Introductory. 5 



in the lately revived glories of the four-horse drag. But I write more especially for the 

 information of a different and more numerous class, those to whom town pursuits have 

 brought fortune, with leisure and desire to enjoy, and allow their families to enjoy, the plea- 

 sures, the exercise, the healthy excitement, which horses and carriages, riding, driving, and 

 hunting, so eminently afford. 



It is quite true that no book can without practice teach the reader how to ride or drive, 

 how to choose or breed horses, how they should be fed, trained, and treated in the stable, 

 or how to buy carriages, saddlery, or harness. Practical arts can only be learned by 

 practical experience. Nevertheless, books on fishing, poultry, gardening, and cookery, which 

 record the collected experience of many fishermen, poultry-keepers, gardeners, and cooks — if the 

 writers understand their subjects, and take the trouble to give minute details — are found to be 

 of great value to ladies and gentlemen who desire to be not entirely dependent on their own 

 tradesmen and servants ; and who prefer, where they can, to master a principle instead of 

 accepting a rule of thumb. 



I have devoted the greater part of my work to the severely practical. The reader will 

 in the following pages be treated as if he or she had everything to learn.* 



• With respect to the qualifications I possess for my self-imposed task of collecting into one work information on those 

 practical suljjects connected with horse management, now only to be found, if found at all, in many volumes, I must say 

 something, even at the risk of appearing somewhat egotistical. 



From my childhood I have been passionately fond of horses, and can scarcely remember when I could not ride. In 

 1S46 I wrote "Railways and Agriculture," at the suggestion of the late Earl of Yarborough, which he presented to his friends 

 at the York Meeting, the year he was President of the Royal Agricultural Society, in which my first hunting sketches (of the 

 Brocklesby Hounds and the scarlet-coated Wold farmers) appeared. In consequence of these sketches I became the hunting 

 correspondent of the Illustralcd London News. By Lord Yarborough I was introduced to my ever afterwards kind friend the 

 late Captain Percy Williams, the Master, for nineteen years, of the famous Rufford Iloutids. 



In 1850, being one of Her Majesty's Assistant Commissioners for the great International Exhibition, I was able, by the 

 kindness of divers county gentlemen, farmers, and horse-dealers — desirous of paying a compliment to my official position, helped 

 also by introduction from Brocklesby Park and Rufford Kennels— to hunt my way from Bramham Moor, in Yorkshire, to the 

 Four Boroughs, in Cornwall, and saw more or less sport with twelve celebrated packs of foxhounds, besides harriers. 



In 1858, at the special request of Messrs. Richard and Edmund Tattersall, I became Treasurer and .Secretary to the 

 Rarey Horse-Taming Subscription, and edited the illustrated edition of " Rarey's Art of Horse-Taming," which has long been 

 out of print. 



In l85o I assisted in establishing the Agricultural Hall Company at Islington. 



In 1864, with the permission of my directors, I arranged and managed the horse show at the Agricultural Hall, 

 Islington, on a plan which has since been followed by the managers of the Dublin, Birmingham, and other horse shows of minor 

 importance -that is to say, the horses, instead of being simply led round the ring for exhibition in bridles or halters, as at the 

 shows of the Royal Agricultural Society up to that date, were ridden, driven in harness, and leaped. The experience of fifteen 

 years has proved that this system gives satisfaction to exhibitors and intending purchasers, as well as to the public. 



It if scarcely necessary to state that my position as the Secretary and Manager of the Agricultural Hall Horse Show has 

 largely increased my circle of acquaintances of all ranks interested as breeders, owners, and judges of horses. I have not 

 failed to avail myself of the information within my reach. Several judges and exhibitors of high reputation .as masters of 

 hounds and as breeders of horses have kindly afforded me their assistance and advice in making this at once a handljook 

 and an encyclopa:dia of reference for horse-owners cf every degree. 



