4 



The Rook of the Hokse. 



early morning chihilren, professional men, and government officials, at mid-day ladies, form 

 the majority of the civilian cavalry. In a word, horses for one use or another, quite apart 

 from fashion, form an important part of the life of every well-to-do English family, and are 

 often considered essential as the means of obtaining health and exercise, or superintending a 

 rapidly-extending business by those who are by no means rich. 



The nouvcau riche wishes to have his stud and appointments perfect and complete ; to 

 a man of narrow means it is an object to maintain his stable and coach-house at the 

 least possible expense. Both need ample, plain, practical advice and information. It is for 

 these — an annually increasing number of my countrymen and countrywomen, who wish to 

 ride or to drive, or to be driven — that this work, long in preparation, has been written, with 



A FRENCH MASIER OV THE HOKSE. (FROM COUNT DE LASTIC ST. JAL's WORK.) 



the assistance of very famous performers in the field and on the road — horsemen, coachmen, 

 and breeders of the best class of horses — to whom every description of horse life is as " familiar 

 in their mouths as household words." 



With this end in view I have endeavoured to begin at the beginning, to take nothing for 

 granted, but teach the ABC of every subject within my programme. 



I shall have something — though not very much — to say to the fortunate ones who had 

 the stable-door and the school-room door opened to them at tlie same moment ; who have grown 

 from infancy to boyhood, and from boyhood to manhood, with the choice of riding-horses 

 of every degree of size and training, from the family pony to the thorough-bred hunter or 

 park hack, with the services and instruction of grey - headed huntsmen, or Yorkshire- 

 bred stud-grooms ; who commenced their studies of the mysteries of the whii) and rein 

 under some veteran family coachman, and who have graduated in all the stages of driving 

 k>re, advancing from the pony-cart to the mail-iihaeton and tandem, or even culminating 



