BUNBURY - GAMBADO, G. , An academy for grown horsemen; cont. the comple■-
test instructions for walking, trotting, cantering, galloping, stumbling & tumb-
ling. 3rd ed. London, 1808. With stipple-engr. portr. of the author by W. Dickin-
son & 11 fine stipple-engr. plates by W. Dickinson after H. W. Bunbury. - B. w. :
IDEM, Annals of horsemanship: cont. accounts of accidental experiments & experi-
mental accidents, both successful and unsuccessful: communicated by various

correspondents. London, 1808. With stipple-engr. front. & 16 fine stipple-engr.
& etched plates after H. W. Bunbury. Contemp. calf, folio. (500)

= Bunbury (1750-1811), an aristocratic amateur "stands supreme as a man of taste".
"His satire was free from the acrimony, grossness and personal rancour character-
istic of his day. Pictures of horsemanship and angling besides caricatures of the
militia, are among his most typical prints. " (C. Veth, Comic art in England p. 39).
- Some pits, a bit torn; joints of upper cover partly torn; top & foot of spine &
corners si. dam. , but in all a fairly good copy of a very charming work.

-VVV:> (/('////'fc {/(

COMPLETEST INSTRUCTIONS

GALLOPING,
STUMBLING, and
TUMBLING.

WALKING,
TROTTING,
CANTERING,

WITH COPPER PLATES, AND ADORNED WITH A
PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR.

By GEOFFREY GAMBADO, Esq.

RIDING MASTER, MASTER OF THE HORSE, AND GRAND
EQUERRY TO THE DOGE OF VENICE.

�&e C&irtJ tuition.

" To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus,

" And witch the world with noble Horsemanship."

PRINTED BY W. NICHOLSON, WARNER STREET,
FOR W. BAYNES, 54, PATERNOSTER ROW.

THE EDITOR has to lament that
the first pages of our Authors work, are
amongst those missing, but as the Author him-
self, in his Preface, seems to have arranged
his string of instructions, the Editor thinks
himself justified in placing those first that re-
late to the choice of a horse.

Lord Viscount Townshend,

GENERAL OF HIS majesty's forces,

COLONEL OF THE QUEENS REGIMENT OF
DRAGOON GUARDS.

To your Lordship, as com-
manding a regiment of ca-
valry, a Treatise of Horse-
manship comes immediately
in the line of your profes-
sion; I, therefore, humbly
conceive, that consideration
alone, would authorise me

with propriety to request
your patronage and protec-
tion tor this my adopted
foundling; to which petition
I am further induced by the
patriotic hopes of being use-
ful to my country: for hav-
ing, with regret, observed,
that both your Lordship, and
the corps under your com-
mand, if one may judge by
appearances, are totally ig-
norant of the graces and su-
perior advantages attending
Mr. Gambado's system, I
have flattered myself, that
on a perusal of it, you will
not only adopt it yourself,

DEDICATION. vii

but also use your interest to
introduce it into the service.
What might not be expected
from the British Cavalry
thus improved?

I might here enter into a
train of common-place com-
pliments, and flourish away
on the laurels your Lord-
ship might by this means
gather, in addition to those
already acquired; but I will
not offend your delicacy:
besides, laurel is a tree not
cultivated in these piping
times of peace: I shall there-
fore conclude this epistle
with my sincere wishes, that

viii DEDICATION.

your Lordship may long,
very long, in health and
spirits enjoy your BAYS.

With the greatest Respect,

September 1st, 1787.

~~...... ......-■ ' ■ ,..-..■ ,.*..■■■*■ ■----------------------------:-....... .■ - ■■~~ ~~■ ■~~ ~~----------------------------------------~~

There needs no apology
for putting forth this little
volume; there would, on the
other hand, need many for
with-holding it from the
publick. Philanthropy has
induced me to make known
to the world, the following
rules; by observing which
alone, horsemanship may
become a safe and pleasing

amusement: and I doubt
not, but every true judge of
the noble art, will acknow-
ledge the excellence of my
instructions; and every true
lover of it applaud my pub-
lic spirit, in circulating them
abroad for the benefit of
mankind at large.

I have had some difficulty
in fixing upon a title for my
work: A Vade Mecum is
quitehacknied out: A School
is become of late years, a
term entirely applied to co-
medies; and for Every Man
his own Horseman, an ingeni-

THE AUTHORS PREFACE. xi

ous professor in Dublin as-
sured me it was a bull.

I have therefore adopted
Academy; I think it is hap-
pily chosen, properly ex-
pressive, and has, I think,
3een affixed to but one work
of genius, viz. The Academy
of Compliments, a publica-
tion, which, thanks to our
present politeness, is now
scarcely remembered.

The Academy for grown
Horsemen, is a work that
has cost me much labour,
and the application of some
years, to complete. But,
when I consider the vast

utility it may be of to my
fellow creatures; that they
are to profit by it and not
myself:

" Sic vos non vobis, fertis aratra boves."

I flatter myself I have not
wasted the midnight oil in
vain, " and I look with plea-
sure on my book, giving it
to the world with the satis-
faction of a man who has en-
deavoured to deserve well."
Maymanybethenecksitpre-
serves for nobler purposes.

I am happy in having met
with an artist, who has illus-
trated my ideas of horse-

THE AUTHORS PREFACE. xiii

manship completely to my
wishes, and I here beg leave
thus publicly to acknow-
ledge my obligations to him.

As I shall be as concise
and explicit as possible in
the valuable instructions and
discoveries I am now about
to communicate to the world ;
it will be the reader's own
fault, if he does not profit-
ably benefit by them. When
I have told him how to chuse
a horse, how to tackle him
properly, in what sort of
dress to ride him, how to

mount and manage him,
how to ride him out, and,
above all, how to ride him
home again; if he is not a
complete horseman in the
course of ten or dozen sum-
mers, I will be bold to fore-
tell, that neither the skill of
Mr. Astley, nor the experi-
ence of Mr. John * Gilpin,
will ever make him one.

" Nil desperandum, me duce Teucro."

* Mr. John Gilpin. The author mentions John, to distinguish him
from William. Both these gentlemen are elegant and enlightened
travellers, and have published each their tour:�John, his to Ed-
monton, in 1782;�William, his to Cumberland, in 1786.

EDITOR to the READER.

It is to the same propitious stars, which
rescued the creatures with the craws from per-
dition, that we are indebted for the recovery
of the fragments that compose this most inva-
luable work. Fortune indeed was most lavish
in her smiles upon the Editor, by throwing- at

once before his sight, in an obscure alehouse
near Limehouse Hole, on their first landing,
the most extraordinary bipeds that perhaps
ever visited this country; and to his much
greater astonishment, some manuscript sheets
of his unfortunate friend, Mr. Geoffrey Gam-
bado.

On comparing notes (by signs) with these
ultramarine beings, he concluded, and with
much reason, that the abovementioned sheets

xvi THE EDITOR TO

were thrown over board by the author (in
hopes mankind might yet profit by the reco-
very of some of them) at the moment the
vessel that contained him was going to the
bottom; which it is well known was the case,
in the Gulph of Venice, a few days previous
to the catching of the Craws; and in this sur-
mise he soon found he was nearly right.

Two particular circumstances must yet be
noticed. The title page stiles Mr. Gambado
Master of the Horse, Riding Master, and
Grand Equerry to the Doge of Venice; and
so in truth he was appointed in the year of our
Lord 1785.

Living in the habits of intimacy with him
that the Editor did, he is competent not only
to decide what his views were, but what were
his sentiments of the Equestrians of his own
country, previous to his embarkation for
Italy.

