100 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. 



and the mechanical horse had put him on his back. 

 But for the mattresses, Piccadilly could have counted 

 more broken collar-bones than ever did Leicestershire 

 in the blindest and deepest of. its Novembers. Rough- 

 riders from the Life-Guards, Blues, Artillery, and half 

 the cavalry regiments in the service, came to try con- 

 clusions with the spectre ; and, like antagonists of 

 some automaton chess-player, retired defeated and 

 dismayed. 



For this universal failure, one could neither blame the 

 men nor the military system taught in their schools. 

 It stands to reason that human wind and muscle must 

 sooner or later succumb to mechanical force. The in- 

 ventor himself expressed surprise- at the consummate 

 horsemanship displayed by many of his fallen visitors, 

 and admitted that more than one rough-rider would 

 have tired out and subjugated any living creature of 

 real flesh and blood ; while the essayists universally de- 

 clared the imitation so perfect, that at no period of the 

 struggle could they believe they were contending with 

 clock-work, rather than the natural efforts of some 

 wild unbroken colt. 



But those who succeeded best, I remarked (and I 

 speak with some little experience, having myself been 

 indebted to the mattresses in my turn), were the horse- 



