KAERIERS. 101 



that now it may be considered about the best place in 

 the country for making sure of a daily constitutional 

 gallop from October to March at short notice, and 

 with no particular attention to costume and a very mo- 

 derate stud, or no stud at all. 



With these and a few other floating notions of air, 

 exercise, and change of scene hi my head having de- 

 cided that, however tempting to the caricaturist, the 

 amusement of hundreds was not to be despised I took 

 my place .at eight o'clock, at London-bridge station, in a 

 railway carriage the best of hacks for a long distance 

 on a bright October morning, with no other change from 

 ordinary road-riding costume than one of Callow's long- 

 lashed, instead of a straight-cutting, whips, so saving 

 all the impediments of baggage. By ten o'clock I was 

 wondering what the " sad sea waves " were saying to the 

 strange costumes in which it pleases the fair denizens 

 of Brighton to deck themselves. My horse, a little, 

 wiry, well-bred chestnut, had been secured beforehand 

 at a dealer's, well known in the Surrey country. 



The meet was the race-course, a good three miles from 

 the Parade. The Brighton meets are stereotyped. The 

 Race-course, Telsconibe Tye, the Devil's Dyke, and 

 Thunders Barrow are repeated weekly. But of the way 

 along the green -topped chalk cliffs, beside the far-spread- 

 ing sea, or up and down the moorland hills and valleys, 

 who can ever weary ? Who can weary of hill and dale 

 and the eternal sea ? 



To those accustomed to an inclosed country there is 

 something extremely curious in mile after mile of open 

 undulating downs lost in the distant horizon. My day 

 was bright. About eleven o'clock the horsemen and 

 amazones arrived in rapidly-succeeding parties, and 

 gathered on the high ground. Pleasure visitors, out for 



