186 HARRTEES. 



tutional gallops to wheezy aldermen, or enterprizing 

 adults fresh from the riding-school — affording fun for 

 fast young ladies and pleasant sights for a crowd of foot- 

 folks and fly-loads, halting on the hrows of the steep 

 combs, content with the living panorama. 



The Downs and the sea are the redeeming features 

 of Brighton, considered as a place of change and re- 

 creation for the over-worked of London. Without these 

 advantages one might quite as well migrate from the 

 City to Eegent Street, varying the exercise by a stroll 

 along the Serpentine. To a man who needs rest there 

 is something at first sight truly frightful in the townish 

 gregariousness of Brighton proper, w4th its pretentious 

 common-place architecture, and its ceaseless bustle and 

 rolling of wheels. But then comes into view first the 

 sea, stretching away into infinite silence and solitude, 

 dotted over on sunny days with pleasure-boats ; and 

 next, perpetually dashing along the league of sea- 

 borded highway, group after group of gay riding-parties 

 of all ages and both sexes — Spanish hats, feathers, and 

 riding-habits — amazones, according to the French classic 

 title, in the majority. First comes Papa Briggs, with all 

 his progeny, down to the little bare-legged imitation 

 Highlander on a shaggy Shetland pony ; then a riding- 

 master in mustachios, boots, and breeches, with a dozen 

 pupils in divers stages of timidity and full-blown te- 

 merity ; and then again loving pairs in the process of 

 courtship or the ecstasies of the honeymoon, pacing or 

 racing along, indifferent to the interest and admiration 

 that such pairs always excite. Besides the groups 

 there are single figures, military and civil, on prancing 

 thorough-bred hacks and solid weight-carrying cobs, 

 contrasted with a great army of hard -worked animals, 

 at half-a-crown an hour, which compose the bulk of the 



