PREFACE. Vll 



predated, was paid me by no less renowned a sportsman 

 than that celebrity of the West — the Reverend and 

 revered John Russell. Introducing himself to me 

 on Goodwood Race Course, he declared that he 

 " would have walked there from Dartmoor to shake 

 hands with the Author of * The Noble Science.' " 

 I have reason to hope that the maxims of my zenith 

 may yet be found generally, though it cannot be ex- 

 pected, after a lapse of years, that they can be invari- 

 ably, applicable. Changes in the system of agriculture, 

 the great increase of rural population, and other cir- 

 cumstances have greatly affected scent, as they have 

 altered the habits of foxes. Where one man took the 

 field, when this book was written, there are now fifty. 

 Hence the present fabulous price of horses. 



" Customs will alter, men and manners change," 

 but the leading features, the main principles of " The 

 Noble Science "are unaltered — I trust unalterable. 



The hints which I presumed to offer, were the sound 

 deductions from practical experience. If foxes no 

 longer travel the distances they did of yore ; if a run 

 over any extent of country is rather an exception, 

 neither the love nor pursuit of the sport has deteri- 

 orated. 



A contemporary, who for the last half century has 

 shone, universally admitted, as one of the finest horse- 

 men who ever crossed a country, and who has been no 

 less distinguished as a sportsman, has thus written to 

 me this month : — 



