every stride her courser takes.

If this be not happiness, we must look to heaven for more: there is none greater on earth.

Numberless are the names of elegant horsewomen I could mention; but however complimentary must be the terms in which such mention would be made if made at all, I feel that in whatever respectful terms I might couch it, it would be a liberty to particularize by name those who must be sacred in our eyes; and if any there be who might not call for such feeling, I trust I am the last to chronicle such names.

There is one, however, whom I do not hesitate in mentioning as a horsewomen for two reasons: first, I could say nothing but that in every way, and in every particular, must be in terms of perfect commendation; and secondly, because her riding is professedly business; consequently there is no greater impropriety in mentioning her riding than the acting of Mrs. Butler, the singing of Madame Caradori, or the dancing of Carlotta Grisi. I allude to the daughter of Mr. Reynolds, one of the most truly respectable of our dealers. If I was to particularize the very perfection of out-of-school horsewomanship, I should point out Miss Reynolds. More truly elegant riders there are; for an elegant woman is more or less elegant in all she does. I do not hold out Miss Reynolds' riding as a perfect pattern for all private individuals to strictly imitate, nor would I Carlotta Grisi's dancing and attitudes : the proficiency of both are too professional for such; but the perfect easy air with which this little horsewoman sits her horse, be he what he may, shows at once the artiste; and the way in which she renders all horses perfectly obedient to her hand, is perfection; and this without anything bordering on rudeness or vulgarity of touch. All is done quietly, but all is done. The horse becomes a puppet in her hands; and if turned out of them and perfected by her, would be such an one as no money in reason should prevent my purchasing for any lady who wanted that most difficult animal to get a perfect lady's horse.

If we may judge by histrionic pencilings in lieu of written tradition, a very different sort of animal is now appropriated to ladies' use to that in vogue in former days. For the delineation of the latter animal we have only to look at the spendid engravings from the pictures of that unrivalled, and as yet perfectly matchless animal painter, Edwin Landseer. Fine, and in fact beautiful palfreys were those entrusted with their fair burthens; but the knights-attendant in trunk and hose would have somewhat stared at the idea of their mistress fair being mounted on a Derby nag. Such, however, is the case now, and right well he carries

them.

Singular as the assertion may at first appear, it is nevertheless a true one, that there is no sort of horse of which we may stand in need that is not readily found in dealers' stables except a lady's horse. This is, however, easily accounted for: dealers' horses are mostly raw ones from the country, and they cannot afford the time to render them fit for ladies' use in fact, a dealer's man is the last one as a horseman I should select to make a horse for a lady. Few men have hands light and delicate enough for the purpose.

As an exception to this, I would mention one who, if you walk into a particularly neatly kept yard up a particularly narrow and equally neat passage in Piccadily, will show you every civil, indeed courteous, attention; and if he rides or drives a horse to shew you, will also show you

a specimen of a delicate finger on his rein. If he plays the fiddle, I doubt not he is a capital performer, from the same cause. At all events, in dealers' phrase, he makes horses as handy as a fiddle. Purchasers are sometimes assured by the head and chief of the establishment that "our horseman is a perfect muff"; and a sucking lord is told the horse shown would be a different animal under him. No doubt of that: however, it is a capital ruse, and a fair one. It is, moreover, a truth: the horse assuredly would look different. Better is, of course, the insinuation, said in a most insinuating way, with one of the most insinuating, good-humoured smiles in London. What with the pleasantry of the smile and the compliment together, the truth of the assurance is, I believe, seldom doubted. Good Lord, what swallows some people have!" Prodigious!"

There is, however, another sort of horse a good deal patronized in London by ladies who, from a mistaken idea, have some timidity in mounting a thoroughbred. This is a galloway. If a nice one, a galloway for summer riding is a very pleasant animal; but no lady who wishes to look to advantage should ever ride one. There is a shortness in all their actions that destroys that graceful motion of the body of the rider, which a full-sized horse imparts: independent of which, the large saddle and the forward knee so covers the little animal, that both rider and horse look to manifest disadvantage. If galloways start, turn round, or become in any way wilful, they are ten times more difficult to sit than a horse. Their motions are so quick that they take us by surprise. I have no earthly objection to a galloway for myself, but I abjure them for ladies on every account; I mean as saddle horses. There is another serious objection to them: if they make a false step, the weight is so over their fore parts that it is next to impossible to save them.

If such an idea suggests itself to a lady, that in case of a fall it will not be so great from a low as a higher horse, a little reflection will satisfy her that if a fall does take place, whether it is ten inches more or less matters little, and that number of inches makes the difference between the galloway of thirteen hands and the horse of fifteen and a half.

