SOME GENERAL REMARKS. 309 



disdainful of their ponies, and long for 

 bicycles and motor-cars. It is the spirit of 

 the age ; and apart from the exigencies of the 

 chase and warfare, equitation bids fair soon 

 to become almost a lost art. Yet how 

 pleasant and healthy an exercise it is ! 

 Better surely for health, at least, than all the 

 whizzings and whirrings of mechanical loco- 

 motion. A few yet, mindful of the old 

 prescription that "the best thing for the 

 inside of a man is the outside of a horse," 

 join what habitues of Eotten Row term the 

 " Liver Brigade " ; but apart from that time- 

 honoured resort few ride for business, health, 

 or pleasure. The enclosure of, and building 

 over of, so many heaths and commons in 

 the vicinity of our larger towns might be 

 supposed to account in some measure for 

 this, since it must be confessed there is 

 little pleasure in walking and trotting along 

 monotonous miles of macadamised roads ; 

 but even in rural regions of moor and 



