Introductory. 3; 



Again, English coachmen are very good at their business^ — neat, firm, quick, impassive, un- 

 demonstrative, and decided — quite characteristic of their nation. But the essence of good 

 coachmanship is to drive with safety and dispatch over difficult country. Russians, Austrians, 

 Hungarians, and North Germans can boast of a wonderful class of Jehus in their own style ; 

 while on the other side of the Atlantic, the drivers of tandems and six-horse teams, over 

 half-made roads in California, have astonished our best whips by their daring and their pace. 



It is the universality of the passion for horses and horse exercise in every form that is 

 so remarkable a feature in English social life, and in such strong contrast to Continental 

 usages, where the horse, if not earning money or employed for military purposes, is considered 

 rather as a fashionable ornament, an opportunity of displaying wealth, than as an instru- 

 ment for obtaining healthful exercise. 



Even M. Taine, in his " Essays on England," the best and fairest that ever have been 

 written by any foreigner, who thoroughly admires our horse-loving taste, and attributes to 

 it all sorts of virtues we never claimed for it, such as the vigorous character of our idle 

 classes, the chastity of our rich and handsome wives — even he cannot understand how a 

 stout, middle-aged materfamilias can exhibit herself in the unbecoming costume of an 

 Amazone ; for he cannot help looking on horse exercise as a dramatic performance, reserved 

 for strong men and elegant women. " Vers deux heures la grande allee est un manage ; 

 il y a dix fois plus d'hommes a cheval et vingt fois plus d'amazoncs qu'au Bois de Boulogne 

 dans les grands jours ; de toutes petites filles, des gar^ons de huit ans sont a cot^ de leurs 

 peres, sur leurs ponies ; j'ai vu trotter des matrones larges et dignes. C'est la un de leurs 

 lu.xcs ; par exemple, dans une famille de trois personnes a qui je viens de faire visite il y a 

 trois chevaux. La mere et la fille viennent tous les jours galoper au pare, souvent meme 

 elles font leurs visites a cheval ; elles economisent sur d'autres points, sur le theatre, par 

 exemple. Ce grand mouvement parait indispensable a la santd Les jeunes filles, les dames 

 viennent ici meme par la pluie."* 



The essential difference between foreign and English notions of family horsemanship will 

 be found in a comparison of the group engaged in an afternoon canter that heads this introductory 

 matter, and the picture of a French gentleman out for a country ride, copied from a standard 

 French book by Count de Lastic St. Jal, a superior officer of the late Imperial haras or 

 breeding-studs. 



The first idea of a successful Englishman is either to mount on horseback, to give his 

 wife a carriage, or to do both. It is not only the young, the strong, the members of noble 

 families and ornaments of fashionable society, the officers of cavalry regiments, or the sons 

 of millionaires, financiers, and bankers, who are to be found in the Row. There you may 

 see aged judges and solemn bishops, with their daughters ; bankers on priceless cobs, suc- 

 cessful engineers, hard-worked Queen's Counsel, topping tradesmen, dashing stock-jobbers, 

 corn merchants from Mark Lane, indigo brokers from Mincing Lane, and representatives of 

 every class that can afford an hour's leisure and the ownership of at least one horse. In the 



• " About tivo o'clock the broad ride is like a school of horsemanship. There are ten times as many men, and twenty 

 times as many women, on horseback, as in the Bois de Boulogne on great days ; very little girls, boys not more than eight 

 years old, ride their ponies alongside their fathers ; and I have even seen stout, imposing matrons trotting along. Riding is 

 one of the luxuries of the English : for instance, a family of my acquaintance, consisting of a father, mother, and daughter, 

 keep three horses. The mother and daughter ride m the park daily, and often make visits on horseback. To afford this expense 

 they economise on other amusements, such as the theatre. This active exercise seems essential to tlieir health. Even in 

 rainy weather you may meet both young and married ladies riding in the park." 



