viii INTRODUCTION 



years ; but to-day the foundation is solid, and that which 

 is erected thereon will last long. 



Such a period cannot be otherwise than propitious for the 

 production of a work in which every subject is dealt with 

 that can interest those who, in one form or another, to a 

 greater or less extent find an attraction in the Turf. Books 

 about racing have a not unnatural habit of being reminiscent : 

 here, for a change, is one that deals with things as they are. 

 That entirely new ground is broken will be at once apparent 

 to those conversant with racing literature. For one thing 

 a work of this nature has previously not been possible, 

 because the conditions favourable to its compilation have not 

 existed ; but no one has even attempted the comprehensive 

 task which the author has accomplished. The reader has set 

 before him the characteristics of every racecourse in England, 

 and of the racing that each year takes place upon it. 

 Although less numerous than they were half a century ago, 

 English racecourses are still many, and no two are alike 

 either in conformation or in the sport provided and its 

 management. These are the details which receive treatment, 

 the writer's wide personal experience being in every case 

 brought into play. References to the actors upon the stage, 

 human and equine, form a natural corollary. When we read 

 about historical racecourses we like to hear of the celebrated 

 races associated with them and of the great horses that 

 earned their reputations by winning them. 



An exhaustive account of the principal races of the nine- 

 teenth century would alone involve a series of volumes longer 

 than any encyclopaedia yet published, and as this volume 

 deals with the Turf as it is, just enough reference to the past, 

 and no more, is made to enable some sort of comparison to 

 be made between the horses of the present and of former 

 generations. In the case of horses such comparisons are 

 far from being vain, and where the constant improvement of 



