out for exercise with two men hanging on to their heads,
both armed with stout sticks. Magic, a grey Arab entire, which we
brought home from India and sold to Colonel Walker, of Gateacre, who won
several pony races with him, carried me quietly in the Row, and his new
owner found him a very clever polo pony. When passing through London on
my return from a visit to Russia, we put up at an hotel in Oxford
Street, where the night was rendered hideous to me by the brutal
slashing of cab horses; for one hears nothing of that kind in Russia,
and yet we English people pride ourselves on being a horse-loving
nation! The speed of Orlov trotters is very great, but no whip is used
in driving them; the coachmen drive with a rein in each hand, like the
drivers of American trotters, and shout after the manner of firemen to
clear the road, for these animals seem to require a good deal of
holding. The Russian cabby uses a small whip like an ordinary dog-whip,
which he tucks away somewhere under his seat, and when his horse is
taking things too easy, it is only necessary for him to show it him, for
he is driven without blinkers, to cause him to at once hasten his pace.
Very often the man is unprovided even with this toy thing, in which case
he obtains a similar result by abusing the animal's relations! During
the whole time that I was in Russia, I never once saw a cabby hurt his
horse with the whip. Russia is the last country to which one would go to
learn anything about the treatment of human beings, knowing what we do
of her past and present history; but we certainly should emulate the
Russian coachmen in their kindness to horses, and not shock our
neighbours by exhibitions of brutality which may be seen daily in the
London streets.

CHAPTER XX.

CROSS-SADDLE RIDING FOR LADIES.

The question periodically arises as to whether women should adopt men's
saddles in preference to their own. I have studied the art of riding
astride in an ordinary man's saddle, and would give a negative answer to
that query. The fact that by the adoption of the cross saddle, about
seven pounds in weight would be saved, and the work for the horse would
be somewhat easier, ought not to outweigh the enormous disadvantages on
the other side. Whenever a lady is dragged by skirt or stirrup and
killed--an accident which, happily, occurs but rarely nowadays, for we
wisely adopt the best safety appliances to prevent it--up crops that
evergreen question of cr