26 FIRST TRIP TO RUSSIA 



extract the nonsense out of their animals. One of the 

 officers of the Chevaliers Gardes, wanting to buy an Irish 

 mare as a charger, applied to Sorel, with the result that I was 

 intrusted with the commission. I sent out a nice mare with 

 a good deal of bone and substance, strong legs and feet, the 

 manners of an angel, and boldness and cleverness which 

 would enable her to cross any country. The only thing that 

 I did not like about the mare was that she was a trifle cobby, 

 and not enough of the Leicestershire hunter type, which 

 forms with the thoroughbred the only two classes of horses 

 worth riding, in my opinion. Sorel had, however, impressed 

 on me the necessity of sending out something thick-set, 

 absolutely quiet (toute a fait tranqnille\ and a clever and 

 very temperate jumper. Horses, as we all know, can't be 

 made to order like a suit of clothes, so I did the best I could. 

 Anyhow, this purchase obtained such general approval in 

 the regiment that Sorel was asked to invite me out, so that 

 the officers might personally explain to me their special 

 wants in horse-flesh, with the object of my supplying them 

 from England. I accordingly proceeded in July 1897 via 

 Berlin to St. Petersburg, and then journeyed on for about 

 seventeen miles to the village of Krasnoe Selo, in the 

 vicinity of which a force of about forty thousand men was 

 encamped for exercise. I was kindly received by General 

 Nicolaief, Colonel Kasnakof, and the other officers of the 

 Chevaliers Gardes, which is the senior regiment in the 

 Russian army. I may mention in passing that the command- 

 ing officers of these regiments are generals, who hold a 

 similar position to that of colonels in our service who are 

 in command of regiments. I stayed for three weeks at 

 "The Red Village" with the Sorels, who did everything to 

 make my visit agreeable. 



Krasnoe Selo is a long, pretty village on high and fairly 

 level ground, and consists chiefly of country residences, a few 



