vi PREFACE 



inordinate amount of detail, but also an answer 

 to most, if not to all, questions which, ac- 

 cording to a pretty long experience, are asked 

 from year to year, whenever the great events of 

 the season are approaching, or are in actual pro- 

 gress, may meet with more favour and acceptance. 

 In one other point, besides the systematic divi- 

 sion into periods corresponding with the reigns of 

 successive sovereigns, the work will be found 

 unique ; for it concludes with a chronologically 

 arranged collection of certain matches (un- 

 doubtedly the most interesting and most conclu- 

 sive, if not the most striking and picturesque, 

 form of racing) which have been memorable for 

 the personages engaged, or the horses tried, or 

 the weights carried, or the distances run, or the 

 stakes risked, or the time occupied (as Americans 

 say, the ' clocking '), or, lastly, the cruelty (which, 

 to the shame of mankind, seems to be considered 

 almost a matter of course in matches ■ for en- 

 durance ') sometimes practised. 



It can hardly be necessary to enumerate all the 

 calendars, stud-books, histories of the turf, publi- 

 cations dealing with the race-horse and horse- 

 racing, and newspapers, which have been ransacked 



