FIRST HINTS TO A LEARNER, 25 



communications will be at once sent forward. This plan I 

 have found to work very well upon former occasions, a few 

 rules being of necessity laid down. For example : ask 

 all questions as briefly as possible ; write clearly ; do 

 not cross your letters ; and wait patiently for answers, 

 accepting the assurance that no unnecessary delay will be 

 made. 



Having, then, advised you, if a city belle, to secure the 

 services of a competent riding-master (though it shall be 

 my aim by-and-by to teach you how to ride very well 

 without one), I would follow up this counsel by saying, 

 when you do so, leave yourself entirely in his hands, and 

 do precisely what he tells you. This is not by any 

 means an unnecessary admonition, for at least one-half the 

 awkward riders whose deficiencies pain our critical eyes 

 in the Row and elsewhere, have learned in good schools, 

 but have been too wilful, or too conceited, to give up their 

 own entirely erroneous ideas on certain subjects connected 

 with equitation, and, as a consequence, failure — not to say 

 fiasco — has of course followed. 



It is precisely the same with regard to every other art. 

 The pupil should submit her own opinions to those of her 

 teacher. If he is not competent to instruct her, why go 

 to him at all } And, on the other hand, if he is, why not 

 follow his advice } 



To illustrate my meaning : I rode with a girl, one day, 

 to a meet of hounds at Courtown Gate — starting from 

 Kilcock Station, to which point we had railed our horses 

 from Dublin, and trotting the two miles, or thereabouts, at 



