From Gladiateur to Persimmon : Turf Memories of Thirty Years (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from From Gladiateur to Persimmon: Turf Memories of Thirty Years

To cover the ground thoroughly between 1865 and 1896 would necessitate the production of about half-a-dozen volumes the size of this one, and I have thought it wiser to give as complete histories as possible of a few great horses, rather than to produce hasty and unfinished sketches of three or four times the number. I have devoted myself almost exclusively to horses rather than to men. In the first place, I may frankly confess to regarding the former as infinitely the more inter esting of the two, and, in the second, it is possible to write perfectly freely and truthfully about them without any serious fear of giving offence. When one is dealing with men the case is altogether different. If they are still living, a plain and un varnished tale of the careers of some few of them would probably lead to libel actions, whilst I Should be reluctant indeed to write one word against any of those who have gone from us. De mortuis nil nisi bonum is a maxim in which I am a firm believer, though I do not interpret it to mean that, because a man is dead, it is necessary to write a fulsome eulogy of him, but rather that, where it is not possible to give honest praise, a discreet silence should be preserved.

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