Introductory 5 



of these " angels without wings," who are 

 obviously too ethereal for this earth, and turn 

 to the more congenial subject of good horses 

 and good men, and make our way, in spirit, 

 with them as they cross a country. 



At that very moment I was just on the 

 point of falling into the error I made allusion 

 to in the first line of this chapter ; i.e., I was 

 about to let the sportsman-jealousy run aw^ay 

 with me, and launch into panegyrics upon my 

 own particular manias, hunting and steeple- 

 chasing, making comparisons — which we are 

 told are always "odious" — with other branches 

 of sport. But having now, metaphorically 

 speaking, written out a w^arning and pasted it 

 into my hat, I will endeavour, in these pages, 

 to "put up a strong jockey" on my hobby- 

 horse, and keep him from bolting into the 

 crowd, and treading on the corns of any of 

 my fellow- men whose sporting tastes take 

 another form to my own. 



I think I must have caught the horrible 

 habit from Jorrocks. Do we not all rememl^er 

 how, with the best intentions in the w^orld. 



