INTRODUCTION. 9 



not till about ten years ago did I seriously contemplate the 

 undertaking myself. With the full knowledge that all who 

 had entered the race had found the course too long or the 

 weights too heavy, and had either bolted or broken down, 

 I proposed to myself to start without any sound of trum- 

 pets, and if I failed the world would be none the wiser, and 

 if I succeeded it would be time enough to claim the prize 

 when I crossed the score. Having an abiding faith in the 

 results of labor, unflinching and properly directed, I have 

 devoted much of my time and thoughts for the past ten years 

 to this compilation. 



The manner in which I have accomplished the underta- 

 king must be judged of by those who carefully examine it. 

 Writing from memory and jumping at conclusions have 

 been scrupulously avoided. Just as the original published 

 record reads, so, stripped of all superfluous verbiage, the 

 pedigree stands in this volume. My constant aim has been 

 to get at the exact truth and there leave it, without any 

 additional fancies or suppositions. In hundreds of cases 

 different parties have given different pedigrees, and where 

 the weight of authority has seemed to preponderate, that 

 side has been followed ; but where they were of equal credi- 

 bility, the difference is noted. I feel that the work is liable 

 to criticism upon whatever plan it may be constructed, but 

 from the very plainness, I might say defmiteness, of the 

 plan of this work, it is specially liable. This criticism is 

 what we want. By a free exercise of intelligent pens in 

 pointing out errors, we will be able to make many correc- 

 tions in the second volume. 



WHAT IS A THOROUGHBRED 1 



This question will appear to many men a superfluity, but 

 as it stands at the very threshold of enlightened inquiry on 



