1G0 IN THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 



and enjoyment, not upon displaying their 

 habits, or, if they be men, the airs of their 

 horses, and the correctness of their equipment, 

 or upon racing. 



As for the solitary canter, when the kindly 

 Fates shall endow that respectable American 

 sovereign, your father, with a park somewhat 

 bigger than the seventy-five square feet of 

 ground inclosed by the iron railing before his 

 present palace, it will be time enough to think 

 about that ; but you can no more venture upon 

 a public road alone than an English lady could, 

 and indeed, your risk in doing so would be 

 even greater than hers. Why ? Because in 

 rural England all men and all boys, even the 

 poorest and the humblest, seem to know in- 

 stinctively how a horse should be equipped. 

 True, a Wordsworth and a Coleridge did hesi- 

 tate for hours over the problem of adjusting a 

 horse collar, but Johnny Ragamuffin, from the 

 slums, or Jerry Hickathrift, of some shire with 

 the most uncouth of dialects, can adjust a slip- 

 ping saddle, or, in a hand's turn, can remove a 

 stone which is torturing a hoof. 



Not so your American wayfarer, city bred or 



