390 THE HORSE 



postilions in the chaises of the nobility and gentry, are 

 getting very thinned. But those were the days when 

 England was justly famous as a nation of horsemen ; and 

 now, like many a celebrity, we are living amongst the ashes 

 of a past reputation. If a given number of persons of the 

 younger generation were selected at random from any 

 public gathering, say, a football match, a theatre, or a crowd 

 assembled to gape at some public character, how many per 

 thousand would be found who could ride even a docile 

 horse ten miles ? How many indeed would there be who 

 had ever even been on a horse at all ! We are no longer a 

 nation of horsemen, and even the picked riders amongst us 

 have now to take a back seat to those of foreign nations, 

 who have lately come to Olympia to add to our national 

 humiliation. Mechanical traction in all its various forms 

 has taken away the necessity for riding, except in wild 

 and mountainous districts ; and has also destroyed the 

 pleasure of an amble along our country roads and lanes. 

 If it were not for the delights of the chase very few 

 persons would now ride from year's end to year's end, for 

 polo is of necessity confined to a comparatively small number 

 of people. The various packs of hounds form assets of 

 grave national importance, for if they were unfortunately 

 squeezed out of existence through any modern legislation, 

 few people indeed would ever take the trouble to learn to 

 ride, and there would be but a scanty number of horses 

 required to satisfy the wants of these few. 



Riding, like everything else, is preferably learned in 

 youth, and a child may with advantage begin its earliest 

 lessons almost as soon as it can walk ; for however much a 

 horseman may know, he is ever learning something fresh 

 about the animal, even to the end of his life. But the 

 earliest lessons should be given by a careful instructor, who 

 himself knows what the position and seat should be, and 

 how the reins should be held and used, and who both can 

 and will instruct the little pupil in all the minutiae of the 

 art of riding. It is at the beginning of a thing that the best 

 teaching is required, for then faults are quickly corrected ; 

 there is nothing to unlearn afterwards, and a correct style 



