76 



THE BARB AND THE BRIDLE. 



will be considerably easier. If, on the contrary, she is of a square 

 figure — short in the neck and waist, and stiff in the shoulders — con- 

 siderably more time is requisite. But with care, attention, and 

 perseverance it can be acquired by all in early youth. 



I know a lady who rides with both dash and judgment with hounds 

 who is anything but a good figure; but she began imder proper 

 tuition when she was very young, and, although no longer so, she 

 has preserved the souplesse and true balance acquired in her early 

 days. Natural aptitude, too, is of great assistance to both master 

 and pupil, and should be energetically developed by the former ; at 

 the same time, care should be taken that the pupil does not overrun 

 her lessons. 



As an instance of what can be accomplished even at a first essay 

 by a lady gifted with natural talent for riding, I cannot refram 

 from relating the following : — Some years ago I chanced to be at 

 the school of a fashionable riding master in London, when a class 

 of young ladies was going through a ride. In the gallery from which 

 I was observing them was also the mother of one of the young ladies 

 who was riding, and of another much younger, who was standing 

 by her side watching with the most intense interest the riding below. 

 The younger lady was not more than ten or eleven years old, but of 

 -a form and figiu-e exactly fitted for performing well in the saddle, 

 being tall of her age, and lithe and supple in her movements. She 

 did not speak, but I could see from the excitement of her manner, 

 the gUtter of her large dark eyes, and her changing colour, that she 

 was heart and soul with the fair equestrians. The ride finished 

 with a leaping lesson, and there was some capital jumping over a 

 gorsed bar, hurdles double and single, and an artificial brook. The 

 last performance completely overcame the little spectator in the 

 gallery. Bursting into a violent fit of sobbmg and weeping, she 

 clutched her mother's dress, and cried convulsively, "Dear mamma, 

 let me ride, let me ride." The lady, quite surprised and very much 

 aifected by the emotion and excited state of the child, nevertheless, 

 refused, declaring she was too young. But the young supiDlicant 

 for equestrian houom^s was not to be denied ; she continued to 

 implore and weep, and, the riding master coming to her aid, the 



