74 ENGLISH URBANITY EXEMPLIFIED. 



mode of assistance — something like the manner in 

 which I once heard a friend, indeed a distant relation 

 of my family, relate he did an act of kindness. It 

 happened that in an engagement a French officer fell 

 into his hands : he gave up his sword, but pleaded a 

 young wife and family dependent on him, and begged 

 hard not to be detained prisoner. My relative, 

 though a fine-hearted fellow, was one made of such 

 materials that nothing could polish down. However, 

 the goodness of his heart induced him to accede to 

 the officer's solicitation ; but the urbane way he did 

 so, from his own account, was this : on being asked 

 what he did on the occasion, he said, " Oh, I gave the 

 devil a kick, and sent him about his business." The 

 generosity of the act and the feeling of the heart were 

 commendable, but it was quite done in the hauling, 

 lifting way. 



It is quite clear therefore that all the strength a 

 man can exert on a horse's back can only act on the 

 head, neck, and very partially on the fore-quarters ; 

 and, fortunately for the horse, that strength is very 

 limited in proportion to what it would be if the man 

 stood on the ground ; were it otherwise, one of our 

 Life Guardsmen, with their powerful bits, would 

 break a horse's jaw. And in further illustration of 

 our not being able to actually lift a horse to the 

 extent generally supposed — or I should rather say, 

 in farther confirmation of my opinion, that it is in a 

 great measure the pain given to the mouth that 

 causes the horse to lift himself — if it was not so, we 

 could make a strong-mouthed horse recover himself 

 as much if we pulled by a halter as by the most 

 powerful bit : we could, in fact, lift him, or assist him 

 in lifting himself, as much by the one as the other ; 



