RIDING AND TRAINING. 155 



as the middle of the sixteenth century the most 

 finished air of the high school (the capriole) was 

 practised, and that the wars and rude sports of the 

 Romans and their successors, as well as the tourna- 

 ments which had flourished for several hundred 

 years, demanded thorough horsemanship, it is diffi- 

 cult to point out any time during which the art was 

 neglected. 



Undoubtedly Pignatelli, who was either a con- 

 temporary of Grison, at Naples, or came just 

 after him, did much towards forming the method 

 of training that was employed in Europe until 

 Baucher, in the first half of the present century, 

 gave to the world his admirable system. Pignatelli 

 was the inventor of the single pillar used for sup- 

 pling the horse. His pupil, Pluvinel, a Frenchman, 

 devised the two pillars, and was, I think, the first to 

 use the covered manage ; for Grison and Pignatelli 

 worked their horses in the open air, the single pillar 

 of the latter having been a tree standing in a field. 

 The method of Pignatelli was introduced into 

 France by his pupils La Brone and Pluvinel, both 

 of whom wrote works upon the subject ; and the 

 manage was brought into England by two pupils 

 of Grison, natives of Italy, who were invited into 

 his kingdom by Henry VIIL It is to be regretted 

 that Pignatelli never wrote concerning the art; 



