BALLS RATHER WARM FOR THE LADIES. 305 



Cerito, Carlotta Grisi, Taglioni, and other eminent 

 dancers were compelled to go through, who, in order 

 to be taught to stand on their toes, had, when young, 

 red-hot iron heels to their shoes to prevent their 

 bringing their heels to the ground. This idea was 

 treated as preposterous ; but, on my gravely and 

 seriously assuring them it was a fact, they perti- 

 nently enough asked, to show the absurdity of my 

 statement, " How could they afterwards put theh* feet 

 to the ground when they wanted to do so ?" I replied, 

 " The same way the horses could if so treated." 



This set the red-hot ball accusation at rest at once, 

 and a little insight that I gave them into the real 

 method employed in teaching horses in an amphi- 

 theatre, induced my fair friends to go and see Batty's 

 really beautiful stud, whose appearance shows, that if 

 they ever have undergone much suffering, it must 

 have been a long time ago, or, if recent, that they 

 thrive wonderfully on ill-usage, and their hoofs must 

 certainly be made of the same material as those of 

 the brazen-hoofed chargers of old that we read of; for, 

 considerino' that thev have danced on r^ed-hot balls. 

 they appear to have tolerably free use of their feet 

 sometimes, and stand tolerably firm on them at others. 

 Of this I may be allowed to judge pretty accurately, 

 having permission to walk through Mr. Batty's and 

 other theatrical stables whenever I like. 



When writing some observations on " Educating 

 Horses," I mentioned — not then alluding to exhi- 

 bition horses — that we could not teach horses any 

 thino- when under the influence of alarm or the im- 

 mediate dread of punishment. This being well known 

 as a fact by all those in the habit of instructing 

 horses in stage performances, it must be evident, 



VOL. II. X 



