions given 

 by men of mark on the same point, and to put some 

 light and shade into the history of flocks and herds, 

 which has an infallible tendency to degenerate into 

 mere vain -glorious invoice-lists of males sold and 

 prizes won. 



" Men have no faith, in high-spun sentiment, 

 Who put their trust in wedders and in beeves ;" 



and no one would " try it on" with them. Still, on 

 the other hand, it is only just that readers should 

 remember that an author who is obliged to put such 

 very matter-of-fact objects as "wedders" and "beeves" 

 in his foreground, instead of human beings, with 

 their joys, and their sorrows, writes at fearful odds, 

 and has virtually no scope either for language or 

 fancy. Hence, in racing phrase, he is clearly " en- 

 titled to claim an allowance." 



