PREFACE 



I cannot help feeling that I have small right to 

 pose as an author, for really I have been little 

 more than a chronicler of the histories which have 

 been given to me by others. With one exception 

 — which merely served to accentuate what all the 

 rest have done for me — I have received nothing 

 but extreme courtesy and kindness from every 

 owner, trainer, or jockey to whom I have applied, 

 and I can never be sufficiently grateful for this 

 assistance, without which my work would have been 

 impossible. Foremost amongst those to who'm 

 I tender my most grateful thanks is my old friend 

 Mr. James Waugh, who has not only given me 

 most interesting particulars of a portion of Mr. 

 Merry's career, but has been untiring in obtaining 

 for me similar invaluable help from other members 

 of his profession. I shall never forget the kindly 

 interest that Lord Marcus Beresford, Mr. Leopold 

 de Rothschild, and Captain Machell have taken 

 in my labours, nor the practical assistance that 

 I have received from them. To the marvellous 

 memory of the late Mr. T. Jennings I am indebted 

 for the opening chapter ; Messrs. T. Cannon and 

 J. Enoch are really the joint authors of "Dane- 

 bury Days " ; Mr. T. Heartfield is responsible for 

 " Regalia " ; and but for the ungrudging assistance 

 of the late Mr. Robert Peck — given at a time 

 when he was far from well — the concluding 

 chapter of " Mr. James Merry " could not have 

 been written. So it has been all through, and 

 Messrs. William Gilbert, William Greaves, George 

 Dawson, J. T. Wood, T. Leader, John Dawson, 

 sen., M. Gurry, and R. H. Marsh have all laid 



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