RIDING IN ST. PETERSBURG 93 



bed under foot, especially if he has liberty to move about, as 

 in a looSe box, he will keep far warmer than in the open, even 

 when the latitude is a long way south of the Gulf of Finland. 



I landed the horses at Reval, and came in the box with 

 them to St. Petersburg, where I put them up in the Galerniya 

 Street riding school, which was then carried on by a Polish 

 Jew and an Anglo- Russian, neither of whom was distinguished 

 by business capacity. As little was done in the place, I 

 generally had full use of the school, which was very small for 

 a Continental one, being only about 15 yards wide and 30 

 yards long. The Petersburg public cannot be said to go in 

 much for riding. In this city of over a million inhabitants, 

 there are only two public riding schools : that in the Galerniya, 

 and a slightly larger one situated in the Semenovsky Platz, 

 and which is well managed by two Germans of the name of 

 Bosse. These two maneges are the only places for civilians 

 to ride in during the seven or eight months of winter, and in 

 summer there is nowhere else to ride except the paved streets. 

 The supply of riding accommodation is amply sufficient for the 

 Russian demand ; because nine-tenths of the users of the two 

 schools are foreigners, the large majority of whom are Germans. 

 Those of us who have lived in Germany, know that the 

 Germans are very fond of riding, although their country does 

 not admit of fox-hunting. Judging by the numbers who 

 frequent the beautiful Thiergarten, compared to which our 

 Rotten Row is a very humble affair, the percentage of riders 

 in Berlin is probably at least five times that of those in 

 London. Nowadays in England, riding is almost entirely 

 confined to people who hunt and race. The cavalry riding 

 schools in Petersburg are large and numerous. 



Mr. von Dervis was enchanted with one of the mares I 

 brought out for him, but did not like the better bred and 

 smarter mare, which I thought the more valuable of the two. 

 As he considered his favourite was well worth the money 