That he held in utter contempt the mode of
riding commonly adopted in England, was

obvious, from his never riding like any body
else; and upon the Doge of Venice honouring
him with the above appointments (and ho-
norary it was supposed they were only meant
to be) he was so elated, that he instantly pack-
ed up a portmanteau, bought two saddles, as
many bridles, six pair of spatterdashes, with
spurs affixed, a large roll of diaculum plaister,
two pair of patent stirrups, with his MSS.
works, (and providentially a few drawings from
which the plates in this little volume are en-
graved); and in a few hours put himself on
board a vessel for Trieste, which sailed imme-
diately, and was lost a few leagues from Ra-
gusa. A sailor (one of the few that escaped
by putting himself in a fish-kettle, and tying* it
round his middle, having previously painted it
green*) has informed the Editor, that he saw
the last of Mr. Gambado; and his end was as
singular as his life had been. The vessel being

* It is imagined Mr. Lunardi has fallen in with this man.------

N. B. Not into the Sea.

expected to go to pieces every instant, he drank
a quart of hot punch, and came cooly on the
deck; and having first called up all the forti-
tude he was able, he next called up his servant,
with all the saddles and bridles that could be
got; and having mounted himself on the
largest, and taking a bridle in one hand, and
a paper case in the other, desired to be thrown
into the sea. This was complied with, but
the informant adds, that the boatswain being
somewhat desirous to save his life likewise,
hastily jumped up behind the unfortunate
Gambado, and he apprehends that the saddle,
although new and large, was not master of his
additional weight, for it dropt with such pre-
cipitancy as to throw our Author out of his
seat, and his foot catching and hanging in the
stirrup*, soon put an end to his mortal career.
And it must be confessed that he made his
exit en par/hit cavalier; and an honour to his

* His patent stirrups were probably packed up, or the Author would
at least, have had a swim for it.

~~.■ ...■�,■ , i ■' "" "~~ ' ■ ■'" -

leather he was *. The boatswain was saved by
laying fast hold on the crupper.

The Editor (besides the friendship he enter-
tained for this great man), cannot help think-
ing it is a thousand pities, he should have been
lost in so foolish a manner. But such was his
-rapture at the honours conferred on him by
the Doge, and such his disgust for British
horsemanship, that delicacy restrained his
friends from acquainting him there was no
such a thing as a horse to be found in all Ve-
nice ; and yet they have not a doubt, if he had
been apprized of this circumstance in time, he
never would have embarked for that capital at
all.

When the Craws were first picked up in their
pleasure-boat, it was observed they were all
over white patches; upon examination it ap-
peared that they were sheets of paper artfully
fastened round them with strings of sea-weeds,

* An honour to his Cloth�is applied to many a drunken Parson j
and I do not see why. To .Geoffrey, Leather is more suitable.

and the sailors, from the impulse of curiosity,
lifting some of them up, discovered hand-writ-
ing underneath. It should seem that these
modest creatures had undoubtedly picked up
the papers floating on the surface of the ocean,
and converted them to the same use our first
parents did the fig-leaves. This is however
but a conjecture of the Editor; who certainly
met with the fragments of his friend's intended
book, in the same place where he first saw the
Craws, and where he was told the circumstance
of their having worn them.

It is left to the deeper searchers into the
wonders of nature (and who are now puzzling
to resolve from whence the ladies and gentle-
men now lodging at Mr. Becket's, the trunk-
maker, in the Haymarket, can possibly come),
to determine whether the preservation of the
following sheets, is owing to an innate mo-
desty in the creatures with monstrous craws,
or to their natural admiration for learning, and
a wish to preserve sheets, although adorned

with characters totally unknown, and unin-
telligible to them.

It was necessary for the Editor to explain
how he came possessed of the few materials
that compose this work. Having done this,
he has only to add, that he has recovered a part
only of the Author's preface, a few drawings,
some notes, an anecdote or two, and about
twenty pages of instructions to grown horse-
men ; but so broken and unconnected, that had
he attempted the putting them together, he
must have formed a book of his own: Having
however, a thorough sense of the superior abi-
lities of the original Author, he wishes rather
to give them to the public in scraps as he re-
ceived them, but arranged to the best of his
ability. And he may be bold to add, that as
morceaus choice as these, would not fall every
day into their mouths, were they to hold them

incessantly open, the public would swallow
them with avidity, and digest them either
immediately, or at their leisure.

The notes that are preserved, are written in
a hand unknown to the Editor, and are evi-
dently the remarks of some good-natured
friend of Mr. Gambado. By the ingenuity of
many of them, and their peculiarity of stile,
they bear strong marks of the masterly pen
that produced the annotation to the first edi-
tions of Mr. Bell's Shakespeare. The portrait
of the Author, prefixed, is engraved from a
drawing by another of his friends, done from
memory; it is like, but a likeness that tinc-
tures of the prejudice of friendship. Jeffery
was not so slim, or was his eye so poignant;
nor was he ever known to be possessed of a
pair of boots himself, though he often men-
tions boots in his writings.

Of late years, many portraits of celebrated
men have been given to the public from me-
mory: Mr. Mason has favoured us with a

most formidable likeness of Gray the Poet;
another eminent writer has treated us with
one of the noted Charles Price; and we are
now furnished, with by no means, a small re-
semblance of Jeffery Gambado.

Of Jeffery, or as he himself desired it to be
wrote, Geoffrey Gambado, little is known of
the descent: but that his father was ataylor,
he himself has assured me; and that he lived
in Devonshire is no less certain. Being a pro-
digious horseman (his customers living all at a
considerable distance from him) I make no
doubt but it was in allusion to him, that the
term of " riding like a taylor" took its rise.
A term still particularly applicable to the na-
tives of that county.

The inhabitants of Yorkshire and the vi-
cinity of Newmarket may turn it into ridicule
if they please, but it was meant as highly com-
plimentary and honourable to that valuable
body of men. Was not the flying highway-
man a taylor? were not three parts of General

xxiv THE EDITOR, &c.

Elliott's dragoons taylors ? and was not he who
made that dangerous excursion to Brentford,
a taylor?

We are told in a preliminary advertisement
to the Tale of the Recess, that " the breaks in
the story only tend to heighten the pathetic."
A hope attends the Editor, that the breaks in
the ensuing work will only serve to give the
reader a greater relish of what remains of it,
and prevent the glut generally accompanying
" too much of a good thing."

GROJ^N HORSEMEN.

JL HE World has been so long* misled by the
false notions of Horsemanship, adopted and in-
dustriously circulated by Newcastle, La Fosse,
Pembroke, and Berenger; so infatuated by the
fantastick tricks of Sir Sidney Meadows, and so
blinded by the airy coolness of a Percival and
his imitators, that it may possibly prove a diffi-
cult task to convince any one person in this
wrongheaded age, that the theory of the first
mentioned gentlemen, and the practice of the

ftt&ta/c&n I o�u "/<? .

latter, are entirely founded in error, and cal-
culated merely to break the necks of his Ma-
jesty's most faithful subjects.

I shall endeavour to prove, and I flatter my-
self to conviction, that the above mentioned
authors are grossly mistaken in all their opi-
nions upon the noble art and science of horse-
manship; that even their ideas of the proud
animal himself are partial and ill-founded;
that the French Parocel, and the Flemish
Wouvermans, drew such horses as never ex-
isted ; and that when we do meet with a horse,
that in the least resembles their designs, he is
bad and dangerous in the extreme,

It is a melancholy truth, that our breed of
horses is terribly degenerated, but indeed the
national taste is fallen off proportionably; no-
thing now is to be seen but bred horses; every
apprentice must bestride a bit of blood. A bit

of blood! and well may they be termed so,
for neither flesh nor bone have they to boast
of.

