Then came in the ring without any cheek at all: this of course prevented any entanglement with the curb chain, but still permitted the bit to be drawn through the mouth; here, however, there was an advantage over the short cheek, for if the bit, rein, and head rein, were partially drawn into the mouth, the rider can easily pull it back again, and these are the best for ordinary riding. The racing bridoon was usually made with cheeks, the usual length of the ordinary snaffle; these totally prevent both the above-mentioned objections, and for a horse difficult to turn are decidedly the best. The gagging snaffle is a very useful one for horses who get their heads low, which some will do from vice or impatience. If a horse naturally does this, proceeding merely from a dull heavy mouth, the gag snaffle will not cure him of the habit, for the rein being held by the rider's hand (however firm that hand may be) there is still a yielding, which the horse does not mind; so the rider's hands and arms get tired of supporting such a brute's head before he tires of hanging on the bit; a good sharp twisted common snaffle, if the hands are kept high and the bit kept constantly on the move, is the best instrument I have found to ride such a horse with, by way of practical lessons to him; the twist renders his mouth tender, and then if the hands are kept up, he keeps his head up, rather than punish his mouth. If he is too heavy mouthed to yield to this, a cross, or as some term it a German rider, should be put on, the reins put up high on the cross, and the horse should be practised in the lounge with this on, or trotted by the side of another; these reins being firmly fixed give him a forcible chuck up at every step if he leans on them; and as they do not tire like a man's hands, the horse does of being constantly checked by them. Where the gag snaffle (or bridoon if a double bridle is used) is useful, is where a horse, when excited by hounds, other horses, or from vice, has a trick of getting his head so low as to give us no power over him, in order to run away: this with a gag he cannot do. If a curb bridle is dispensed with, then the snaffle must have two reins, the one making it a common snaffle, the other either running through a pipe check (in which case the gag rein must be a round one), or running through a ring, when a narrow pliable flat rein will answer the purpose. Some horses when excited will, when galloping, suddenly throw down their heads nearly or quite to their knees, and particularly when going down hill; if the rider does not give them their head they would pull him over them: if he does give the head liberty, the great additional weight thrown on the fore quarters is not by any means unlikely to throw the horse down. I had one who, though a strong puller, would go very pleasantly over a flat country; but no man living could hold him down a hill without a gag bridoon. I had another who would run away to a certainty when with hounds, if once he got his head down, no matter how severe the curb bridle might be. When I bought him I had a most awful chifney given me, that had been made expressly for this horse; but he would go away with that. I put a twisted gag snaffle in his mouth; with this he never pulled more than I wished him; I account for this by concluding that when he got his head down he brought the bearing of the bit on a part of his mouth that from some cause or other was quite insensible to pain or pressure. Curb bits are made in such infinite variety, that to describe them all by words only would be impossible, or at any rate it would be impossible to so describe them as to bring each particular variation in form clearly to the eye of persons who have not paid much attention to the subject. The curb bridle, be its form what it may, if suited to the horse's mouth, is a most useful adjunct to the bridoon, which should in all casss be considered the riding bridle, for no horse is fit for a gentleman as a riding horse that requires the curb rein as the general one in use. The curb bridle is useful as an occasional aid, restraint, or punishment; but it should be used only as such, and for this reason: there was a time when the "hard and sharp" was in great vogue as a bridle for road riding; this was simply a short-cheeked curb bit, and with a single rein; but the consequence of the use of this bit was this-we will suppose a man had a hack whose mouth was not good enough for a snaffle, a "hard and sharp" was resorted to, probably a Pelham with a single rein; the horse went more, or perhaps quite pleasantly in this, but for how long? He got accustomed to this from the constant use of the same rein; he then began to hang on this as he had done on the snaffle; the portmouthed "hard and sharp " was then tried with the same temporary good result as the Pelham; but the same constant use of the bit brought the animal's mouth to be as insensible to it as it was to the original snaffle; and so it would in time become to the severest bit Latchford could manufacture, if that bit was used alone. For this reason no horse that requires a bearing-rein in harness should never have it attached to the driving-bit; he leans on that bit, consequently when we want him to obey the driving-rein we find his