A BATCH OF CURIOUS MATCHES 37 



ridden on the same day. It was the day on which 

 Lord Clyde marched from Buntara on Lucknow, be- 

 fore opening the siege operations. We were in the- 

 saddle at seven A.M., and were fighting all day from 

 ten or eleven till dusk. My horses had very little 

 rest, carrying orders, &c., and at seven o'clock I re- 

 ceived an order to start as soon as I had dined, and 

 meet the siege-train under Sir Robert Walpole, and 

 conduct it to its ground. I accordingly started at 

 once. I rode my English horse, and I did not get 

 back from duty till about eleven A.M. the next day. 

 I had thus been nearly twenty-eight hours in the- 

 saddle, the last twelve or fourteen of which I rode 

 my English horse, and he stood the work well. Cer- 

 tainly I was tired enough myself, and I had the full 

 means of testing the relative powers of all the horses* 

 Neither the English horse nor the Australian showed 

 any want of stamina ; the only one that flinched was. 

 the stud-bred. Still, all things considered, I should 

 prefer, for a long journey in that climate or in Egypt, 

 an Arab to any other horse ; his education suits him 

 more to undergo fatigue. His stomach is habituated 

 from infancy to scanty food and water, and his frame 

 to endure heat and rough usage ; above all, he is 

 sounder in the legs and feet. He is a good-tempered, 

 willing, and .docile slave, and a rare agent with which 

 to traverse a distance in an open country, and, above 

 all, in his own climate in the months of May and 

 June, when the " khamseen," or fifty days' hot wind,, 