There is indeed one breed of horses still ex-
tant, which might, and indeed ought, to be
brought into more play. I mean what is vul-
garly called the dray-horse*. This, I profess,
is a noble animal, and admirably calculated to
make a figure either on the road or in the

* Or rather rf?-a-horse. The most useful animal in the creation,
and respected by all antiquity. His name is immediately derived
from the Greek verb <5>*», i. e. drao, to do or work; because it was
found that he could do more work than any other horse. The vehicle
drawn by him was also well known to the Greeks by the name of dray,
or rather dra ; and it was in this carriage, and not in a waggon, as is
vulgarly supposed, that Thespis carried his stage and actors. Hence
the title of rfra-ma and dra-matic, universally applied to all theatrical
pieces. The Greek critics refer the invention of such works to the
Doric tribes, because this very word drao Avas peculiar to the Doric
dialect. If this account be correct, those tribes were also, without
doubt, the first breeders of dra-horses; an encomium of high value
among a people who derived many honourable epithets, as well as-
proper names, from skill and zeal in breeding and managing horses,

hW<0^$f0$^:'Ms "0^0'''J'^t

_t:_:«K»3-».'- ■

:ji'.*?-'�'■''■

STy^^^^^^j^Sy^j'^^pjS^^■ .' ''■'-■ '^'''*-"'■'.' "''.'*'';.�■■:-Lt/Jf^^S^ics^rrV--

■--""■'-: � ■ ■'■■■ ^r --��-,�.■ ■■,■> ..-.-.'�..77-.-.u..-^

field. Scarce one of them but is master of
thirty stone or upwards. What a sublime scene
would it be, to see fourscore or a hundred of
these animals on the full stretch over a piece
of wheat, to catch sight of a hound. It would
require the pen of Homer to describe such a
spectacle.

On the road, what dangers do we incur from
the weakness of our horses! The pitiful spider-
legged things of this age fly into a ditch with
you, at the sight of a pocket handkerchief, or
the blowing of your nose; whereas mount one
of these, and the world cannot alter your route:
Meet a higler's cart, he will stop it, either with
his own head or your leg; fall in with a hack-
ney coach, and he will carry you slap dash
against it.

* * * * * ^_s _a p_urchaser, it is imma-
terial whether you go to Tattersall's, or Al-
dridge's, to Meynell's Hunt, or his Majesty's,
it is probable you will be taken in wherever
you go. *****

To define a perfect horse is nearly impossi-
ble, and to tell you where to buy one, com-
pletely so. However, I shall endeavour to de-
scribe such outward beauties and active quali-
fications, as are requisite to the composition of
one; and should such a phoenix fall in your
way (and the taste of these times are so vilely
perverted, I believe you have a better chance
at present than you would have had some years
back) I hope you will not let him slip through
your fingers.

The heighth of a horse is perfectly immate-
rial, provided he is higher behind than before.
Nothing is more pleasing to a traveller than
the sensation of continually g-etting forward;
whereas the riding a horse of a contrary make,
is like swarming the bannisters of a stair-case,
when, though perhaps you really advance, you
feel as if you were going backwards.

Let him carry his head low, that he may

' ^/!/-', ■ .. ■'' : ^/'

( ;,-,' / � //■// &o ,//r/v ^ //■/

have an eye to the ground, and see the better
where he steps.

The less he lifts his fore legs, the easier he
will move for his rider, and he will likewise
brush all the stones out of his way, which might
otherwise throw him down. If he turns out
his toes as well as he should do, he will then
disperse them to the right and the left, and not
have the trouble of kicking the same stone a
second time.

A bald face, wall eyes, and white legs (if
your horse is not a grey one) is to be preferr'd;
as, in the night, although you may ride against
what you please, yourself, no one will ride
against you.

His nose cannot project too much from his
neck, for by keeping a constant tight rein on
him, you will then sit as firm as if you were
held on.

A horse's ears cannot well be too long: a ju-
dicious

l"l I "'~~-------~~'~~---'"" ' ' "~~ I II II I I I I*' I --------------------- ~~' ""' '~~ ~~---~~*~"~~~��~~----------^:------------------~~,-|~~------_r--~~-------------------------��»�~----

dicious rider steers his course, by fixing his
eyes between them. Were he cropt, and that
as close as we sometimes see them now a days,
in a dusky evening the rider might wander the
lord knows where.

■5f? ?fc vj> 3f vfi V V

I have found many persons who have pur-
chased horses of me, very inquisitive and
troublesome about their eyes; indeed as much
so, as if their eyes were any way concerned in
the action of the animal. As I know they are
not, I give myself very little trouble about
them. If a rider is in full possession of his
own, what his horse has, is perfectly immate-
rial; having probably a bridle in his mouth to
direct him where to go, and to lift him up with
again, if he tumbles down. Any gentleman
chusing, indeed, to ride without a bridle,
should look pretty sharp at a horse's eyes be-
fore he buys him: be well satisfied with his

method of going, be very certain that he is
docile, and will stop short with a " Wohey*,"
and, after all, be rather scrupulous where he
rides him. Let no man tell me that a blind
horse is not a match for one with the best of
eyes, when it is so dark that he cannot see:
and when he can, it is to be supposed 4:he
gentleman upon his back can, as well as he;
and then, if he rides with a bridle, what has
he to fear ? I flatter myself, I have proved as
clear as day, that eyes are of little consequence;

and as I am, no doubt, the first author that has
made it known, my readers, if they lose no
time, may mount themselves at Aldridge's, or
the Rhedarium, as well, and for half the money
they would have done, before I let them into
this secret.

* I have searched Chambers and Johnson for this Wohey! but
cannot find him. I do not recollect such a word in all Shakespeare,
and he dealt at large in the language. Neither is it to be met with
in Master Bailey's delicate Collection of Provincialisms. What is
Wohey ?

Be sure to buy a broken knee'd horse, when-
ever he falls in your way: the best bit of flesh
that ever was crossed will certainly come down
one day or another; whereas one that has fallen,
(and scarified himself pretty much) never will
again if he can help it.

Spavins, splints, corns, mallenders, sallenders,
Sfc. fyc. being all curable, are beneath your no-
tice. A few of these little infirmities in your
stable, is always a subject of conversation, and
you may, perhaps, now and then want one; it

will likewise justify you to your lady, in embel-
lishing* your bookcase with Bracken, Gibson,

Bartlett, and Griffiths; excellent authors in their
way, and extremely useful! for you will have no
occasion to be sending for an apothecary upon
every trifling ailment in your family, but will
know yourself how to make up a good stout and
effectual dose of physic for your wife or servants,
in the gooseberry season, and at the fall of the
leaf.

I would recommend a long tail, if it is to be
had for love or money; if that is not to be got,
buy a horse with a rat tail, if possible; though
inferior in point of convenience to the former,
there is aje ne scat quoi of comicality about it,
that inclines us to merriment whenever it makes
its appearance. There is one inconvenience
attending long tails in summer (when the poor
animals have most need of them); and that is,
horses full of grass are very subject to scour-
ings; in this case ride your horse with his tail
in a bag, or else lie may annoy you.

Having described for my reader a horse, and
I hope he likes him, I would fain form as com-
plete a horseman, and having so done, my am-
bition would be gratified, my end answered,
and I would never ride again myself, as long as
Ilivd,

Few writers on this subject have thought it
necessary to prescribe any peculiar mode of
dress to equestrians. I am such a zealot about
the propriety of their appearance, that I think
too much cannot be said on the subject. Hea-
vens ! how are the laws degraded since the abo-
lition of full bottoms * in our Courts of Jus-
tice: I attribute the encrease of thievery to it,
and firmly believe, that ten men are hanged
for every inch curtailed in a Judge's wig.

The Editor can only attribute the singularity
of the ten or a dozen lines that follow, to their
having been written ctfter dinner; Mr. Gambado
being fond of pushing the bottle about briskly.
His annotator seems to think the same; in-
deed, if he was the author's friend, he was a

* fie might have added, how are our Ladies improved by the adop-,
tion of them.

very impartial one, for his criticisms pretty
often border on the severe.

