XXXYI 



I FEAR we may not be permitted to wander together 

 all over Europe. We must ride to orders, and seek 

 climes more full of oddities in horsemanship. There is not 

 much difference, after all, between any of the riders of the 

 great military powers, barring Kussia. As in Germany, 

 they all pattern on the same model, and produce, Avith 

 :some questions of degree, about the same horsemen. If 

 Austria could claim that her people were fit followers of 

 their gallant Empress, who is noted as one of the best 

 riders who ever led the field over Warwickshire, they 

 would be distinctly at the top of all the horsemen of Eu- 

 rope ; but Her Majesty is a clear exception to every rule 

 of royalty. She is peerless in the side-saddle. The Austro- 

 Hungarians, m the recent Berlin -Vienna ride, were ready 

 victors, and received from the German Emperor the com- 

 pliment of being called the best cavalry in Europe — a tru- 

 ism partly due to their pattern being at hand in the admi- 

 rable light horse of their eastern dominions, which they 

 have cleverly imitated. The Russians have, in a similar 

 manner, patterned to a certain extent on the Cossack ; 

 but of him we shall treat when we come to the Oriental, 

 whose ways he possesses more than those of the European. 



The Italians present nothing peculiar in their equitation. 

 They are cast in the same military mould as the rest of 

 nations, though their method is to-day somewhat marred 

 by the English saddle and an imperfect imitation of the 

 English seat; and these are, I deem it, inapplicable to cav- 



