A SPORTING TRIP TO FRANCE. 163 



Keep your weather eye open, ride with nerve, 

 and as cool as a cucumber. Nerve is the 

 great thing, and I know you possess it. 

 Now let us go and have a look at the youth and 

 beauty; there is plenty of it, and there are 

 some deuced pretty English girls here, who I 

 am going to be introduced to, so you may as 

 well come with me." 



The introductions and small-talk being over, 

 we looked after the nags, and as the time was 

 getting on, dressed ourselves in the approved 

 fashion of gentlemen jocks well got up doe- 

 skins and tops, and smart satin jackets. I 

 never was more amused in my life than looking 

 at the costumes of the French gentlemen riders ; 

 they were ludicrous. One had on a pair of such 

 cut breeches as it had never been my luck to 

 look upon, and a pair of tops to his boots which 

 would have knocked Bartley into a cocked hat, 

 for he never afterwards could have thought any- 

 thing of those celebrated tops of his, " wot will 

 cut a shine in, or over, any country." One 

 showed a large amount of scarlet stocking 

 between the boot and his breeches, whilst 

 another, determined not to be qutdone, dis- 



112 



