INTRODUCTION xvii 



Over there every one, young and old, are sportsmen 

 and horse lovers. It is part of a child's very educa- 

 tion. To be a horseman over here stamps you as 

 rather a freak; to be a horseman over there is to be 

 normal, and does not in the least imply that you there- 

 fore belong to a certain set of people of doubtful intel- 

 lectual ability. England's biggest statesmen, her mer- 

 chants, her soldiers, her artists, and even her clergy 

 are, most of them, sportsmen, and many of them horse- 

 men. It is time indeed that America, also, began to 

 realize that one can be just as great in one's business 

 or work, and just as good in one's life, and still know 

 how to play healthily and happily in God's great 

 out-of-doors. 



Having said so much in praise of England, I will 

 perhaps be called upon to defend myself from the 

 stigma of Anglomania. True patriotism is, to my 

 mind, not so much saying that " everything that is 

 American is best," but rather "the best of everything 

 for America," and throughout this book I shall again 

 and again quote England and England's methods, be- 

 cause, without the shadow of a doubt, she is as far 

 ahead of us in matters of sport, as France and Italy 

 are in matters of music and art. With England, sport 

 is a national institution, and unless a thing is a national 

 institution, it seldom becomes great. If we wish to 

 equal England in the realms of sport, we can only do 

 so by following her lead, and so imbuing all the young 

 people of the land with the love of sport, and what 

 sport stands for, that it becomes a national institution 

 with us, as it has been with her for generations and 

 generations. 