We will now go a step lower so far as size goes, and this brings us to metropolitan ponies. These, to be under the duty, must not exceed twelve hands; the great number of these little animals now in use must strike every one. They are patronized for one purpose or another, from royalty to the lowest cadger, from the phaeton of aristocracy to the cart of the costermonger. Here, again, the improvement in roads has shewn its all-predominating sway. Fifty years since, the mere pony in a phaeton was unseen, unknown, unthought of. To have undertaken a trip to Hounslow with one would then not only have been preposterous, but the accomplishment of it all but impossible; but now the little gentleman toddles down there in an hour some odd minutes, and looks as self-sufficient on his arrival as many other little gentlemen look, the worthy citizen of seventeen stone, and his proportionably portly wife, exuding more, not exactly heavenly, but bodily dew on the July excursion than the pony, by many degrees, or rather drops. Well, though our homely trio may not attract the envy of the thoughtless multitude, two out of the three perhaps possess more merry hearts and quiet minds than the titled owners of many imposing equipages that pass them on their road. Ten golden ponies to one on our rubicund friends that their pony is absolutely their own; the equipage, humble though it be,

their own also; and they have ample means to keep it. Some knowledge of the ways and eke the means of those of higher grades would make me hesitate on offering the same bet on them, I could point out equipages where I know the assumed happy smile of passing recognition is succeeded by the starting tear of doubt, and apprehensions for the present, and a too true presentiment of the future. Men a little blased in such circles all know, and I fear many feel, the truth of this. But turn we to happier scenes. By a certain indulgence of the legislature, galloways under thirteen hands in a particular carriage may be used on paying a modified tax. This, of course, leads to numbers of such being used; and give me good ones, and in proper condition, if I wanted to drive any extraordinarily long distance, with a suitable vehicle, I would select two high-bred galloways of about that size to perform it. For a lady's use I do not know a more elegant carriage than a well turned-out low phaeton and a pair of galloways to match; but then the tout ensemble must be first-rate, and, moreover, in the best possible taste. Any one thing about it of an ordinary character spoils the whole. See the fair partner of one of our best sportsmen-as a nobleman-drive her grey galloways up to the appointed meet: aristocracy is in the very reins she holds. Hats are off, as if by instinct, to hail the deity of the sylvan scene.

Ladies we have had who could take their four horses in hand. What my humble opinion of such exploits on a lady's part may be matters little; in fact, nothing. If I ventured to hint at what it is, I should do so by the liberty of asking the lady if she would "take something short." Ye gods! this to a lady? Oui, mon ami, to a lady driving four-inhand. My readers may exclaim in disgust at my vulgarity. My life on it, she would not take it." Take what? good reader: my meaning or the short? Perhaps she might take neither, or both; or, "in short," she might take that she liked best. God knows what four-inhand ladies might do.

If a lady drives at all, doubtless she should drive well; that is, well enough to set our minds at ease so far as regards her personal safety. She should drive like a gentlewoman, without apparent exertion or confusion then, I do not know a prettier sight than such a miniature equipage; and for such, galloways will be found much pleasanter, more easily driven, and less wilful than small ponies. The latter have seldom, scarcely ever, good mouths; and their short, thick necks make them about as handy as pigs. Such mouths do well enough for a child, if a leading rein is held by another person, for then the young one holds on by the reins, and the little brute of a pony runs along, thinking no more of his rider than if he was not on his back; but a boy stopping a real Shelty, unless he wishes it, is out of the question. The truth is, from their being so small, they are never half broken. If they are got quiet, it is considered enough. A road-waggon is quiet; and put a boy in the till of it, he might take an airing there, and have about as much command of it as he would have of his little pig of a pony.

The metropolitan horses I have as yet alluded to are a class of animal leading a tolerably easy, gentlemanly sort of life. We must, however, bring forward some whose obligations to their master, man, are not the heaviest burthens they have to bear.

(To be continued.)

II. II.

HIGHLAND SPORTS, AND SPORTING QUARTERS.

BY LINTON.

(Continued.)

