Introduction 



upon those of my readers who are fresh to cross-country work 

 the great necessity of sitting well back to help your mount at 

 his fences when he is getting tired, and holding him together 

 in the last mile of a long race. 



A fresh horse can jump without assistance from its rider, but 

 when blown, and leg weary, then is the time he wants help 

 from his jockey in the manner I have suggested. 



I have heard steeplechasing described before now by its 

 detractors as a hybrid sort of sport, neither flesh, fowl, nor 

 good red herring ; but, call it what they may, there is no getting 

 away from the fact that, as a means of bringing out those 

 qualities our countrymen are supposed to possess in an eminent 

 degree, and which have so often excited the admiration — not 

 to say envy — of the civilised world, it would be hard to find 

 its equal. 



If a perusal of the brave deeds in the saddle recorded here 

 should have the effect of giving an impetus to a sport in which 

 formerly all the flower of our chivalry, from the Merry 

 Monarch downwards, thought it an honour to engage, then this 

 book will not have been written in vain. 



Speaking for self and partner, I cannot conclude without 

 expressing our sincere thanks to H.S.H. Prince Charles 

 Kinsky, the Earl of Minto, Colonel H. Browne, and Messrs. 

 Reginald Herbert, Harry Rouse, Willoughby Maycock, and 

 many other relatives and friends of the riders, for their invaluable 

 assistance rendered from time to time, without which ours 

 would have been a much more arduous task than has proved to 

 be the case. 



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