178 THE HOUSE. 



" Lastly, would you turn to the left ? quit again 

 the first position; carry the back of your hand a 

 little to the left, so that the knuckles may come un- 

 der a little, that your thumb may incline to the right 

 and the little finger to the left : this makes the fifth 

 position. These different positions, however, alone 

 are insufficient, unless the horseman be able to pass 

 from one to another with readiness and order." — 

 Thus far, Beringer. 



" With respect to a comparison of the menage, or 

 in the old style, riding the great horse, with the En- 

 glish method, my sentiments published some years 

 since, have sustained no alteration. The grand me- 

 nage is an antique and cumbrous superfluity, which 

 ought to be laid aside, Or exhibited or\ly in a depo- 

 sitory of heavy carriages and heavy starched apparel. 

 Beringer says, It is impossible to find a universal 

 horse, or one excelling in all the numerous actions of 

 the school. For, to complete the full dressed horse, 

 requires no inconsiderable portion of his life, and the 

 severity of action in those ingenious and showy, rather 

 than useful feats, which he is taught to perform, con- 

 stantly exposes him to the risk of dangerous strains 

 in his reins and hinder quarters. Indeed no labour 

 of the horse can be so severe and distressing as his 

 full lesson in the school, of circling, sideling, advanc- 

 ing, retreating, vaulting, kicking, rearing, and the re- 

 sidue of those exhausting feats, in which he rivals his 

 fellow performer on the stage, who leaps, vaults, 

 tumbles and dances upon the slack rope. 



"The late Charles Hughes, and other riding mas- 

 ters, have acknowledged, that a thoroughly managed 



