BEFORE MOUNTING. 



But a few months since, the author, whose 

 thirty odd years in the saddle in many parts of 

 the world have, he trusts, taught him that mod- 

 esty which should always be bred of usage, was 

 showing some of the instantaneous photographs 

 of his horse Patroclus to a group of Club men. 

 Most of the gentlemen were old friends, but one 

 of the photographs having been passed to a by- 

 stander, whose attire marked him as belonging to 

 the most recently developed Boston type of horse- 

 men, elicited, much to his listeners' entertain- 

 ment, the remark that " naw man can wide in a 

 saddle like that, ye know, not weally wide, ye 

 know ! naw fawin, ye know ! would n't be tole- 

 wated in our school, ye know ! " The author was 

 informed by a mutual acquaintance that the gen- 

 tleman was taking a course of lessons at the 

 swellest riding academy of the city, and had re- 

 cently imported an English gelding. In defer- 

 ence to such excellent authority, whose not un- 

 kindly meant, if somewhat brusquely uttered, 



