PREFACE. IX. 



honest conviction led him to praise some of the 

 lots brought up for auction. The disappointment 

 of his eldest son, Mr. Sydenham Dixon, when, as 

 a hungry boy of twelve, he was forced by his father 

 to turn away from a bountiful luncheon, to which 

 both were invited, and to munch some dry bread 

 and cheese in a public house, is amusingly de- 

 scribed in Chapter VIII. of this work. 



II. — "The Druid" was never known to wager 

 more than ten shillings upon a horse race, and, as a 

 rule, he never betted at all. In the preface to his 

 " Post and Paddock " he tells us that " he has 

 simply written of the Turf as he has known it for 

 some years past, not through the feverish medium 

 of the betting ring, but as its leading features were 

 brought to his mind by an occasional stroll on to a 

 racecourse on a crack afternoon, through the boxes 

 at Tattersall's, or among the paddocks of a stud 

 farm." 



III. — As regards the accuracy of his descriptions 

 "The Druid" has never been surpasse d when he 

 wrote of scenes which came under his own obser- 

 vation. Lord Rosebery has spoken of him with 

 rare penetration as "half sportsman and half poet ; " 

 and the amount of poetry which he infused into 

 his writings will be recognised by those to whom 

 many passages, scattered like gems throughout his 

 works, are as familiar as they are to Lord Rosebery 

 himself. 