mouth insensible to the touch. True, the curb coming into use has some effect; but that in such a case chiefly acts on the jaw, for the bearing-rein having all along kept the same bit in close contact with the bars of the mouth, they have become deadened; so the little extra pressure on them from the action of the curb is almost unfelt, and if a uniform pressure by the driving-rein is kept up for some time, the horse will care no more for that than he did for the bearing-rein, and will hang as heavily on the driver's hand as he had all along done on the bearing-hook. The only way I ever found I could drive a boring horse (when I was unfortunate enough to have one to drive) is this-put a bridoon in his mouth, bear him up tight with this, and let him lug or bore on that as long as he likes; have a driving bit, one that can make him mind it when called into action; let him only feel that when wanting to check, guide, turn, or stop him; it is true that by boring on the bearing-rein bit his mouth gets dead to that; but while bit, rein, and bearing-hook hold, he must keep his head in a tolerable position; the driving-bit catches him in a fresh place, and that not having been deadened it takes him as it were by surprise, and he obeys the hand of the driver. The only bit as a hard-and-sharp that I consider becomes a horse, or that he goes well in, speaking generally, is the one that has a joint on each side where the part joins the mouth-piece, and again one on each side where the mouth-piece is joined to the cheeks; with this bit, if the horse begins to hang heavy on the hand, by loosening our hold and then tightening therein again, the bit takes a bearing on a fresh part; this keeps the mouth alive, and as such bits mostly and always should have loose rollers on the mouth-piece each side the port, they shift a little on moving the bit, and add to the difference of the pressure, which is the greatest means of E keeping the mouth alive. To prove this, if a horse had been boring on the bit in harness till his mouth was as dead as a stone, take a bit of string, andpassing that through the throat latch, bring it to the curb-chain and raise that an inch, the horse will immediately go comparatively light in hand, because it brings the curb-chain to cut on a fresh part of the jaw, and in a trifling degree also alters the position of the bit in the mouth. By many such little contrivances, which all practised coachman know, the same bit is made to do for, if not quite suit, all sorts of horses and all sorts of mouths. H. H. * "The papers have told you, no doubt, of the fusses, The Czar's look, I own, was much brighter and brisker, * And wore but a starless blue coat, and in kersey- June, 1814. "Home, sweet home "-A dinner with the Secretary of State for the Foreign Department-The naval review at Portsmouth-Wellington's movements and arrival-The national Jubilee-Rejoicings for peace. Our last chapter terminated with the arrival of my friend Hand myself in London, and having deposited our despatches in Downingstreet, we proceeded to my Governor's" house, as the young Englanders of the present day denominate their respected parents. My father still held his appointment in Ireland, and was there with my mother, brothers, and sisters. Being unprepared for my arrival, the old family mansion looked dull and dreary; as the chaise drove up to the door, and a thundering knock rattled against and shook the ancient portal, the old bloated-face porter started up from his slumber to do the honours to the new comer-" What! asleep Peter," I exclaimed, "at this early hour?" "Oh, Master Percy, is it you?-who'd have thought it? I am so glad to see you," responded the venerable Cerberus, who having been superannuated as coachman, had descended from 'the exalted hammer-cloth to the more humble, but not less comfortable, seat in the well-stuffed leathern chair, which, in the days we write of, was a necessary appendage to every well-appointed establishment. The noise and bustle of our arrival in the hall had attracted the attention of "Mary, House," who lost no time in communicating the intelligence to "Fanny, Still," who rushing into the housekeeper's room, announced to that worthy evergreen, Mrs., that Mr. Hamilton had returned alive and well. That kind-hearted and excellent lady was busily employed in preparing her brandy cherries; and her sanctum, which was usually the tidiest apartment in the house, was now in what is ordinarily termed a "mess." The table was covered with pummets of Morillas, empty bottles, corks, sugar, and a few gallons of the real eau-de-vie, as superior to the modern British French spirit, as Cunningham's champagne is to home-made gooseberry. No sooner had the information been conveyed to Mrs., than tears of joy filled her eyes, and the disjointed manner in which she delivered herself of the thoughts then uppermost in her mind will be gleaned from the following conversation: " Only to think! Master Percy arrived safe and sound, and I such a figure! Here, cork that bottle down, Fanny; and just fetch me my cap-what a dreadful carnage, and the darling boy not hurt. Lock up the spirits, and help me to take off my apron-more than four thousand killed and wounded, and Percy-" "All alive and merry," I