OF HORSEMANSHIP. 67 



My foot, difmounting, in the ftirrup hung, 

 And the wild fleed his mafter dragg'd along ; 

 All torn and mangled I refign'd my breath, 

 And loft my pallion in untimely death : 

 Go then! by my misfortune taught, be wife! 

 And know from love v/hat mighty mifchiefs rife. 



After all, it feems moft reafonable to conclude, 

 from the mention of llirrups already reported to have 

 been made by St. Jerom, as well as from what is faid 

 concerning them in the infcription above-cited, that 

 thefe authorities, inftead of proving their antiquity, 

 evince them to be inventions purely modern ; and far- 

 ther, that the infcription above-named muft, for that 

 very reafon, be modern likewife. The learned and ac- 

 cufate explainer of antiquities, Montfaucon, after tefti- 

 fying his furprize, that the ancients fliould have been 

 entirely ignorant of this inftrument, fo ufeful in itfelf, 

 and fo eafy of invention, flatters himfelf at laft with 

 being able to aflign a reafon for it. He fays, that as 

 iong as faddles were unknown, fo long were men un- 

 acquainted with the ufe of flirrups. For, fays he, 

 while cloths and houfmgs only were laid upon the 

 horfes backs, on which the riders were to fu, flirrups 

 could not have been ufed, becaufe they could not have 

 been fattened with the fame fecurity as upon a faddle. 

 This aflertion is plaufible, but not conclufive ; for al- 

 though the flirrups being flung over, or faflened to a 

 cloth, could not have enabled the rider to mount or 



K 2 dif mount, 



