The Family Pony. 223 



of State, checks their ringing laughter, or their cheerful and childish talk. And then what 

 pluck the little creatures have ; and how gravely they imitate their seniors, in handling ponies 

 a little bigger than Southdown rams ! 



" In those admirably-planned and picturesquely-arranged rides in the wood provided by 

 the Emperor of the French for the inhabitants of his capital, the magnificence of the equipages 

 on a great fete-day — a Gladiateur day — leaves nothing to be desired. Our Ladies' Mile is 

 left in the shade by the splendour of a series of four-horse postillioned barouches, with liveries 

 of every brilliant shade of velvet and satin, from the brightest canary to the richest ruby, 

 beside hosts of grand steppers in broughams, and other triu-nphs of carriage-building art 

 well copied from the London style. Horsemen are there, too, in very fair numbers, to 

 whom a critical eye would most probably object that the horses are too good for their work, 

 and that the men ride too well, too correctly, too seriously for pleasure — that they are per- 

 fectly taught, but are not to the manner born. Yes, the wealth of modern Paris rivals London 

 in everything that is gorgeous for grown-up people. But when it comes to the little people 

 and ponies Paris is a blank. 



" Pony-boy-ship, not horse-man-ship, is the crowning glory of these equestrian islands. 

 The word pony is feebly represented in other languages by two words implying little horse 

 or dwarf horse ; and the French have been obliged to borrow the term without being able 

 to borrow the thing. In a brilliant horse show at Paris in 1866 there was only one real pony. 

 There are small horses in many countries, but it is only in this among civilised nations that 

 the let-alone system of education allows the family pony to develop into an institution. Good 

 horses and horsemen are not confined to England. There are foreign artists who know well 

 how to draw the single Arab, the war-horse of Job, or a whole charge of cavalry, but it is only 

 in England that John Leech could have found his immortal boys on pony-back ; above all, 

 that genuine Master George on his Shetlander, his soul on fire speaking in his eyes, and eager for 

 the hunt streaming away on the other side of the brook, answering the piteous ' Hold hard ' of 

 the much-enduring Ruggles, 'it's too wide and very deep!' with the happiest self-confidence, 

 'All right, we can both swim.' Master George did not mean to be saucy to the old coach- 

 man, or to be witty like those royal and imperial boys who make such wonderful bon mots ; 

 he only meant, in the language of the ring, ' business ' — that there was a brook to be done 

 and, dry or wet, Master George meant to do it. 



"The family pony, ridden at all hours, with and without saddle, along bridle-roads, over 

 the moors, in the hayfield, and through the wood, up hill and down dale, teaches the boy 

 to go alone, to defend himself, to tumble cleverly, and to get up again without making a noise 

 at a bump or two. As far as teaching the art of horsemanship goes, perhaps the completest 

 plan with boys, as well as girls, is to allow no riding until they are eight or nine years old, 

 and then to commence with first principles. Still, habits of independence are of more im- 

 portance than perfect horsemanship ; therefore, fathers living in the country, with a stable as 

 well as a library, if wise, will not neglect the pony branch of education, but will let the boy, 

 as soon as he likes, go wandering about the park, the farm, the village, learning how to take 

 care of himself and his steed. With girls it is different. A girl can no more learn to ride 

 gracefully than to dance gracefully without being carefully taught from the first lessons 

 to the last." 



These words were written in 1866, before France had passed under the " Caudine forks" 

 of victorious Germany, and when Charles Dickens, in whose All the Year Round they 

 were published, seemed built to reach at least fourscore years ; but in the main they are 