exclaimed, rushing into the good old creature's arms, and upsetting the table in the excitement of the moment. "Let me introduce my friend, Lord H: you have heard me talk of him," continued I, when able to get in a word edgeways; for the gar rulous housekeeper would carry on her rambling remarks, at one moment expressing her delight at my return, then apologizing for her untidy dress, then urging me to take a glass of orange wine-all mingled with lamentations for the loss of her fine Morellas, which, "thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks in Vallambrosa," now covered the floor. The cuckoo-clock soon reminded us that it was time to dress ourselves for the full-dress dinner at Lord Bathurst's; and having been shown to our rooms, we speedily adorned our persons in somewhat tarnished and faded uniforms, but which, like the tattered and torn colours of those regiments which had been employed on active service, we deemed would reflect some little degree of glory upon the wearers. "Not a glass coach to be had," said Peter Sawyer, the porter: "I've been to every yard in the neighbourhood, and so I've brought the best hackney one I could find on the stand; it's at the garden entrance, for I could not bear to see you two young gentlemen get into such a conveyance, dressed out so fine." We thanked the ex-knight of the ribands for his attention, who proceeded to descant upon the pride of past days: "I remember the time-though I say it as should not-when there was no turn-out in London to be compared to your father's; such horses! six long-tail dark chestnuts, almost the colour of mahogany; the harness ornamented with arms and crests, rings, buckles, hooks, all richly chased; the carriage. stately and roomy, the panels emblazoned with the heraldic honours of the family" (Peter was quite eloquent when once upon the subject of his former calling), "the postilion, outriders, and footmen in gorgeous liveries, with silver-mounted whips and canes; and your humble servant seated upon the highly embroidered hammer-cloth, decked out in his three-cornered laced hat, well curled wig, state dress with bouquets, silk stockings, sparkling shoe and knee buckles, and white reins and gloves, might well feel proud of his noble master's equipage. All these things are sadly degenerate of late," continued Mr. Sawyer, with a groan; "there's no pomp, no state, no distinction, no pride, no nothing at all." If these remarks were true five-and-thirty years ago, what would the respected Peter say if he could witness a drawing-room at St. James's, or the park, during the season of 1849. Instead of the aristocratic family coach, the well turned out chariot, the elegant curricle, the neat tilbury, he would find "phaeton chays," heavy lumbering "cabs,' rattling ricketty barouches, one-horse flys," slang-looking dog-carts, Irish jaunting cars, Pilentums, and sundry other vehicles, formerly known by the appellation of pill-boxes and demi-fortunes, but which now are designated Broughams and Clarences, or as some wicked wag has named them, after their usual occupants-" loose boxes.' As the time had now arrived for our leaving House for Mansfieldstreet, where our host then resided, we entered the hackney coach, and H--, having ordered the driver to stop whenever he pulled the string, we proceeded at a snail's pace through the narrow streets that then led from Charing-cross to Oxford-street; no sooner had we entered the latter than a sudden jerk of my comrade's hand brought the lumbering vehicle in which we were to a stand still, and thrusting his head out of the window, he hailed a servant who was seated on the box of a wellappointed chariot, that evidently (to adopt a fashionable dragsman's phrase) had shot its rubbish " at a neighbouring house. "Come here, my fine fellow," said H--, with one of his most winning smiles," make it all right with your fellow-servant, and get him to set us down in Mansfieldstreet; we have been disappointed of a carriage, and cannot drive up this creaking crazy vehicle." Suiting the action to the word, he placed a seven-shilling piece in "John's" hands, who, after a few brief remarks to the coachman, responded that it was "all right," and assisted us to transfer our persons from the moth-eaten and mildewed seats of the straw-floored "hackney," to the silk and morocco leather-lined cushion town chariot. Proud as the hero in the fable of our borrowed plumage, we trotted through Cavendish-square towards Mansfield-street, where we found a gaping crowd waiting to catch a view of a living emperor, foreign potentate, or some other lion of that day. "The Prince doth join with all the world in praise of Percy; By my hopes, I do not think a braver gentleman, in More active valiant, or more valiant young, more daring, or more bold, cried a voice in the crowd, which I immediately recognized as my old ac quaintance Frank Alderson's, who, with his friend Billy Sanders, had mixed with the throng, partly with the object of seeing the "sight,' and hoaxing the multitude with fictitious appellations of the distinguished guests. Count Rayomouskie," was now announced. "Count who?" inquired a fat citizen, who, with his wife, had come all the from Monument-yard, to have a look at the "Roosian" emperor, who, they way |