220 THE ADVENTURES OF A GENTLEMAN 



young gentlemen, {very young,) who affect to prefer 

 " a brute with a queer temper," because he will "do 

 most work." These pinafore riders " never find 

 the horse too much for tliem^'" — " He goes very 

 quietly with me !'' a peculiar emphasis being care- 

 lessly as it were lent to the pronoun, as if less by 

 way of marking the skill of the rider, than the 

 oddity of the horse. When I hear this, I set it down 

 as of course, that the speaker has never been on 

 horseback a second time in his life, or at all events, 

 never mounted a second horse. It is digressing a 

 little from the subject, but I cannot resist the temp- 

 tation of mentioning an adventure I had a few years 

 since with a jacknapes of this description. He over- 

 took me one afternoon riding home from the city ; 

 he was mounted on a good mare, but with vice legi- 

 bly written on her face. He was obviously uncom- 

 fortable, and I advised him to dismount. "0 no ! 

 never liked a horse better ; she is rather queer to be 

 sure, but I am riding her into order for a friend who 

 finds her too much for him." I was not his nurse, 

 so I said no more. Presently he dropped his stick ; 

 I offered to hold the mare while he recovered it, but 

 I found that he dared not dismount ; he could not be 



