PREFACE. 



It is time that a life of perhaps the most pleasing 

 sporting writer of the present century should be 

 written, or attempted. After searching every En- 

 cyclopaedia and Dictionary of Biography upon 

 which I could lay my hand, I have not been suc- 

 cessful in finding the name of " Henry Hall Dixon " 

 in any of them. On the other hand, there is in all 

 a memoir, sometimes a prolonged memoir, of Mr. 

 William Hepworth Dixon, although it is more than 

 doubtful whether any of his numerous books will 

 live as long as " Post and Paddock," or " Silk and 

 Scarlet." The only volume in which I can find any 

 mention of my present hero is in a work called 

 " Celebrities of the Century," edited by Lloyd C 

 Sanders (formerly Exhibitioner of Christ Church 

 College, Oxford), and published by Messrs. Cassell 

 and Co. (Limited) in 1887. The notice to which 

 I refer is in the following words : — 



"Dixon, Henry Hall; born 1822, died 1870 : 