Bias, I think it is, that observes, the tout ensem-
ble should be attended to in every thing; he ju-
diciously remarks, that a beautiful woman ill-
drest would be much better undrest; and he
says much the same of rabbits and onions, but
I forgot how he brings that to bear. The clear
headed reader will soon perceive I have an eye
at him; and having provided him with a steed,
I would wish to make his rider a match for him;
for your rider is half the battle*.

* Was ever so much absurdity crammed into so few lines! Our
author could not be, ipse, he, when he wrote this! Bias talk French !
O coelum in terra! and be a judge of a Lady's dress too! and under-
stand cookery likewise! Why, Mr. Gambado, you really endow him
with more talents than fell to the lot of the admirable Crichton, and
you forget, do you, how he brings that to bear; and so do I too, upon
my word. As to your having an eye at the reader, I don't believe it:
like our honest friend Homer, I fancy, this was your time, to have been
put to bed.

Touching the apparel then, I will begin at
top. Wear a wig, if possible, and should you be
a sportsman and hunt the * forest, the larger
and whiter it is, the safer for you: for should
your horse prove, what is properly termed too
many for you, and make off, nothing but the
singularity of your appearance can restore you
to your disconsolate family^. The hallooing
and hooting of the boys that this will occasion,
will enable your friends to trace you through
most of the villages you may have past; and at
the worst to know, in what part of the country

Half the battle, how vulgar! Our immortal bard, as they call him,
in his highest vagaries never was so low as this /

* The stag hunt in Epping Forest on Easter Monday is supposed
to be the most striking and superb chase in Europe. To this the au-
thor probably alludes.

t The author is here philanthropically amiable; and if the restoring
a long lost husband to the arms of his spouse, has any claim to public
reward, we should not grudge it a moment to his white wig, whilst we
are lavishingly bestowing it on useless quackeries.

I never admired around hat, but with a large
wig, it is insupportable; and in truth, a most
puerile ornament for the head of a sober man,
In windy weather you are blinded with it; and
the ingenious artist I have employed to decorate
this work with his designs, has very forcibly
portrayed the inconvenience, and even danger
of a hat of this sort, to a man of business. *By
a man of business is not meant a Lord of the
Treasury, or a Commissioner of Accounts, but
what is called on the road, a rider, a bag-man
or bagster.

A cock'd hat, besides this advantage over its
competitor, and the dignity it gives to the most
unhappy countenance, has so many others, that
it is wonderful to me, it is not universally worn,
but more particularly by equestrians. If in

* Would it be a very bold assertion to hazard, that, by a Lord of the
Treasury, or a Commissioner of Accounts, is not meant a Man of Bu-
siness? perhaps not.

windy weather, you are blinded, in rainy, you
are deluged by a round hat; whereas one pro-
perly cock'd, will retain the water till you ar-
rive at your baiting place, and keep your head
(which riding might have heated) agreeably
cool; having much the same effect on it, that
a pan of water has upon a flower pot.

Let your boots be somewhat short, and the
knees of your breeches but just reach the joint,
so that the flap of your saddle (and observe a
single flapped saddle is the genteelest) may be
continually curling up, and chafing you be-
tween the confines of the boot and breeches,
by which means, you will be satisfied that your

leg is in a proper position.

Much of the author's friendly advice, as to

■' ■■':■/■■■ : ../ ?'/.;.. ■ ..' ■■ :■ ...

dress, is wanting; but the editor recollects he
was a warm advocate for the riding in black
plush breeches in summer: and ever recom-
mended a coat of pompadour, or some conspi-
cuous colour, for the same obvious reason, that
he thought a large wig of such moment.

You may wear spurs, if you are not afraid;
and the exercising them a good deal, will keep
your blood in proper circulation, and prevent
your toes from being cold.

Be very careful to spur your horse in the
shoulders only; there he has most feeling, be-
cause he has most veins; besides, by spurring
at his body, five times in six, your labour is
lost; if you are a short man, you spur the
saddle cloth; if you are leggy you never touch
him at all; and if middling, you only wear out
your own girths, without your horse being a
bit the better for it.

�riTimww�iir��~~^���---------■■ ■■ ------------- �~~ _IN| , ___

Elegance of position is to be considered as
particularly essential to every gentleman that
appears on horseback in publick. And I shall
endeavour to point out, what most immediately
constitutes it.

The mode of leaning the body pretty for-
ward over the pommel of the saddle, in a walk
or a trot, has been too little in practice of late
years, and it is high time it should be revived.
There is an appearance of airiness in it, that
embellishes the figure of a rider very much in-
deed; particularly if he be mounted on a long
back'd horse, who throws his saddle well for-
ward, and is unencumberd with a crupper:
here he exhibits an elegant picture of careless
indifference, and seems, contemptuously, to
leave all the world behind him.

By the bye, I have observed many a worthy
citizen sent on a Sunday into Hyde Park,
crupper'd up as tight as need be: but be very
shy of a crupper, gentle reader, if your horse

naturally throws his saddle forward. It will
certainly make his tail sore, set him a kicking,
and very likely bring you into trouble. Ex-
perto crede.

If then, you bend your body well forward,
your rump sticking properly out behind, with
your legs projected, I shall have hopes of you;
you cannot I think fail of soon equalling my
most sanguine expectations; and, after having
attained this excellence (an excellence, let me
tell you, arrived at but by few, and those men
of the first knowledge and science, such as the
Fellows of Colleges, the Livery-men of Lon-
don, or, perhaps the crew of a man of war) I
would advise you, without delay, to attempt
another step towards equestrian perfection;
that is, on riding either eastward or westward,
to make your toes point due north and south,
or vice versa.

Thus your spurs may be brought into play,
with little or no exertion; and thus, in turning

sharp round a post,your horse maybe prevented
from hurting himself by running against it*.

The standing up in your stirrups, whilst
trotting, in the above position, has a most ele-
gant and genteel effect; and I would have
you make an essay to accomplish it, no doubt

you will succeed, if you have the genius I take
you to have.

A horse has various methods of getting rid
of his man; at present, I will only advert to
one. If your horse tumbles down with you,
he will sometimes get up again, and should you
not do the same in concert with him, and your
foot remain in the stirrup, he may probably
extend your airing whilst you remain in that
auk ward position; and however desirous you
may be to remain behind, on you must go,
during his pleasure. Now, of all the ways of
conveyance that I have had a taste of, this is
the least agreeable; if it should be the same to

* More Philanthropby.

you, provide yourself with a pair of patent
stirrups; with them; your attachment to your
horse may be as short as you please; they have
done wonders; can I say more? I am happy
in being able to bear testimony of their asto-
nishing¹ efficacy in the case of a friend of mine,

the Rev. Mr. C----, A. M. when of Pembroke

College, Cambridge; by transcribing his own
words at the conclusion of an advertisement he
inserted in all the papers, addressed to the pa-
tentee. Having purchased a pair of his stir-
rups, and falling, one afternoon^ as he was ac-
customed, from his horse, he says, "but thanks
to providence, and your noble invention, my leg
and your stirrup coming off at the same instant,
I escaped unhurt." To what a pitch of per-
fection is human ingenuity arrived!

The being able to guide a horse, is a matter
of some moment on the road, though it may
not be so any where else; and I would advise

you always to ride with a lash whip; it shews
the sportsman, and will assist you much in your
steerage. If your horse bears too much to the
right, of course you drop the reins entirely on
that side, and pull them up sharp, with both
hands, on the other; but if that does not an-
swer, you must refer to your whip, and a good
smart cut over his right cheek and eye, will
soon set him straight again. This is the mode
you will see adopted by every judicious pig-
driver*, and I am told, that a pig is esteemed,
by judges, to be far more averse to direct pro-
gression than a horse.

