SEASON 1877-78. 



A PREFACE TO THE SEASON. 



IN'OVEMEEK 1st, 187". 



NLY an 



i n t r o - 

 d u ctoiy 

 l)reface, 

 perhaps; 

 only a 

 prelude 

 to still 

 better 

 tilings, 

 possibly 

 — but 



Jifti/ viinutcs over the f/mss and a kill in the. open, to stir 

 your blood and to make you a greater slave than ever to the 

 chase ! Did you start anxious of your nerve, fearful that your 

 summer's run had indeed left you a year older, and that this 

 might be the year which brings that crisis of a riding life 

 which now and again you see dropping so suddenly, unex- 

 pectedly, and irretrievably on better men than 3'ou ? You 

 come home, feeling that your veins had never com-sed more 

 rapidl}', that 3'our spirit never rose more delightedly to tlie cvy 

 of a racing pack, that there does (as you often declared before, 

 even to the unbelieving) exist a pleasure that excels the sweetest 

 vices in life, and leaves an after-taste that has no regret. 



A little spinney on a still grey afternoon — after a mornino- 

 that had shown only liow Scraptoft Gorse was again full of 



