2IO HUNTING. 



graceful seat ; they tend to produce that most unlovely and 

 unsafe appearance styled by Sir Bellingham Graham a ' wash- 

 ball seat.' Still, even with these drawbacks, a man may 

 learn how to sit in his saddle with comfort to himself and his 

 horse (the one, as Mr. Jorrocks shrewdly observes, being * in 

 all humane probability ' identical with the other), though he 

 may not wholly satisfy a lady's eye for the picturesque, if only 

 he will set about it in the right way. It is probable that the 

 Athenians were not as eminent in horsemanship as in most 

 other accomplishments ; but no one can go into that room in 

 the British Museum where the spoils of the Parthenon are 

 stored without seeing at a glance that they knew well what a 

 good seat on horseback should be. The riders in the famous 

 Frieze bestride their steeds bare-backed and without stirrups, 

 but they are one and all sitting precisely in the right place, that 

 is to say, vi the very coitre of the saddle, did a saddle form part 

 of their equipment. The weight of the body is thus thrown on 

 that part of the horse's spine, immediately behind the withers, 

 which is most capable of sustaining it. Starting from this 

 point the most inexperienced rider will be surprised to find 

 how easily his body adapts itself to the motions of the horse ; 

 starting from any other he will probably, and really not un- 

 naturally, jump to the conclusion that he has been cursed by 

 fortune with an animal of abnormally rough and unsympathetic 

 paces, the one horse in the world that ' no fellow could sit.' 



But a seat, to be a really good one, should be firvi, as well 

 as graceful, should be good to wear as well as to look at. 

 Above the waist the body should be light, supple, giving and 

 taking with every movement of the horse ; below it should be 

 strong as iron, and as unyielding. The distinction between 

 riding by grip and riding by balafice, on which a good deal 

 of talk is sometimes expended, is a foolish one. ' As well,' 

 observes Whyte-Melville, ' might a man say he played the 

 fiddle by fuiger or by ear.^ To insure a good seat there must 

 be both, and each in its proper proportion ; bala?tce above the 

 , saddle, grip below it ; indeed, it is practically impossible to 



