218 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



usually kept there had been 'taken to Osborne, in the Isle of 

 Wight, where the queen was spending the summer. The stalls 

 are wide and airy, and every thing was neat and attractive. 

 They evidently expected company. The harness-room was 

 shown us, and the different harnesses for special occasions. 

 One stable was filled with cream-colored entire horses, used 

 only on state occasions, when the queen goes to open or 

 prorogue parliament. They are Hanoverians, bred for this 

 special purpose, as the groom told us, and the only ones in 

 the kingdom. 



Her majesty's state coach was also shown us, as the great 

 wonder of the place. An old man has the charge of it, and 

 makes a charge for showing it, sixpence, I believe. It was 

 built by order of George the Third, and finished in 1761. The 

 superb paintings which adorn the doors and panels were by 

 Cypriani. The whole of the carriage and body is richly orna- 

 mented with laurel and carved work, beautifully gilt. The 

 lengtli is twenty-four feet, width eight feet three inches, height 

 twelve feet, length of pole twelve feet four inches, and weight 

 four tons. The old man was careful to impress us with the 

 fact that it cost about twenty-five thousand dollars. 



A fine riding school is also connected with the stables, where 

 the children are tauglit, almost as soon as they are able to sit 

 upright, our attendant said, by experienced riding masters. A 

 series of hurdles are used to teach the art of leaping fences, 

 <fec. Though visitors are requested not to fee the servants, our 

 attendant looked so longingly for the usual shilling that we 

 could hardly refuse, and he pocketed his money with evident 

 delight. I never knew an Englishman, luider any circum- 

 stances, to refuse money for any little trifling service for which 

 a Yaniice would feel insulted, or at least hurt, by the offer of 

 compensation. Every one expects it, and is angry, or appears 

 to be, if it is not offered. The love of money is the universal 

 weakness of the people, and it sticks out a thousand times 

 more prominently and offensively than it does among the people 

 of any part of America that I have ever visited. It is a cant 

 and stereotyped phrase of tlie times, particularly among Eng- 

 lishmen, that the Yankees love the " almighty dollar ;" but no 

 one can travel over England, and meet with every class of 

 society, without coming to the conclusion that the people of 



