THE EMPIRE AND THE REPUBLIC 263 



mare. I would not swear to it, but I think she was called 

 Begina. The first Latin declension was in great request for 

 the names of mares in the hunt stables ; the Koman Empire 

 and the Punic wars being placed under heavy contributions in 

 the kennels. 



Baron Lambert was quite a character and a wit. Lord 

 Byron never would speak French because he declined to 

 speak it like a German waiter ; but the Baron had no such 

 fastidiousness about his English. He spoke it as freely and 

 graphically as any Mr. Tiptop in Melton, and could slur the 

 //. in horse and hundred, and shunt the g in hunting with 

 the refined subtlety of a Lord Scamperdale. 



He rode about 12 st., a I'Anglaise, in an English pain-flap 

 saddle, double bridle, and hunting spurs. In those days these 

 were all looked upon with only half-approval, for haute ecole 

 riding made her concessions slowly. But Baron Lambert's 

 English ways were never overdone, and he quite suited the 

 frame of his circumstances. His legs were perhaps a trifle 

 short for elegance, but he sat well on his horse, and well- 

 blacked jack-boots — which looked like having been made 

 somewhere near the Marble Arch — did wonders for him. 

 White hair, a clean-shaven actor's face, but as fresh and 

 ruddy as Simon Lee's or Michael Hardy's, the becoming 

 venerie dress, and everything put on and worn and held 

 right. There you have his portrait. He carried an English 

 horn, but I have no recollection of his using it much ; and he 

 knew how to catch hold of a horse and balance him on a 

 long rein as we do here, and as even in these days few know 

 how to do there. I saw no one like him, when I was over 

 the other day, tried by the conventions of English hunting 

 riding form. 



Napoleon III. liked the thing to go. His hunting notions 

 and sympathies were English. So long as hounds ran on 

 he winked at their having changed their deer, and paid very 



