THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE 227 



The duke's volume on equitation, published 

 at Antwerp in 1658, contains particulars of the 

 prince's progress in the art of horsemanship, 

 from which we may gather that Prince Charlie 

 was an exceptionally apt pupil — "a horseman by 

 nature," he has been termed. 



So emphatically was this the case that in com- 

 paratively a few years he professed himself able 

 to ride any horse that anyone might choose to 

 bring to him, an assertion in which the duke 

 supported him. 



It was not long after this that the duke per- 

 suaded his royal pupil to import from Spain a 

 number of exceptionally fine sires, for, as he said, 

 Spanish stallions were quite unsurpassed, and in 

 his opinion no other sort of stallion ought to be 

 admitted into this country. 



The duke himself has been described as "an 

 iron horseman," but the exact meaning of the 

 phrase is not quite clear. He had, according to 

 some writers, an "iron" seat on a horse, while 

 according to others he had "iron" hands — the 

 latter a questionable compliment. 



Probably an " iron " nerve is what they really 

 meant, for we know that the Duke of Newcastle 

 was both a finished and a fearless horseman, two 

 important qualifications that do not necessarily go 

 together. We are further told that in teaching 

 the prince to ride he never spared him, a state- 

 ment easily believed when the duke's hard and 



