The Barb and the Bridle

st mode in which to display to the greatest advantage beauty and symmetry of face

scinating enough when a lady has an agreeable partner, bu

ion up properly, and too many intervals of quiescence, wherein a lady stands perfectly still (in a v

rcise than croquet, is open to the same o

as scarcely to be reckoned among the exercises beneficial to ladi

red as by riding. Mounted on a well-broken, well-bred horse, and cantering over a breezy down, or trotting on the soft sward, on

tly proved by the goodly gathering of fair and aristocratic equestrians to be seen in Rotten Row d

professional men and wealthy tradesmen, who were content formerly to take an airing in a carriage, have taken to riding on horseback. And they are qui

ly "grow" into their riding, and become at fifteen or sixteen years of age as much at home in the saddle as they are on a sofa. In the hunting field they see the best types of riding extant, male and female, and learn to copy their style and mode of handling their horses, while ora

y as far surpass the women of all other countries

n in a ball room or a box at the opera; but put her on horseback, and

advice upon female equitation unnecessary to ladies of the sangre azul, I tru

position in the middle class will often not have opportunities of learning to ride until she is fifteen or sixteen, and by this time the youthful frame, supple as it may appear, has acquired (so to speak) "a set," which at first renders riding far from agreeable; because it calls into action whole sets

nd extension motions on foot, precisely similar to those drilled into a cavalry recruit in the army. No amount of dancing will do what is required. Even the professional danseuse, with her constant exercise of the ronde de jambe, never possesses that mobile action of the waist and play of the joints of the upper part of the figure so thoroughly to be acquired by

too often slurred over, or only practised at such long intervals that its effect is confined to causing the pupil to w

creased in length, according to the strength of the pupil, until she can stand an hour's drilling without fatigue. The course should include instruction in the use of dumb-bells, very carefully given. The weight of these should in no case exceed seven pounds for a young lady of fifteen or sixteen, and may judiciously be confined t

tual in promoting flexibility of the whole figure; but they must be gone into by very gradual and

ter to give a programme of the exercises I speak of, which may then be practised under the superintendence of the lady herself or her govern

ly manner, and where (so to speak) the pupil is never asked to read before he can spell. It is this jumping in medias with beginners in riding that so often causes mischief and disgusts the pupil, who begins b