Lucan informs us, that the Massilians + rode

* A very in-judicious remark this ; were a Pig to be driven in a hard
and sharp, or a Weymouth, and a horse in a packthread tied to his
hind leg, it is a matter of doubt with me, whether the latter would
drive so handy as the former. As pigs now can play at cards as well
as horses, I think it is but fair to suppose them capable of dancing a
minuet with equal activity and grace; whatever Mr. Astley may al-
ledge to the contrary. The author is very hard upon pigs.

t Our author seems fond of a bit of foreign language, his Latin, I
suppose, he was supplied with by the parson of the parish; his French,

without bridles, and guided their horses with a
switch:

" Et gens quae nudo residens Massilia dorso"
^M Ora levi flectit, froenorum nescia virga."

" Without a bridle on the bare back/'
"Make with a stick their horse or mare
tack."

Virgil says the same of the Numidians:
" Et Numidae infreni cingunt."

"See Numidians, on horses unbridled ap-
proach."

I know, he got from his father's journeyman, who (according to the
old man's own phrase) was taught to dislocate coats at Paris. The Mas-
silians are here lugged in, for the sake of the Latin verses, or to cry
down the use of bridles ; but as I am one of those gentlemen, who had
rather ride with a bridle, than without one; and as he must ransack the
blackguard classicks for scraps of quotations, I will meet him, and as
Sir Sampson Legend says in the play, " Try whether my blackguard
or his shall get the better of the day."

" Equi sine frcenis, deformis ipse cursus rigida cervice, et extento
capite, currentium."------Livy, B. 7-

Good riding this; but as to the switch, I'll
maintain it that a whole or a half hunter* would
be more efficacious; and as to the riding, good
as it is, if Julius Caesar did not cut out both
Massilians and Numidians I'll be d�d+; and
the reader will agree with me, when I produce
my authority for his horsemanship, which is no
less a character than Montaigne.

" On dit de Caesar, qu'en sa jeunesse, monte
a dos sur un cheval et sans bride, il lui faisoit
prendre carriere les mains tournees derniere le

It is extremely wrong to put a gentleman on
a restive horse ||, when he is going out on busi-

* Whips, so denominated.

t Hey day ! a new method this of laying down the law. If you go
on thus, Mr. Author, the law will take you up in return; and it will
cost you some shillings before you come to the end of your book.

+ " It is said of Caesar, that in his youth, being mounted on a
horse's bare back, and without a bridle, he could make him perform
his paces with his hands behind him."------Montaigne.

|| A strange epithet this, and I wonder who coined it; tell me of a
rusty horse, and I shall know what it means, for I know what rusty
locks are, and rusty weathercocks.

ness, or invited to dinner in the neighbourhood.
In the first instance, if a man is not punctual, his
credit is lowered; and making an apology for
his horse will seldom be admitted; nor will any
one make allowances for a guest, if his horse
has stopt and turned round five thousand times
with him, in five hundred yards, should the
turtle be spoiled or the venison over-roasted.

In such cases, gentle reader, I should dis-
mount and walk; but if you are averse to
that, and you find that the beast will not go
forward, let him have his whim, and go back-
wards, only take care to point his head the
wrong way*, he will carry you pleasant enough
so; but you must keep your own head well
employed over both shoulders, or it may not
answer at last.

Be provided with a horse block, it is a fine
assistant in mounting, and I am amazed any

* J clearly see the author's meaning here: if he travels backwards,
and the nag's head was the right way, he would never get his dinner,
and it must be wrong not to go when invited.��Recte Domine.

gentleman should be without one. The only
danger I know attending it, is, that in your
eagerness to mount, you may, by over-exert-
ing yourself, lose your equipoise, and pitch
upon your head on the off side of your horse.
This has frequently happened to a friend of
mine; but if you are cool and temperate, you
will take your seat with ease and convenience.
By mounting thus, you avoid all danger of
being kicked, or bit which is more likely: as
if you are a short man, by stretching out your
toe, to^v get it sufficiently into the stirrup, you
are very apt to tickle your horse under the
elbow, and he will then infallibly attack you
in the rear with his teeth. Besides the mani-
fest advantage in a horseblock, it is a pretty
airy ornament to the front of a house, and
moreover, shews that the master of it, is a
horseman; which, let me tell you, every man
that lives by the road side is not. A horse is
sometimes shy of these blocks, if yours should
be so, talk to him a little, scratch his nose, and

use some gentle endearing method or other;
and, I believe, the best of all is, to bid your
foot boy, who leads him up to it, give him two
or three smart kicks in the belly on the off
side.

You are now mounted, and no doubt, anxi-
ous to set off: here then, observe my advice.

Before ever your horse gets into motion, clap
both your spurs into him pretty sharp: this will
set him agoing for the whole day, and shew him
you have spurs on, which, if he did not know,
he might incline to be idle. I do not think
there can be a more approved mode of setting
off, than this is, but I must caution you, that
the surprize will generally cause your horse to
break wind, "and with a pretty smart explosion
too*: Let not this ruffle you+; many a worthy

* Indecent in a high degree.

f This is the second time the Author talks of a worthy man : pos-
sibly he means a man worth a good deal of money, alluding to our
cockneys. But he should be more explicit when he treats on so seri-
ous a subject. Worthy, or unworthy, a man should not lose his life
for a sore tail or a f�t.

man has lost his seat by so sudden an alarm:
but use will soon reconcile you to it, as it does
the rising* of a covey of birds to a young* sports-
man. Thus, then, you go off with eclat, pro-
vided nothing is in your horse's way, and if
there is, you have put him so on his mettle, he
will probably leap over it. Indeed, it is far
from improbable, that he may run away with
you, but if he does, you will make a most
spirited appearance, as my ingenious elucidator
shews you in the annexed plate.

When a man is once well run away with, the
first thing that occurs to him, I imagine, is how
to stop his horse; but men by no means agree
in their modes of bringing this matter about.
Some will run him at a ditch, which I allow to
be a promising experiment, if he leaps ill, or
not at all. Frenchmen, (and the French are
excellent horsemen) will ride against one an-
other; no bad way either: and I have seen
riders make directly for a stable (if a door hap-
pens to be open) and with good effect. How

28 AN ACADEMY FOR

Julius Caesar stopped his horse, when he rode
with his hands behind him, I am at a loss to
divine.

I remember seeing an ingenious Frenchman
make four experiments upon Newmarket Heath,
in only one of which he succeeded. His horse
made away with him whilst Gimcrack was
running a match, and the Count's hopes of
stopping him being but small, he contrived to
turn him across the course, and rode slap-dash
at Gimcrack, hoping to effect it by a broadside;
but he was too quick for him, and he missed his
aim. He then made full at Lord March, but
unluckily only took him slanting: baffled in this
second attempt, he relied on the Devil's ditch,
as a certain check to his career; but his horse
carried him clean over, safe and well: and had
not the rubbing-house presented itself to his
view, he assured me, he believed he should
have soon reached London; dashing at this,
with a true French spirit, he produced the de-
sired effeet; his horse, not being able to pro-
ceed,

i~~~yy-~~ ~~-----------------------------~~ ~~■■■~~ ~~■■'■"■■■~~ ~~■■■■� ■m.i ii-~~ i ~~■""~~ »■■ ■■ ■~~.....~~

ceed, stopped, and that so suddenly, that the
Earl of Pembroke himself would have been
dislodged, and old Newcastle lain with his ^
mother Earth. The Count, it is true, came
off, but tolerably well; the horse broke his
head, and the Count likewise; so that accord-
ing to the ancient opinion of two negatives
making an affirmative, little or no harm was
done.

Having said thus much on the subject of
being run away with, it is necessary I should
decide, for the benefit of my readers, on the
means I most approve of for putting a stop to
such doings; and I am clearly for the stable
door; if, entering- it full speed, you should be
afraid of your head, spread out your legs suf-
ficiently, and your horse will go in without you.

In riding the road, observe in passing a
whisky, a phaeton, or a stage coach, in short

any carriage where the driver sits on the right
hand, to pass it on that side, he may not see
you on the other, and though you may meet
with a lash in the eye, what is the loss of an
eye to a leg or perhaps neck.

