CHAPTER I 



FIRST TRIP TO RUSSIA 



M. Sorel The Chevaliers Gardes Krasnoe Selo Breaking a Trooper Breaking 

 for the Grand Duke Nicholas Russian Officers Russian Soldiers Doctors 

 and Veterinary Surgeons in Russia. 



WANTING a place to put our things in, we bought 

 about this time a house in Crick, which is a small 

 old-fashioned village in the centre of the Pytchley country. 

 We had just concluded the purchase when I received a letter 

 from an old acquaintance, M. Charles Sorel, whom I had the 

 pleasure of meeting in Paris some years ago. He was then 

 at the Cirque d'Ete, and used to exercise M. Cldmenceau's 

 horses. Sorel is a good-looking young Frenchman, has very 

 nice manners, and is a great favourite with the ladies. He 

 had been two years in a circus in England, and was for some 

 time at Captain Fitzgerald's riding school in Gloucester 

 Crescent as an assistant. While he was out of a job, he and 

 his wife stayed with us for a few weeks at Melton Mowbray, 

 where I showed him several things in horse-breaking, as he 

 was anxious to learn all he could about that art. In his 

 letter he told me that after many ups and downs he was at 

 last settled in the comfortable post of ecuyer to the officers of 

 the Chevaliers Gardes at St. Petersburg. Russian officers 

 like to have their horses quiet : and small blame to them. 

 As they do not look upon breaking and exercising horses as 

 a pleasure, they employ an eciiyer, Bereiter or rough-rider to 



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