PREFACE VU 



them by scores upon my bookshelves. I possess the 

 ' Stud Books ' (complete or up to some recent date) of 

 several countries — of England (from the first volume to 

 the latest, of course), of France, of Germany, of Aus- 

 tria-Hungary, of America (both Bruce's and Wallace's). 

 Of ' Calendars,' Enghsh, French, and other foreign ones, 

 I have a host — Heber's, Pond's, Tuting and Fawconer's ; 

 many volumes of Weatherby's ; some volumes of the 

 ' Calendrier des Courses ; ' Mr. W. Pick's laborious 

 pubhcations ; Mr. Orton's ' Annals,' &c. ; and I have 

 consulted them carefully when necessary. 'Histories of 

 the British Turf,' too, I possess ; and thereby hangs my 

 tale. 



For, although I have been constantly on the look- 

 out, I have never been able to light upon a ' History of 

 the French Turf.' The nearest approach thereto that I 

 have been able to discover is the late Baron d'Etreillis's 

 (' Ned Pearson's ') book, called ' Dictionnaire du Sport 

 Fran9ais,' out of which a very good idea indeed may 

 be gleaned of the progress made by horse-racing in 

 France ; but, from the nature of the case, the account 

 is not continuous or methodical, and would have to be 

 picked out piecemeal by anybody who should go to it 

 for information. Moreover it was published (and I am 

 not aware of any new and augmented edition) before 

 the extraordinary successes of the French and other 

 foreign horses had led to the controversy about ' recip- 

 rocity,' and consequently long before the double- 

 barrelled achievement of Plaisanterie had brought 



