COBRESPONDENCE. 197 



^ho calculates to a nicety every ounce which 

 her steed has to carry. I have said that a 

 small racing, or jockey-stirrup, is the nicest in 

 which a lady can ride, and I am bound to 

 adhere to my judgment. 



So much for the first portion of *'H. de 

 V. K.'s" letter. Now we come to the 

 second. 



My *^ poor opinion of John, the coachman, 

 and Jem, the groom," is based, not upon their 

 untrustworthiness, but upon their want of 

 capacity as teachers of the equine art. I have 

 never yet, in all my experience, met with any 

 servant who was capable of instructing a lady 

 how to ride ; yet I have been fairly astonished 

 to find the contrary idea quite general amongst 

 parents in the country, who fondly hope that 

 their daughters may one day adorn a saddle 

 and grace a hunting-field. ^* I shall have Mary 

 and Jenny taught immediately now," said a 

 lady to me one day in the course of last 

 summer, — *' They shall have a pony a-piece, 

 and John (the groom) shall teach them." Of 

 course, I said nothing, my principle of non- 

 interference standing me in good stead ; but 



