126 BITS AND BITTING. 



being two inches shorter than any others in use in 

 foreign services, "Which would put our troops to great 

 disadvantage," quoth his Excellency; "Then let my 

 cavalry soldiers get two inches nearer to their opponents 

 than has been hitherto the practice," replied Serenissi- 

 mus. It is just this, it is an affair of inches ; and these 

 inches are widened into yards when the horse does 

 not or cannot follow the reins instantaneously and 

 accurately. 



We have already pointed out several disadvantages 

 of the mountain of pack that is built up on the shoulders 

 of some cavalry horses ; an additional one is, that it 

 changes the line of direction in which the pull of the 

 rein acts, so as to make it go right up into the sky, and 

 altogether miss both hind and fore legs, thus placing 

 all horses, whatever the excellencies or defects of their 

 organisation may be, on the same dead level of un- 

 certainty and inaccuracy. It is not the weight alone 

 of " the epitome of a Jew's old-clothes shop " that is so 

 destructive, although this in itself is bad and absurd 

 enough ; what is still worse is the way in which that 

 weight is distributed, so as not only to render all 

 attempts at equilibrium impossible, but also to throw 

 the bridle-hand of the rider so high that he cannot use 

 any description of bit advantageously. A Cossack will 

 load his horse to almost the same pernicious extent that 

 most regular light cavalry men are compelled to do, 

 and still neither the speed, the agility, nor the power of 

 endurance of the little animal are impaired in any- 

 thing like the same degree as happens with the troop- 

 horse : the weight is better distributed for all purposes. 

 (Plate VI.) 



No doubt it is scarcely possible to avoid some degree 