Should a man on horseback be on the road,
and leading another horse, always dash by the
led one, you might otherwise set the man's
horse capering, and perhaps throw him off;
and you can get but a kick or two by observ-
ing my instructions.

Take care never to throw your horse down,
it is an unlucky trick and fit only for boys.
Many gentlemen of my acquaintance, and I
too, have been thrown down by our horses;
yet I scarce know an instance upon record of a
gentleman throwing his horse down; but many
have complained to me of their servants doing
it for them.

In passing a waggon or any tremendous
equipage, should it run pretty near a bank,

and there be but a ditch, and an open country
in the other side, if you are on business and in
a hurry, dash up the bank without hesitation;
for should you take the other side, and your
horse shy at the carriage, you may be carried
many hundred yards out of your road; whereas
by a little effort of courage, you need only graze
the wheel, fly up the bank, and by slipping or
tumbling down into the road again, go little or
nothing out of your way.

I have given you the above hints, supposing
you are now at home enough on horseback, to
ride out alone, and may possibly be tempted to
travel the road; as either the lucre of gain, or
the universal passion, as a celebrated author
calls the love of Fame, may send you forth.

Let me entreat you to examine your tack-
ling well at setting out, particularly from an
inn, and after dinner: see that your girths are
tight; many a good fall have I got by not at-
tending to this. Hostlers are too apt to be

^J/um' &), fya/i a catrptiage^.;

careless, and ought never to be paid till we
see them the next time*. An instance of a
singular nature occurred at Huntingdon a few
years since to the Rev. D. B. of Jesus College
in Cambridge; which has given a discovery to
the world (productive indeed of a paper war)
but which may turn out beneficial to mankind,
as it proves 3 to be equal to 4. The Doctor
dined at the Crown, it was dusk when he set

* A learned dancing master in the university of Oxford, who
taught politeness also, and published a book upon that subject, fixed
the same period for passing a stile, in some cases, that is here judici-
ously recommended for the payment of an hostler: his precept was,
that a well bred man meeting another, on the opposite side of a stile,
ought on no account to be persuaded to go over first. The name of
this ingenious author was Towle. Had two zealous pupils of his
school met each other at a stile, it is supposed they must have con-
cluded their lives on the premises. Unless the author had subjoined to
his work that useful calendar, in which, as the poet conjectures, such
periods are ascertained.





.;'!'■'

				"■"■■

	"■ ;

		' ^/!/-', ■ .. ■'' : ^/'

					>//,v-
			( ;,-,' / � //■// &o ,//r/v ^ //■/		>//,v-
			( ;,-,' / � //■// &o ,//r/v ^ //■/



lilp 1


	15U
	15U

		^J/um' &), fya/i a catrptiage^.;



	'■'..''■ �'�,■.' '



			■. ■■.'■ ■''.-'■ .-■'-' ..'.'■ .'.' ' ." ■ ■■ ■ ■ ' .-"■':■.■.■'. ^;-- ■■■ '■'..■■■■ .' -■ ' ■ ' ■ :-':-■ ■ ■ ■" "■■."■■..'■ \. ■■■■■'■■. ■ ■ ■■■'"""■ ^:; *.- ■ ■' '■■■'- "■' ■'■* '■'■ " '■' ■** ■'

fC. vumv&ru ' ..;/.'''■'''■'
fC. vumv&ru ' ..;/.'''■'''■'		SlOyV
		SlOyV



f

				TO THE

		RIGHT HONOURABLE Lord Viscount Townshend, GENERAL OF HIS majesty's forces, AND

			COLONEL OF THE QUEENS REGIMENT OF DRAGOON GUARDS.

	To your Lordship, as com- manding a regiment of ca- valry, a Treatise of Horse- manship comes immediately in the line of your profes- sion; I, therefore, humbly conceive, that consideration alone, would authorise me



		vi DEDICATION. with propriety to request your patronage and protec- tion tor this my adopted foundling; to which petition I am further induced by the patriotic hopes of being use- ful to my country: for hav- ing, with regret, observed, that both your Lordship, and the corps under your com- mand, if one may judge by appearances, are totally ig- norant of the graces and su- perior advantages attending Mr. Gambado's system, I have flattered myself, that on a perusal of it, you will not only adopt it yourself,



		DEDICATION. vii but also use your interest to introduce it into the service. What might not be expected from the British Cavalry thus improved? I might here enter into a train of common-place com- pliments, and flourish away on the laurels your Lord- ship might by this means gather, in addition to those already acquired; but I will not offend your delicacy: besides, laurel is a tree not cultivated in these piping times of peace: I shall there- fore conclude this epistle with my sincere wishes, that



	viii DEDICATION.

		�as�-

your Lordship may long, very long, in health and spirits enjoy your BAYS. / am, With the greatest Respect, Your Lordship's Most obedient Humble Servant, September 1st, 1787. The Editor.



		x FRAGMENT OF amusement: and I doubt not, but every true judge of the noble art, will acknow- ledge the excellence of my instructions; and every true lover of it applaud my pub- lic spirit, in circulating them abroad for the benefit of mankind at large. ******** I have had some difficulty in fixing upon a title for my work: A Vade Mecum is quitehacknied out: A School is become of late years, a term entirely applied to co- medies; and for Every Man his own Horseman, an ingeni-



		THE AUTHORS PREFACE. xi ous professor in Dublin as- sured me it was a bull. I have therefore adopted Academy; I think it is hap- pily chosen, properly ex- pressive, and has, I think, 3een affixed to but one work of genius, viz. The Academy of Compliments, a publica- tion, which, thanks to our present politeness, is now scarcely remembered. The Academy for grown Horsemen, is a work that has cost me much labour, and the application of some years, to complete. But, when I consider the vast



		xii FRAGMENT OF utility it may be of to my fellow creatures; that they are to profit by it and not myself: " Sic vos non vobis, fertis aratra boves." I flatter myself I have not wasted the midnight oil in vain, " and I look with plea- sure on my book, giving it to the world with the satis- faction of a man who has en- deavoured to deserve well." Maymanybethenecksitpre- serves for nobler purposes.

			*******

		I am happy in having met with an artist, who has illus- trated my ideas of horse-



		THE AUTHORS PREFACE. xiii manship completely to my wishes, and I here beg leave thus publicly to acknow- ledge my obligations to him. *** * ^ ^ * *** As I shall be as concise and explicit as possible in the valuable instructions and discoveries I am now about to communicate to the world ; it will be the reader's own fault, if he does not profit- ably benefit by them. When I have told him how to chuse a horse, how to tackle him properly, in what sort of dress to ride him, how to d



		xiv FRAGMENT, &c. mount and manage him, how to ride him out, and, above all, how to ride him home again; if he is not a complete horseman in the course of ten or dozen sum- mers, I will be bold to fore- tell, that neither the skill of Mr. Astley, nor the experi- ence of Mr. John * Gilpin, will ever make him one. ******** " Nil desperandum, me duce Teucro."

			* Mr. John Gilpin. The author mentions John, to distinguish him from William. Both these gentlemen are elegant and enlightened travellers, and have published each their tour:�John, his to Ed- monton, in 1782;�William, his to Cumberland, in 1786.



			THE EDITOR to the READER.

