'.■JO 



The Book of the Horse. 



in Ireland. But Lavengro* was tall and thin, with the instincts as well as the shape of a 

 born horseman. The gipsies, whose language George Borrow early acquired, always believed 

 that he was one of their race ; and the undebased gipsy is a born horseman and horse jockey 

 or coper. The word "jockey" is derived from a Romany word which means a whip. 



LAVENGRO'S FIRST RIDE. 



" How easy is riding, after the first timidity is got over, to supple and youthful limbs ! 

 and there is no second fear. Oh, that ride ! that first ride ! most truly it was an epoch in my 

 existence ; I still look back on it with feelings of longing and regret. People may talk of first 



^or iHE SORT for rotten row. 



love, but give me the flush, the triumph and glorious sweat of a first ride, like mine on the 

 mighty cob. My whole frame was shaken, it is true ; and during one long week I could 

 hardly move foot or hand ; but what of that .'' By that one trial I had become free, as I ma)' 

 say, of the whole equine species. No more fatigue, no more stiffness of joints after that first 

 ride round the Devil's Hill on the cob. Oh, that cob ! that Irish cob ! — may the sod lie 

 lightly over the bones of the strongest, speediest, and most gallant of its kind ! Oh, the days 

 when, issuing from the barrack-gate of Templemore, we commenced our hurry-scurry just as 

 inclination led, now across the fields, direct over stone walls and running brooks — mere pastime 

 for the cob — sometimes along the road to Thurles and Holy Cross, even to distant Cahir ! 

 What was the distance to the cob .' 



" It was thus that the passion for the equine race was first awakened within me, a passion 

 which up to the present time has been rather on the increase than diminishing. It is no 



* George I'ldiniw, aiitlior of " Tlic I'.iljle in Sjiain." 



