LORD ASTOR 341 



taxation, I believe there will be great days yet to come, 

 though, since the death of William the Third, the glory 

 has to some extent departed. 



Lord Astor is another very successful breeder, and 

 yet by paradoxical fortune deprived of success on the 

 most vital occasions as, for instance, when neither 

 Buchan nor Craig an Eran could win the Derby or 

 St Leger, and when the former was disqualified for the 

 Ascot Cup. But, on the whole, Lord Astor has in a 

 short time done wonderfully well. 



This screed of a chapter, however, has no sort of 

 pretence to give even an impression of the successful 

 breeders of the present day, whom I have not mentioned 

 earlier on. 



It is just in my mind that I don't want to drop the 

 subject and yet know I am reaching my limit of space. 



Why, oh, why, has one written all this stuff? 



Again I must blame Mr Grant Richards for being 

 the evil demon who has impelled me into such a 

 wilderness of musty antiquities and modern follies. 

 The only excuse for the graceless work is that it is at 

 every point based on bed-rock truth without any 

 imaginative effort to embroider it. 



I was blamed for not putting enough horse into the 

 earlier book ; this time I may be blamed for putting 

 too much. 



I don't know ; and, without saying I don't care, I 

 feel that I have too retentive a memory of the many 

 experiences of a long life to write even a tithe of what 

 might be best appreciated. 



One gem, however, must remain, whether one writes 

 well or ill, and that is always the Peerless British 

 Thoroughbred, 