		It is to the same propitious stars, which rescued the creatures with the craws from per- dition, that we are indebted for the recovery of the fragments that compose this most inva- luable work. Fortune indeed was most lavish in her smiles upon the Editor, by throwing- at once before his sight, in an obscure alehouse near Limehouse Hole, on their first landing, the most extraordinary bipeds that perhaps ever visited this country; and to his much greater astonishment, some manuscript sheets of his unfortunate friend, Mr. Geoffrey Gam- bado. On comparing notes (by signs) with these ultramarine beings, he concluded, and with much reason, that the abovementioned sheets were



r~

	\

		.-■' /
		.-■' /



		xvi THE EDITOR TO were thrown over board by the author (in hopes mankind might yet profit by the reco- very of some of them) at the moment the vessel that contained him was going to the bottom; which it is well known was the case, in the Gulph of Venice, a few days previous to the catching of the Craws; and in this sur- mise he soon found he was nearly right. Two particular circumstances must yet be noticed. The title page stiles Mr. Gambado Master of the Horse, Riding Master, and Grand Equerry to the Doge of Venice; and so in truth he was appointed in the year of our Lord 1785. Living in the habits of intimacy with him that the Editor did, he is competent not only to decide what his views were, but what were his sentiments of the Equestrians of his own country, previous to his embarkation for Italy. That he held in utter contempt the mode of riding commonly adopted in England, was obvious,



THE READER. xvii obvious, from his never riding like any body else; and upon the Doge of Venice honouring him with the above appointments (and ho- norary it was supposed they were only meant to be) he was so elated, that he instantly pack- ed up a portmanteau, bought two saddles, as many bridles, six pair of spatterdashes, with spurs affixed, a large roll of diaculum plaister, two pair of patent stirrups, with his MSS. works, (and providentially a few drawings from which the plates in this little volume are en- graved); and in a few hours put himself on board a vessel for Trieste, which sailed imme- diately, and was lost a few leagues from Ra- gusa. A sailor (one of the few that escaped by putting himself in a fish-kettle, and tying* it round his middle, having previously painted it green) has informed the Editor, that he saw the last of Mr. Gambado; and his end was as singular as his life had been. The vessel being It is imagined Mr. Lunardi has fallen in with this man.------ N. B. Not into the Sea.

		expected
	e



			xviii THE EDITOR TO

		expected to go to pieces every instant, he drank a quart of hot punch, and came cooly on the deck; and having first called up all the forti- tude he was able, he next called up his servant, with all the saddles and bridles that could be got; and having mounted himself on the largest, and taking a bridle in one hand, and a paper case in the other, desired to be thrown into the sea. This was complied with, but the informant adds, that the boatswain being somewhat desirous to save his life likewise, hastily jumped up behind the unfortunate Gambado, and he apprehends that the saddle, although new and large, was not master of his additional weight, for it dropt with such pre- cipitancy as to throw our Author out of his seat, and his foot catching and hanging in the stirrup, soon put an end to his mortal career. And it must be confessed that he made his exit en par/hit cavalier;* and an honour to his * His patent stirrups were probably packed up, or the Author would at least, have had a swim for it. leather



		THE READER. xix ~~.■ ...■�,■ , i ■' "" "~~ ' ■ ■'" - leather he was . The boatswain was saved by laying fast hold on the crupper. The Editor (besides the friendship he enter- tained for this great man), cannot help think- ing it is a thousand pities, he should have been lost in so foolish a manner. But such was his -rapture at the honours conferred on him by the Doge, and such his disgust for British horsemanship, that delicacy restrained his friends from acquainting him there was no such a thing as a horse to be found in all Ve- nice ; and yet they have not a doubt, if he had been apprized of this circumstance in time, he never would have embarked for that capital at all. When the Craws were first picked up in their pleasure-boat, it was observed they were all over white patches; upon examination it ap- peared that they were sheets of paper artfully fastened round them with strings of sea-weeds, An honour to his Cloth�is applied to many a drunken Parson j and I do not see why. To .Geoffrey, Leather is more suitable. and



			xx THE EDITOR TO

		and the sailors, from the impulse of curiosity, lifting some of them up, discovered hand-writ- ing underneath. It should seem that these modest creatures had undoubtedly picked up the papers floating on the surface of the ocean, and converted them to the same use our first parents did the fig-leaves. This is however but a conjecture of the Editor; who certainly met with the fragments of his friend's intended book, in the same place where he first saw the Craws, and where he was told the circumstance of their having worn them. It is left to the deeper searchers into the wonders of nature (and who are now puzzling to resolve from whence the ladies and gentle- men now lodging at Mr. Becket's, the trunk- maker, in the Haymarket, can possibly come), to determine whether the preservation of the following sheets, is owing to an innate mo- desty in the creatures with monstrous craws, or to their natural admiration for learning, and a wish to preserve sheets, although adorned with



		THE READER. xxi

	with characters totally unknown, and unin- telligible to them.

It was necessary for the Editor to explain how he came possessed of the few materials that compose this work. Having done this, he has only to add, that he has recovered a part only of the Author's preface, a few drawings, some notes, an anecdote or two, and about twenty pages of instructions to grown horse- men ; but so broken and unconnected, that had he attempted the putting them together, he must have formed a book of his own: Having however, a thorough sense of the superior abi- lities of the original Author, he wishes rather to give them to the public in scraps as he re- ceived them, but arranged to the best of his ability. And he may be bold to add, that as morceaus choice as these, would not fall every day into their mouths, were they to hold them f incessantly



			THE EDITOR TO

		incessantly open, the public would swallow them with avidity, and digest them either immediately, or at their leisure. The notes that are preserved, are written in a hand unknown to the Editor, and are evi- dently the remarks of some good-natured friend of Mr. Gambado. By the ingenuity of many of them, and their peculiarity of stile, they bear strong marks of the masterly pen that produced the annotation to the first edi- tions of Mr. Bell's Shakespeare. The portrait of the Author, prefixed, is engraved from a drawing by another of his friends, done from memory; it is like, but a likeness that tinc- tures of the prejudice of friendship. Jeffery was not so slim, or was his eye so poignant; nor was he ever known to be possessed of a pair of boots himself, though he often men- tions boots in his writings. Of late years, many portraits of celebrated men have been given to the public from me- mory: Mr. Mason has favoured us with a most



		THE READER, xxiii most formidable likeness of Gray the Poet; another eminent writer has treated us with one of the noted Charles Price; and we are now furnished, with by no means, a small re- semblance of Jeffery Gambado. Of Jeffery, or as he himself desired it to be wrote, Geoffrey Gambado, little is known of the descent: but that his father was ataylor, he himself has assured me; and that he lived in Devonshire is no less certain. Being a pro- digious horseman (his customers living all at a considerable distance from him) I make no doubt but it was in allusion to him, that the term of " riding like a taylor" took its rise. A term still particularly applicable to the na- tives of that county. The inhabitants of Yorkshire and the vi- cinity of Newmarket may turn it into ridicule if they please, but it was meant as highly com- plimentary and honourable to that valuable body of men. Was not the flying highway- man a taylor? were not three parts of General Elliotts



		xxiv THE EDITOR, &c. Elliott's dragoons taylors ? and was not he who made that dangerous excursion to Brentford, a taylor? We are told in a preliminary advertisement to the Tale of the Recess, that " the breaks in the story only tend to heighten the pathetic." A hope attends the Editor, that the breaks in the ensuing work will only serve to give the reader a greater relish of what remains of it, and prevent the glut generally accompanying " too much of a good thing."



