. The adventures of a gentleman in search of a horse. Horses. 16 THE ADVENTURES OF A GENTLEMAN might be his good intentions ; I was allowed to make trial of him. We danced a quadrille together with every gentleman and lady that we met mounted in Hyde Park, and I soon found that the lovely crea- ture was better suited to Almack's than to me. He paisaged away in style by the band of the Guards,. till every soldier grinned a salute, and no rhetoric of mine could divert him from his obvious purpose of escorting them to the palace. Once indeed I pre- vailed on him to turn his head, but it was only
. The adventures of a gentleman in search of a horse. Horses. 16 THE ADVENTURES OF A GENTLEMAN might be his good intentions ; I was allowed to make trial of him. We danced a quadrille together with every gentleman and lady that we met mounted in Hyde Park, and I soon found that the lovely crea- ture was better suited to Almack's than to me. He paisaged away in style by the band of the Guards,. till every soldier grinned a salute, and no rhetoric of mine could divert him from his obvious purpose of escorting them to the palace. Once indeed I pre- vailed on him to turn his head, but it was only to passage the other way, with his rump instead of his face to the troops. At last, in sheer desperation, I plunged both spurs in him at once; he gave a spring that would have cleared a horse and gig, and then IN SEARCH OF A HORSE. 17 fairly bolted; running "at score" to his stables again! I would as soon fondle a mad dog as take such another dance with a dandy! However men may differ as to her doctrines, we all approve of Miss Martineau's synthetical method of reasoning; I shall with all humilily, follow her example. I conclude my first chapter (it might well be called the chapter of accidents) by advismg my reader before he starts on a similar expedition, to ask himself seriously the question, what sort of a horse be wants? It is a cufious, though an un- doubted truth, that not one man in fifty ever thinks of taking this ordinary precaution. Of course, I do not include professed sportsmen, whether in the field or on the turf: they generally "understand their business," and set to work accordingly; but there are some hundreds, perhaps thousands, who at the approach of summer must needs buy a horse, and, like myself, consider it much the same thmg as buying a boot-jack! To answer this question properly, there are many points to be considered: the first essential is for a man to inform himself honesil!/, whether he is a good or bad rider. Sir Walter Scott, wi
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