PREFACE. Vll 



they will be read without occasioning trouble, if 

 not with interest. 



Such was my manner of proceeding from early 

 youth, with daily practice of Farriery going on, 

 for several years, until at length, in 1803, I be- 

 came an author, or rather a translator of La 

 Fosse's Manuel d ) Hippiatrique \ This was done 

 at the request of Mr. Badcock, of Paternoster Row, 

 with whom I since then entered into close intimacy, 

 as my late father had already done. But I shall 

 pass no compliments with a man who uses none 

 himself, nor acknowledge the helps I have derived 

 from his advice and his pen, further than appeared 

 in the Preface to my first edition, at page ix. 



At that time we belonged to the old school, or 

 rather no school ; but notwithstanding this, my re- 

 vered parent sustained a high character for success- 

 ful practice, and I filled up the chasm by tolerably 

 severe study, and gave the result occasionally to the 

 sporting periodicals, as Weekly Dispatch, Sporting 

 Magazines, Annals of Sporting, and other works 

 of the like tendency. Of my father's proficiency 

 something is already before the public ; and my own 

 opinion of it may be seen in the Grooms' Oracle, 

 page 105, edit, first. And with such examples 

 before us as those of C. Celsus, of Sir John Sin- 

 clair, and the small means originally brought to the 

 task by Hunter, let no one hereafter, with the re- 

 quisite love for the study, shrink from investigating 

 the subject we consent to call The Curative Art. 



The reputation of our name induced the book- 



a4 



