Z THE BARB AND THE BRIDLE. 



by riding. Mounted on a well-broken, well-bred horse, and canter- 

 ing over a breezy down, or trotting on the soft sward, on the way to 

 covert, a lady feels a glow of health and flow of spirits unattainable 

 by any other kind of out or in door recreation. 



That the foregoing truths are fully appreciated by the ladies of 

 the Upper Ten Thousand is abundantly proved by the goodly 

 gathering of fair and aristocratic equestrians to be seen in Rotten 

 Row during the London season, and at every fashionable meet of 

 hounds in the kingdom in the winter time. 



Nor is riding confined to those on]y whose names figure in the 

 pages of " Burke "or " Debrett." Within the last twenty years the 

 wives and daughters of professional men and wealthy tradesmen, who 

 were content formerly to take an airing in a carriage, have taken to 

 riding on horseback. And they are quite right. It is not (with 

 management) a bit more expensive, Avhile it is beyond comparison 

 the most agreeable and salubrious mode of inhahng the breeze. 



The daughter of the peer, or other great grandee of the country, 

 may be almost said to be a horsewoman to the manner born. 

 Riding comes as naturally to her as it does to her brothers. Both 

 clamber up on their ponies, or are lifted on, almost as soon as they 

 can walk, and consequently " grow " into their riding, and become 

 at fifteen or sixteen years of age as much at home in the saddle as 

 they are on a sofa. In the hunting field they see the best types of 

 riding extant, male and female, and learn to copy their style and 

 mode of handling their horses, while oral instruction of the highest 

 order is always at hand to supplement daily practice. To the great 

 ladies of England, then, all hints on the subject would be superfluous. 

 Most of them justly take great pride in their riding, spare no pains 

 to excel ia it, and are thoroughly successful. 



In fact, it is the one accomplishment in which they as far surpass 

 the women of all other countries in the world as they outvie them in 

 personal beauty. 



A German or French woman possibly may hold her own with an 

 Englishwoman in a ball room or a box at the opera; but put her 

 on horseback, and take her to the covert side, she is "not in it" with 

 her English rivals. 



