INTRODUCTION xvii 



following, at however great a distance, in the foot- 

 steps of our greatest writer on sport. The works of 

 the Druid and Whyte-Melville (a very different, but 

 not less delightful, writer) have been given a long 

 life (who dare say anything about immortality ?) by 

 that court of final appeal of the public taste, which 

 causes men to buy and read their books as eagerly 

 to-day as when they first appeared. But I seem to 

 hear my critics asking : What of the " admirable " 

 Nimrod ? This is an unfortunate epithet. Delight- 

 ful he is, but not " admirable," either as a man or as 

 a writer. Clever and spirited as his books are, he 

 was a man of the Regency period and had the spirit 

 of his age. 



