78 Chapters on Animals. 



Railway travelling is fatiguing, yet it is not exercise. 

 It wears the nervous system, but does not help the circu- 

 lation of the blood. Horse exercise produces effects of 

 an exactly opposite nature, it stimulates and improves the 

 circulation, and reposes the nervous system better than any- 

 thing except swimming. Our forefathers found in travel 

 a double corrective for the evils of a sedentary life, and 

 they had the additional advantage of not being able to go 

 far without spending a good deal of time upon the road 

 — days and weeks — during which the system had full 

 leisure to recruit itself. Too many of them were sense- 

 lessly careless about health ; they ate and drank a great 

 deal more than can have been good for them, and the 

 more robust had little notion of moderation in anything : 

 yet they certainly knew less of nervous ailments than does 

 our own more thoughtful and scientific generation. Their 

 bad roads gave them exercise, as their badly-fitted doors 

 and windows ensured them an efficient ventilation. We 

 may still imitate them in equestrian tours ; but it is not 

 quite the same thing, because we only travel in this way 

 for pleasure, that is, when we take a holiday, whereas they 

 did it from necessity, at all seasons and in all weathers. 



I read the other day, in a book written for students, that 

 walking, and not riding, is the best exercise ; and I knew a 

 physician who said he only recommended horse exercise 

 because his patients preferred it. On this point it may be 

 observed, that no one is likely to get much good in the 

 saddle unless he has the true equestrian instinct, which is 

 as much a gift of nature as the love of aquatics. Without 

 the natural instinct you cannot feel the peculiar exhilara- 

 tion which gladdens the born horseman and reheves him 

 from that burden of his cares. 



There is an exulting sense of augmented power in the 



