CHARLES II.'S HORSEMANSHIP 249 



prosperity did not directly benefit. The nobles 

 and the wealthy classes seemed determined at 

 any and every cost to warm both hands at the 

 fire of life in the best and worst meaning of that 

 hackneyed phrase. In Pope's " Imitation of 

 Horace," the statement is made quite bluntly : 



" In days of ease, when now the weary sword 

 Was sheathed, and luxury with Charles restored, 

 In every taste of foreign courts improved, 

 All, by the King's example, lived and loved. 

 Then peers grew proud in horsemanship t'excell 

 Newmarket's glory rose, as Britain's fell." 



Wherever in the early histories and records 

 mention is made of Charles's horsemanship, we 

 find also some allusion to William Cavendish, 

 afterwards to become Duke of Newcastle, and 

 credit for Charles's skill is attributed in a great 

 measure to him. 



Further we learn that at the age of ten " His 

 Majesty's capacity was such that he would ride 

 leaping horses, and such as would overthrow 

 others, and manage them with the greatest skill 

 and dexterity, to the admiration of all who beheld 

 him." 



Indeed in this one respect he must at about 

 that period of his life have resembled the great 

 Alexander, for his determination and self-con- 

 fidence when he was mounted on horseback were 

 alike amazing. Upon more than one occasion he 