Our object in selecting the route we did, in order to visit Loch Ness and Invermoriston, was two-fold: the one, that we might pass the Black Mount, and consequently through the celebrated Deer Forest, the property of the Marquis of Breadalbane, and, we may add, the jewel of greatest value in the estimation of a sportsman, on his very extensive shooting grounds; the other, that we might look on scenes never to be forgotten while treachery is loathed, or murder of the foulest nature engraven on the annals of Scottish history with tears of remorse, Alas! no time can ever blot from the pages of memory the fact that swords which were drawn under the semblance of friendship and protection were dishonoured and bedewed with the blood of innocent victims, while generously tending the rights of hospitality, and disgraced for ever by the massacre of Glencoe. To history, however, we must refer our readers for details of this sad deed, as well as for others which mark the high road from Inverouran to King's House, and thence to Fort William; the mountain tracks being more in keeping with the pursuits and pleasures on which we were bound. As, however, the lord of the soil, who has a commodious shooting lodge hard by Loch Tulla, in which he doubtless spends many agreeable weeks when following the splendid sport of deer-stalking, in which we should not have the slightest objection to accompany him, should he ever require an agreeable companion, is not over pleased that the foot of an idler or a poacher, if he could help it, should cross these wild hills and disturb the deer, we determined, at least as far as King's House, to act in obedience to his wishes, and that both man and dogs should be conveyed on wheels. On asking for a vehicle, however, to put this our determination into practice, the bare-footed lassie, who might, without fear of fibbing, be termed the maid-of-all-work, literally laughed outright in sheer admiration of our ignorance. Nevertheless, she made us sensible to the fact that we might be carted in a peat-cart to King's House if so we desired; but as for a carriage, it would not do to keep such things on the banks and braes of Tulla; so we agreed with her, and decided on the cart at once. And carted we literally were-with empty stomachs, forsooth, but all excitement for the hoped-for events of the coming day. The springless vehicle stood at the door; a rough, Highland cob being harnessed in the shafts, the interior well filled with straw and heather; and into this we seated ourselves, dogs, and light baggage, being determined to disturb the forest as little as possible at so early an hour.

The road was in admirable order; and our anxiety to behold some red deer was paramout to all other considerations. With telescope

in hand, therefore, we reclined in our cushionless one-horse "shay;" and on we moved, with the full conviction that when the mind is bent upon a fascinating pursuit, trifles neither deter nor disgust-at least, those who desire to be pleased, and are not ever on the look out for causes of annoyance.

As we journeyed along thus at early morning, our ears were constantly saluted by the crowing of grouse, which, perched upon the numerous little hillocks, looked as comfortable and fearless as had they been a hundred miles from two double-barrelled Mantons and a rifle; which, merely in fear of our meeting brigands in this wild locality, we kept loaded in the vehicle, notwithstanding all the written precautions of ourselves and others never to sit in the same carriage with a charged fowling-piece. Half reclining, half sitting on the straw and heather, during this our uneasy transit, we ranged with our glass far and wide each dark vale and craggy mountain top, in the anxious hope of beholding a herd of red deer; in which, nevertheless, we scarcely expected to be gratified, inasmuch as the sun was already far advanced o'er the eastern horizon. Indeed, we had already yielded to the calming influence of a cigar, and were deep in the mental delusions respecting the pleasures the marquis must so frequently enjoy, and which to us were denied, when the caravan came to a sudden halt, which well nigh threw us on our beam ends; having luffed, however, a little to the westward, to recover our easy posi tion, the kilted chariot-driver approached, and, as if nothing had really occurred worth mentioning, with a half-sleepy yawn, as he removed the short pipe from his mouth, he quietly exclaimed-"I'm just thinking I see a stag or twae on yon brae." Out flew the cigar from lips which hitherto had held it as a treasure, up went the telescope, and, breathless with emotion, we skimmed the horizon, and at length pitched on the spot, where not a stag or twae, but a whole herd of red deer, hart and hind, were seen reposing in the warm sun, while others were still picking up the fresh and dewy grass. As we gazed, intensely delighted at this, one of the most beautiful pictures a sportsman can behold, the thoughts rushed rapidly through our mind of what must be his sensations at such a moment who not only looks on the noble animals, but has the right to shoot them also. This herd of deer, on which our eyes then dwelt with interest and admiration, could not have numbered less than a hundred haunches, for thus they were jocularly counted by one of our companions; and although at least a mile from the spot where we had halted, the sun, which shone in brilliancy on their feeding ground, enabled us so distinctly to behold them, that with the aid of a glass they might easily have been counted. We remained for a considerable time watching the movements of these kings of the forest, when, lo!-for what reason we know not, whether they had caught sight of our party (by no means improbable or impossible, for their sense of smell and hearing is most acute, as all sportsmen are well aware), or whether they had been disturbed by some more immediate object invisible to us, we cannot pretend to say-nevertheless, in one moment the reposers started up, and the whole formed in a strong body like a troop of horse. A large stag singled himself from the herd, and having gazed around on all sides, ard having doubtless informed his seraglio that danger was at hand,