152 THE ARAB THE HORSE OF THE FUTURE 



horse, but that he also knows that the Arab is capable 

 of doing much better service. For the day of battle 

 he should, perhaps, make choice of an English hunter, 

 but for a whole campaign, says he, ' give me one 

 Arab in preference to two English horses.' 



He also says that a traveller feels amazement to 

 think that in such a country men can trust them- 

 selves upon horses where you would expect to see 

 them mounted only on goats. Those horses don't 

 fall over a straw. The Baron's vanity which he 

 speaks of gives you a part of the key to the Anglo- 

 mania vanity, the desire of being on a tall horse — 

 the vanity of the horsey youth in top-boots and 

 knee-breeches, whom the Times satirizes as a ' ten- 

 dollar amateur'; the vanity of the Piccadilly masher 

 prancing before the dames in the Park ; the arrogant 

 vanity of the insular mind, which thinks that nothing 

 can be good which is not English. The other 

 part of the key to this absurd Anglomania is the 

 gambling. 



In another place Mr. Kelly says that it is only in 

 the East that you can form a just idea of the Arab 

 horse, and he devotes a full page to enlarging on his 

 merits, his beauty, his gentleness, his picturesque 

 form, his caressing manner to his groom, his playful- 

 ness, his inquisitive attention, evincing as much cer- 

 tainty, force of character, and varied play of feature, 

 as the emotions of mind on the face of a child. 

 Many of my guests have noticed and spoken of this 

 caressing manner shown by my young horses, as also 



