6 PREFACE. 



expected, turned out to be very meagre. Those so 

 generously supplied me, were on the whole, quite re- 

 liable, though occasionally in opposition to traditions 

 which a minute inquiry oftimes very curiously sup- 

 ported. The knowledge of my informants seldom 

 extended beyond, sometimes not to, the generation 

 which preceded them. On consideration, I cannot 

 but think that the discovery which I made as to the 

 paucity of our annals of the subjects I treat of, is a 

 great justification for my endeavouring to treat of them 

 at all, for I may, perhaps, flatter myself that I can, in 

 some sense, supply for my successors the want which, 

 in my own instance, 1 had much trouble in provid- 

 ing. My task, as far as it extended to Racing, 

 was easier than that which touched Hunting, as the 

 " Calendars '* supplied a sure foundation for my work. 

 Their existence, too, made it less incumbent on me 

 to be as diffuse as I am in my memoranda of the 

 chase. In advance, I have to ask indulgence for the 

 shortcomings of these phages, of which no one can be 

 more conscious than I am. Had others written long 

 ago what they knew or heard, it would have been 

 easy for me to have presented some old wine in a new 

 bottle. Their neglect to do so is, however, sufficient 

 " raison d'etre " for my attempting to remedy their 

 default. In conclusion I have only to once more 

 acknowledge the sympathetic assistance which has 

 been graciously given to me by a crowd of witnesses, 



