28 RIDING FOR LADIES. 



ful bruises, acquire skill if left to himself, long in advance 

 of his brother-learner who is trusting to somebody to bring 

 him along (being pretty certain to come down with a run 

 whenever that *' somebody " considers it expedient to let 

 go), so, in like manner, I shall be ready to back my pupil, 

 although I may never have seen her, to hold her position 

 across country, in the park, by lane, street, or roadway, 

 against the city demoiselle, who in a fashionable school has 

 been taught to ride upon a carpet of tan, and who would 

 be as much at sea in a crowded thoroughfare, or endea- 

 vouring to cross an intricate hunting-country, as an inex- 

 perienced vocalist would be if called upon to interpret the 

 difficulties of Wagner or Bach. 



Let me here especially impress upon you that, if you 

 value your prospects as a future good rider, you should not 

 suffer anything to induce you to accept the services as 

 instructor of John the coachman, or James the groom. It 

 is lamentable to see the manner in which parents and 

 guardians of the present day give up the teaching of their 

 charges to this class of persons, not one of whom has any 

 more idea of how a lady ought to manage a horse, than of 

 instructing her in the etiquette of the dinner-table, or the 

 intricacies of the valse. On the evils of the system, I need 

 not now enlarge ; they ought to be apparent to even the 

 most obtuse ; suffice it to say, that fathers and mothers 

 who permit their daughters to be taught by studgrooms 

 ought not to wonder when these personages impart 

 another and different style of knowledge to the pupils 

 whom they have been unwisely privileged to instruct. 



