Photo, by M. H. Hayes. 



CHAPTER II. 



The Royal Military Academy— School Riding— Baucher— Pugilism— Bill 

 Richardson — Joe Nolan — Rowing — Joe Sadler — Jim Pudney — Fairplay 

 in England— Mitchell— Bat Mullins. 



THE Royal Military Academy at Woolwich was an 

 admirable school for ' knocking the nonsense ' out 

 of young fellows and for teaching them discipline. It was 

 better at that than in teaching riding, the system of which in 

 the arrny was the same then as it is now, with a total absence 

 of ' why ? ' in it. Certain hard and fast rules were and are laid 

 down, and no reasons given. It is easy to find fault with this 

 apparently strange omission ; but we must remember that a 

 reasoned-out system of equitation and horsebreaking is a 

 growth of modern culture which germinated in the minds of 

 men long after that part of the Cavalry Regulations had been 

 stereotyped. The literature of the subject did not, practically, 

 touch on it until Raabe, Barroil, Dr Le Bon, mots qui vons park, 



