RIDING FOR LADIES. 



ministering angel. She wrote thus : " I had a horse pro- 

 vided for me of rare beauty and grace, but a perfect Buce- 

 phalus in her way. She was only two generations removed 

 from a splendid Arabian, given by the good old king to the 

 Duke of Kent when H.R.H. went out in command to Nova 

 Scotia. The creature was not three years old, and to all 

 appearance unbroken. Her ^manners were those of a kid 

 rather than of a horse ; she was of a lovely dappled gray, 

 with mane and tail of silver, the latter almost sweeping the 

 ground ; and in her frolicsome gambols she turned it over 

 her back like a Newfoundland dog. Her slow step was a 

 bound, her^ swift motion unlike that of any other animal I 

 ever rode, so fleet, so smooth, so unruffled. I know nothing 

 to which I can compare it. Well, I made this lovely 

 creature so fond of me by constant petting, to which, I 

 suppose, her Arab character made her peculiarly sensitive, 

 that my voice had equal power over her, as over my faithful 

 docile dog. No other person could in the slightest degree 

 control her. Our corps, the 73rd Batt. of the 60th Rifles, 

 was composed wholly of the elite of Napoleon's soldiers, 

 taken in the Peninsula, and preferring the British service 

 to a prison. They were, principally, conscripts, and many 

 were evidently of a higher class in society than those usually 

 found in the ranks. Among them were several Chasseurs 

 and Polish Lancers, very fine equestrians, and as my husband 

 had a field-officer's command on detachment, and allow- 

 ances, our horses were well looked after. His groom was 

 a Chasseur, mine a Pole, but neither could ride "Fairy" 

 unless she happened to be in a very gracious mood. Lord 

 Dalhousie's English coachman afterwards tried his hand at 

 taming her, but all in vain. In an easy quiet manner she 

 either sent her rider over her head or, by a laughable 

 manoeuvre, sitting down like a dog on her haunches, slipped 



