282 OUTDOOR STUDIES 
equipage, and but one such equipage to enjoy its 
privileges, — only one, that is, drawn by horses. 
There are three other vehicles, each the ob- 
ject of admiration, but each hauled by oxen 
only. There is the Baroness, who sports a sort 
of butcher’s cart, with a white top ; within lies a 
mattress, and on the mattress recline her lady- 
ship and her daughter, as the cart rumbles and 
stumbles over the stones ;—nor they alone, 
for on emerging from an evening party, I have 
seen the oxen of the Baroness, unharnessed, 
quietly munching their hay at the foot of the 
stairs, while a pair of bare feet emerging from 
one end of the vehicle, and a hearty snore from 
the other, showed the mattress to be found a 
convenience by some one beside the nobility. 
Secondly, there is a stout gentleman near the 
hotel, reputed to possess eleven daughters, and 
known to possess a pea-green omnibus mounted 
on an ox-cart ; the windows are all closed with 
blinds, and the number of young ladies may be 
an approximation only. Lastly, there some- 
times rolls slowly by an expensive English cur- 
ricle, lately imported ; the springs are some- 
how deranged, so that it hangs entirely on one 
side ; three ladies ride within, and the proprie- 
tor sits on the box, surveying in calm delight 
his two red oxen with their sky-blue yoke and 
the tall peasant who drives them with a goad. 
