Sydney Smith on Riding. 51 



parallel with the horse's side. To-day, the best 

 riders do not so hold their feet. Cross-country a 

 man certainly does not. The proof is forthcom- 

 ing at the Country Club on any race-day, or at 

 every meet here or in England, that a man riding 

 over an obstacle of any size will use all the legs 

 he can without digging his spurs into his horse's 

 flanks, in a way he could not do with the feet par- 

 allel to the horse's sides. 



The modern dispensation differs from the old 

 one in not being tied to the military seat. The 

 Rev. Sydney Smith objected to clergymen riding, 

 but modified his disapproval in those cases when 

 they " rode very badly and turned out their toes." 

 A generation ago, a man was always thinking of 

 the position of his feet, as he cares not to do to- 

 day, if he sits firmly in the saddle, and boasts 



light hands. 



XIV. 



While on this subject, one cannot refrain from 

 indulging in a friendly laugh at the attempt to 

 bend our unreasonable Eastern weather to the 

 conditions of a fox-hunting climate. The hunt- 

 ing season is that time of the year when the 

 crops are out of the ground. In England, during 

 the winter months, the weather is open and moist, 

 and the soft ground makes falling " delightfully 

 easy," as dear old John Leech has it. And the 

 little hedges and ditches of some of the good 



