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I am most grateful to Major Dermot McCalmont, M.F.H., the noted racehorse owner and Master hunting the Kilkenny Foxhounds himself for many years, for his kind foreword. My thanks are also due to the publisher, Mr. Donald Newby, for his editorial advice and great assistance at all stages, and to the illustrators - my old Shanghai friend Edmund Toeg for his sketches opposite and p.79, Mr. Peter Heriz-Smith for his humorous drawings, and Mr. John Williams for his cover design. Last but certainly not least I must acknowledge the debt I owe to my wife for her help and encouragement, not only in the last furlong but ever since the starting gate went up on this enterprise.
Four Pheasants,
When Maurice Springfield and I were young men, it was taken for granted that we, together with our friends and neighbours, would be brought up to play hard, to ride straight, and above all, to enjoy ourselves in the open air. It was also taken for granted that we should thus be qualified in due course to go overseas as sailors or soldiers in the British Forces, or as administrators of the British Empire. For young men nowadays it appears that academic qualifications and prowess on paper count for more than the more robust activities of our upbringing; and it is taken for granted that they will spend more time being entertained by other people, on television, than in seeking and making their own amusements. And the British Empire is now something of which young men seem almost ashamed. It is therefore both refreshing and, I venture to say, instructive, to read Maurice Springfield's hook. He must be proud of the part he has played in upholding British traditions overseas and, best of all, it was clearly enjoyable. It is the capacity for enjoying life oneself and for communicating this enjoyment to other people that has been derived directly from his upbringing in the English and Irish countryside; and who can say that modern methods produce any better results?
Mountjuliet,
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MAURICE O. SPRINGFIELD.