3 io Among Men and Horess, 



with us to London, where I put him up at The Royal Mili- 

 tary Riding-School, Gloucester Crescent, Bayswater. I will 

 now let my readers into a little secret, which was that, 

 through all our travels, my wife, notwithstanding the lavish 

 praise she had obtained for her riding from foreign news- 

 papers, had the great sorrow of her London notices being 

 limited to a brief mention in the Field, and some sketches in 

 the Graphic. Wherever we went, after having ridden at 

 one of our shows, to the enthusiastic delight of the men, she 

 was almost always asked by some lady (of course) if she had 

 ever performed in London. She had then the mortification 

 which was naturally aggravated each time it was repeated 

 of explaining that the only occasion on which she had come 

 before the London public in the capacity of a lady rider, was 

 for charity, as I have described on page 130. As we had an 

 idea of going to America later on, she felt that the only 

 press notices which would pass muster across the Atlantic 

 would be those with the London trade mark on them. As 

 soon as I had concluded the purchase of the grey gelding, 

 whom we called Gustave, I told her to cheer up ; for, bar 

 accidents, she would have her book full of London ' cuttings ' 

 before the year was ended. With this object in view, I 

 commenced to train Gustave so that he would have a perfect 

 snaffle-bridle mouth and become a clever jumper. He was 

 a well-bred horse, with a moderately-sized head, light neck, 

 remarkably flat and sloping shoulders, short back, good 

 loin and barrel, tail set on high, clean forelegs barring a few 

 splints, and with rather sickle hocks. 



Gustave had had his mouth spoiled by a long 

 succession of riding - school pupils, whose attacks on 

 the reins he used to try to avoid by throwing up his 

 head in the air, or by jibing. He had only a 

 very faint idea of jumping ; he was miserably thin ; 

 and the heels of all his feet were contracted, and 

 their frogs were suffering from thrush. The first things 

 to do were, evidently, to get him a nice loose box ; give 



