form, graceful action, an exquisite mouth, and
perfect manners. He must be intelligent; and
amongst horses, senseless brutes are legion, for
without intelligence, even with fine form and
action, he never can be pleasant to ride.
Thorough-bred is to be preferred; and if not
quite, as nearly thorough-bred as possible, of
any colour except mealy or foul marked. White
marks often much improve, sometimes quite
disfigure a horse. The height may be usually
taken at from fourteen hands to fifteen hands
two inches; but tall horsemen and women look
best on tall horses. That most thorough-bred
hack, Fire King, purchased for the Emperor of
the French, at the Agricultural Hall, in May
last, was full fifteen hands three inches.

The head should be of the finest Arab type.
The neck well arched but not too long. The
shoulders, light at the points, long, and grown
well into the back. The loins should be
accurately arched and the quarters level and nicely
rounded, not drooping toward the tail (like
many capital hunters, famous race-horses, and
useful road hacks). The mane and tail should
be full, straight, without the least suspicion of
a curl, and every hair as soft as silk, four clean
well-shaped, well-placed legs, the fetlocks rather
longer than would be chosen for a hunter, and
from such a form action may be confidently
expected, pleasant to the rider, and a pleasure
for even the commonest observer to follow.

The walk of a Park hack should be perfection—
fast, springy; the legs moving apparently
independently of the body without apparent exertion,
with all certainty of machinery, the head carried
in its right place, the neck bent and the tail
displaying a full flag gracefully keeping time with
the footfalls. From the walk he should be able
to bound into any pace, in perfectly balanced
action, that the rider may require.

Those who remember the warrior Marquis of
Anglesea on his Pearl, will be able to realise this
sketch. But a survey of Rotten-row in the
season will always present some pictures of life
and motion, fire, courage, and docility to which
no painter could do perfect justice.

Perfection can only be obtained by fortunate
and wealthy purchasers who know how to choose,
or who allow those who do know to choose
for them. Such horses have been sold at four
hundred and even five hundred guineas. The
ordinary price of a Park hack may range from
eighty guineas to two hundred pounds.

Although more beautiful riding-horses may
be seen in Hyde Park than in any other city in
the world, there are also more discreditable
brutes to be seen there than elsewhere.
Besides screws of all kinds, the well-worn
ci-devants of riding-schools, immortalised by
John Leech, and the many useful animals
whose owners neither deserve nor desire
observation, there are all the eccentricities of a city
of three millions of inhabitants. Everything
odd in colour, in shape, and in training;
huge men on ponies bending under their
weight; little men on giraffes. The perfect
horseman on the perfect hack, is jostled by
the lout with no qualification but the pluck of
ignorance, on a star-gazing wretch that has
only received the rudiments of a polite
education.

"There should," observes the correspondent,
already quoted, "be as much etiquette in
riding in Rotten Row as in the ball-room of a
palace. That, however, is a part of national
education in which there is much room for
improvement."

But the Londoners are not the only comic or
dangerous riders. Sometimes, country gentlemen
bring their stale snaffle-bridle hunters,
lumbering along terribly out of place; others
indulge themselves in riding cross-made animals
of their own breeding, with no other merit.
The latest and most remarkable exhibition
of wild horsemanship was not performed by
an ambitious clerk, or an amateur dealer
intent on showing off a half-broken colt,
but by a young gentleman of fashion, the
descendant of a long line of hunting men,
famous in a famous hunting county. The fact
is, as one of the greatest masters of hounds and
finest horseman lately remarked, "In the field
a hard fellow who can stick on, and does not
care for falls, will often hold a place in the first
flight; but for the Park the horse should be
perfectly broken, and the rider should understand
those principles of horsemanship which,
in these fast days, are too much neglected in
England. The well-broken Park horse walks,
trots and canters, and changes his leg in
cantering on slight but certain indications of hand
and leg. Too many hold their reins like a
bunch of tapes, and only use their legs to spur."

As to ladies' horses, a perfect Park hack is a
lady's horse, with the exception that a man
does not look amiss subduing a fiery animal,
and by degrees bringing him down to
obedience. To use a horsey term, a good horseman
may enter the Park with a fine-tempered horse,
"a little above himself"—not vicious. The
rider with fine hands endangers no one, if his
fresh high-couraged horse have a fine mouth;
while the dullest brute with a leather mouth
may be at times most dangerous. Above all
things, in choosing a Park hack avoid a
nervous animal, which, like an armed coward, is
one of the most uncertain of creatures, and,
when mad with fright, loses even the
instinct of self-preservation. For the same reason,
a horse that shies from timidity or defective
eyesight (many horses shy from high spirit when
not sufficiently exercised) is as much to be
avoided as a stumbler. In country riding, a
horse has room to shy. On the other hand, it
is magnificent to see how sometimes a high-
couraged horse will positively enjoy and
display himself at the sound of shouts, hurrahs,
musketry, or military music. In the Life of
Sir Fowell Buxton, it is mentioned that his
favourite horse, John Bull, stood, in a grand
attitude, when surrounded by a mob who were
hooting and hissing the Prince Regent, excited
but motionless, like a fine statue. The Prince
was so much delighted with the horse's