CUTTING A FIGURE, 189 



at all. In fact^ if I had ever owned such a turn- 

 out as I have seen some ladles sport, and wished 

 to make a morning call, I should have desired the 

 cortige — men, horses, and vehicle — to stop a few 

 doors off, lest I might be suspected of owning 

 them. 



Here is just the difference between the pride 

 of the generality of foreigners, particularly French- 

 men, and Englishmen. A Frenchman on a wretch 

 not worth twenty pounds will make him (if he 

 or spurs can make him) curvet and prance so 

 as to attract all eyes, and thinks him, next to 

 himself, an animal to be admired by all beholders. 

 An Englishman on such a creature would pray no 

 one might see him so mounted. Not so Monsieur. 

 With him a horse is a horse, with this exception ; 

 if the finest horse England ever produced was to 

 walk quietly along the Boulevards, his rider would 

 think they cut no figure at all ; but give him one of 

 Batty's cast-offs, or any creature that would dance 

 about, making a fool of both horse and rider, he 

 would be thought the ne plus ultra of horses. 



With their equipages, unless it be with the elite 

 of fashion, they are still worse. A cabriolet is a 

 cabriolet, though it be a machine that has been 

 in use twenty years, since it was only worth four 

 pounds, and would be spoken of with all becoming 

 pomposity. An Englishman who has never been 

 much at the country chateaux of Frenchmen 



