PREFACE 



TO 



THE SECOND EDITION, 



THE sale of a two-thousand edition in something 

 under three months, and at a season of the year 

 when hunting and racing men are in anything but a 

 reading mood, is the Author's best excuse for court- 

 ing Fortune a second time. Twelve of the chapters 

 have been carefully revised, while that on the Breed- 

 ing of Hunters has not only undergone the process, 

 but has been enlarged by upwards of twenty pages. 

 Thanks to the kindness of several hunting men, a 

 majority of whom were only known to him by name, 

 he has been corrected on three or four points in the 

 latter, where the memories of his original informants 

 had been at fault, and furnished to boot with several 

 new facts and incidents within their own immediate 

 knowledge. Hence (seeing that he has also called 

 Mr. Herring junior's pencil to his aid) he trusts that 

 it can no longer be urged against his book, as it has 

 been hitherto, that the hunting-field has had by no 



