77V THE RIDING-SCHOOL. 197 



riding master, because the very few men who 

 have the specified qualifications are too well ac- 

 quainted with the characteristics of their coun- 

 trywomen to think of undertaking to instruct 

 them in the equestrian art. Who, then, shall 

 be his substitute ? Clearly, either a person suf- 

 ficiently patient and clever to neutralize the 

 faults of American women, or one capable of 

 adapting himself to them, of eluding them, and 

 of forcing a certain quantity of knowledge upon 

 his pupils, almost in spite of themselves. The 

 former is hardly to be found among natives 

 of the United States; the latter can be found 

 nowhere else, except, possibly, in certain Eng- 

 lish shires in which the inhabitants so closely 

 resemble the average American that when they 

 immigrate hither they are scarcely distinguish- 

 able from men whose ancestors came two or 

 three centuries ago. 



A foreign teacher, whether French, German 

 or Hungarian, always regards himself in the just 

 and proper European manner as the superior of 

 his pupil. The traditions in which he has been 

 reared, under which he has been instructed, not 

 only in riding, but in all other matters, survive 



