James Fillis. 351 



high, and consequently there was too much weight on the 

 hind legs of the horse. Yet for all this, he made his horse 

 do more than I have ever seen any other high school animal 

 perform. 



The lightness and freedom of Germinal was in singular 

 contrast to the wooden movements of the horses ridden by 

 Herr Wulff when I saw him in his circus at Hengler's. The 

 Germans seem, in obtaining control over their riding horses, 

 to deprive them of all their spirit, and their animals, as a 

 rule, go through their work in a dead, mechanical manner. 

 The French, on the contrary, do all they can to preserve 

 the fire of their animals. Among the former, the control is 

 that of the breaker ; among the latter, that of the rider. 



Fillis did each night about ten airs, which were put down 

 in the programme, so that one could follow each evolution. 

 I cannot understand why those high school riders who per- 

 form in circuses in England do not grant this favour to their 

 audience, few of whom have any acquaintance with this 

 system of equitation. 



Although Circus Renz is the best one I have ever seen, 

 its programme had the objectionable item of two rearers 

 each carrying a lady on an ordinary side-saddle, while these 

 two horses walked about on their hind legs. The feat itself 

 is not alone opposed to all principles of true horsemanship ; 

 but its performance, in this case, was nothing short of a 

 crime, in that it placed two women in a position of danger 

 out of which they could not escape if anything went wrong. 

 Herr Renz is no doubt aware that poor Emilie Loisset, an 

 exceptionally brilliant ecuyere, was killed at the Cirque d'Hiver 

 in 1882 by a rearer falling back on her. 



After staying a few days at Hamburg in order to study 

 Fillis and Germinal, we returned to England, where I finished 

 this book : gave a lecture to the Society of Arts on the Horse 

 from an Artistic Point of View, and one to the Walsall Cham- 

 ber of Commerce on Horses and Saddles ; showed my photo- 

 graphs of horses to the Photographic Society of Great Britain 