			AN ACADEMY FOR *GROJ^N HORSEMEN.*

		JL HE World has been so long* misled by the false notions of Horsemanship, adopted and in- dustriously circulated by Newcastle, La Fosse, Pembroke, and Berenger; so infatuated by the fantastick tricks of Sir Sidney Meadows, and so blinded by the airy coolness of a Percival and his imitators, that it may possibly prove a diffi- cult task to convince any one person in this wrongheaded age, that the theory of the first mentioned gentlemen, and the practice of the B latter,



		»,

	2 AN ACADEMY FOR

latter, are entirely founded in error, and cal- culated merely to break the necks of his Ma- jesty's most faithful subjects. I shall endeavour to prove, and I flatter my- self to conviction, that the above mentioned authors are grossly mistaken in all their opi- nions upon the noble art and science of horse- manship; that even their ideas of the proud animal himself are partial and ill-founded; that the French Parocel, and the Flemish Wouvermans, drew such horses as never ex- isted ; and that when we do meet with a horse, that in the least resembles their designs, he is bad and dangerous in the extreme, ******* It is a melancholy truth, that our breed of horses is terribly degenerated, but indeed the national taste is fallen off proportionably; no- thing now is to be seen but bred horses; every apprentice must bestride a bit of blood. A bit of



		GROWN HORSEMEN. 3

	of blood! and well may they be termed so, for neither flesh nor bone have they to boast of. ******** There is indeed one breed of horses still ex- tant, which might, and indeed ought, to be brought into more play. I mean what is vul- garly called the dray-horse*. This, I profess, is a noble animal, and admirably calculated to make a figure either on the road or in the

* Or rather rf?-a-horse. The most useful animal in the creation, and respected by all antiquity. His name is immediately derived from the Greek verb <5>», i. e. drao,* to do or work; because it was found that he could do more work than any other horse. The vehicle drawn by him was also well known to the Greeks by the name of dray, or rather dra ; and it was in this carriage, and not in a waggon, as is vulgarly supposed, that Thespis carried his stage and actors. Hence the title of rfra-ma and dra-matic, universally applied to all theatrical pieces. The Greek critics refer the invention of such works to the Doric tribes, because this very word drao Avas peculiar to the Doric dialect. If this account be correct, those tribes were also, without doubt, the first breeders of dra-horses; an encomium of high value among a people who derived many honourable epithets, as well as- proper names, from skill and zeal in breeding and managing horses, field.



		4 AN ACADEMY FOR field. Scarce one of them but is master of thirty stone or upwards. What a sublime scene would it be, to see fourscore or a hundred of these animals on the full stretch over a piece of wheat, to catch sight of a hound. It would require the pen of Homer to describe such a spectacle. On the road, what dangers do we incur from the weakness of our horses! The pitiful spider- legged things of this age fly into a ditch with you, at the sight of a pocket handkerchief, or the blowing of your nose; whereas mount one of these, and the world cannot alter your route: Meet a higler's cart, he will stop it, either with his own head or your leg; fall in with a hack- ney coach, and he will carry you slap dash against it. * * * * * ^_s _a p_urchaser, it is imma- terial whether you go to Tattersall's, or Al- dridge's, to Meynell's Hunt, or his Majesty's, it is probable you will be taken in wherever you go. ***** To



		GROWN HORSEMEN. 5 To define a perfect horse is nearly impossi- ble, and to tell you where to buy one, com- pletely so. However, I shall endeavour to de- scribe such outward beauties and active quali- fications, as are requisite to the composition of one; and should such a phoenix fall in your way (and the taste of these times are so vilely perverted, I believe you have a better chance at present than you would have had some years back) I hope you will not let him slip through your fingers. The heighth of a horse is perfectly immate- rial, provided he is higher behind than before. Nothing is more pleasing to a traveller than the sensation of continually g-etting forward; whereas the riding a horse of a contrary make, is like swarming the bannisters of a stair-case, when, though perhaps you really advance, you feel as if you were going backwards. Let him carry his head low, that he may C have



		6 AN ACADEMY FOR have an eye to the ground, and see the better where he steps. The less he lifts his fore legs, the easier he will move for his rider, and he will likewise brush all the stones out of his way, which might otherwise throw him down. If he turns out his toes as well as he should do, he will then disperse them to the right and the left, and not have the trouble of kicking the same stone a second time. ******** A bald face, wall eyes, and white legs (if your horse is not a grey one) is to be preferr'd; as, in the night, although you may ride against what you please, yourself, no one will ride against you. His nose cannot project too much from his neck, for by keeping a constant tight rein on him, you will then sit as firm as if you were held on. A horse's ears cannot well be too long: a ju- dicious



		GROWN HORSEMEN. 7 l"l I "'~~-------~~'~~---'"" ' ' "~~ I II II I I I I' I --------------------- ~~' ""' '~~ ~~---~~~"~~~��~~----------^:------------------~~,-\|~~------_r--~~-------------------------��»�~---- dicious rider steers his course, by fixing his eyes between them. Were he cropt, and that as close as we sometimes see them now a days, in a dusky evening the rider might wander the lord knows where. ■5f? *?fc* vj> 3f *vfi* V V I have found many persons who have pur- chased horses of me, very inquisitive and troublesome about their eyes; indeed as much so, as if their eyes were any way concerned in the action of the animal. As I know they are not, I give myself very little trouble about them. If a rider is in full possession of his own, what his horse has, is perfectly immate- rial; having probably a bridle in his mouth to direct him where to go, and to lift him up with again, if he tumbles down. Any gentleman chusing, indeed, to ride without a bridle, should look pretty sharp at a horse's eyes be- fore he buys him: be well satisfied with his method



		8 AN ACADEMY FOR ^! �: ~~- '~~ i " method of going, be very certain that he is docile, and will stop short with a " Wohey," and, after all, be rather scrupulous where he rides him. Let no man tell me that a blind horse is not a match for one with the best of eyes, when it is so dark that he cannot see: and when he can, it is to be supposed 4:he gentleman upon his back can, as well as he; and then, if he rides with a bridle, what has he to fear ? I flatter myself, I have proved as clear as day, that eyes are of little consequence; and as I am, no doubt, the first author that has made it known, my readers, if they lose no time, may mount themselves at Aldridge's, or the Rhedarium, as well, and for half the money they would have done, before I let them into this secret. I have searched Chambers and Johnson for this Wohey! but cannot find him. I do not recollect such a word in all Shakespeare, and he dealt at large in the language. Neither is it to be met with in Master Bailey's delicate Collection of Provincialisms. What is Wohey ? Be



		GROWN HORSEMEN. 9 Be sure to buy a broken knee'd horse, when- ever he falls in your way: the best bit of flesh that ever was crossed will certainly come down one day or another; whereas one that has fallen, (and scarified himself pretty much) never will again if he can help it. Spavins, splints, corns, mallenders, sallenders, Sfc. fyc. being all curable, are beneath your no- tice. A few of these little infirmities in your stable, is always a subject of conversation, and you may, perhaps, now and then want one; it will likewise justify you to your lady, in embel- lishing* your bookcase with Bracken, Gibson, Bartlett, and Griffiths; excellent authors in their way, and extremely useful! for you will have no occasion to be sending for an apothecary upon every trifling ailment in your family, but will know yourself how to make up a good stout and effectual dose of physic for your wife or servants, in the gooseberry season, and at the fall of the leaf. D I would



		10 AN ACADEMY FOR I would recommend a long tail, if it is to be had for love or money; if that is not to be got, buy a horse with a rat tail, if possible; though inferior in point of convenience to the former, there is aje ne scat quoi of comicality about it, that inclines us to merriment whenever it makes its appearance. There is one inconvenience attending long tails in summer (when the poor animals have most need of them); and that is, horses full of grass are very subject to scour- ings; in this case ride your horse with his tail in a bag, or else lie may annoy you. **** Having described for my reader a horse, and I hope he likes him, I would fain form as com- plete a horseman, and having so done, my am- bition would be gratified, my end answered, and I would never ride again myself, as long as Ilivd, ****** Few



GROWN HORSEMEN. 11 Few writers on this subject have thought it necessary to prescribe any peculiar mode of dress to equestrians. I am such a zealot about the propriety of their appearance, that I think too much cannot be said on the subject. Hea- vens ! how are the laws degraded since the abo- lition of full bottoms * in our Courts of Jus- tice: I attribute the encrease of thievery to it, and firmly believe, that ten men are hanged for every inch curtailed in a Judge's wig.

	The Editor can only attribute the singularity of the ten or a dozen lines that follow, to their having been written ctfter dinner; Mr. Gambado being fond of pushing the bottle about briskly. His annotator seems to think the same; in- deed, if he was the author's friend, he was a

		* fie might have added, how are our Ladies improved by the adop-, tion of them.

			very