PREFACE 



Long prefaces nowadays are companions in mis- 

 fortune of long sermons — in being out of date. Nor, 

 unless the preface bear to the book the importance 

 the postscript does usually to the lady's letter, is 

 the, so to speak, preliminary or explanatory notice 

 of much purpose. Still, a few words of why this 

 book of " Keminiscences " came to be written, and 

 how it was put into shape, may be held pardonable. 

 Mr. Hodgman is now in his seventy-seventh year, 

 and for over sixty seasons has he been associated 

 actively with the Turf In that considerable period 

 he has met, naturally, " all sorts and conditions of 

 men," and stored in a marvellous memory is a rare 

 harvest of anecdote, from which, in paddock or at 

 dinner-table, he has drawn for the amusement of his 

 friends, many of whom, time back, pleaded the 

 desirability of publication. Mr. Hodgman, however, 

 was not in a mood for the pen, and perhaps would 

 never have seriously regarded the idea but for the 

 insistence of the late Lord Kussell of Killowen. 



