Adventure stories; England -- Fiction; Romanies -- Fiction
a shilling, then mount your horse and walk him gently for five miles; and
whilst you are walking him in this manner, it may be as well to tell you
to take care that you do not let him down and smash his knees, more
especially if the road be a particularly good one, for it is not at a
desperate hiverman pace, and over very bad roads, that a horse tumbles
and smashes his knees, but on your particularly nice road, when the horse
is going gently and lazily, and is half asleep, like the gemman on his
back; well, at the end of the five miles, when the horse has digested his
food, and is all right, you may begin to push your horse on, trotting him
a mile at a heat, and then walking him a quarter of a one, that his wind
may be not distressed; and you may go on in that way for thirty miles,
never galloping, of course, for none but fools or hivermen ever gallop
horses on roads; and at the end of that distance you may stop at some
other nice inn to dinner. I say, when your horse is led into the stable,
after that same thirty miles' trotting and walking, don't let the saddle
be whisked off at once, for if you do your horse will have such a sore
back as will frighten you, but let your saddle remain on your horse's
back, with the girths loosened, till after his next feed of corn, and be
sure that he has no corn, much less water, till after a long hour and
more; after he is fed he may be watered to the tune of half a pail, and
then the ostler can give him a regular rub down; you may then sit down to
dinner, and when you have dined get up and see to your horse as you did
after breakfast, in fact, you must do much after the same fashion you did
at t'other inn; see to your horse, and by no means disoblige the ostler.
So when you have seen to your horse a second time, you will sit down to
your bottle of wine--supposing you to be a gentleman--and after you have
finished it, and your argument about the corn-laws with any commercial
gentleman who happens to be in the room, you may mount your horse
again--not forgetting to do the proper thing to the waiter and ostler;
you may mount your horse again and ride him, as you did before, for about
five and twenty miles, at the end of which you may put up for the night
after a very fair day's journey, for no gentleman--supposing he weighs
sixteen stone, as I suppose you will by the time you become a
gentleman--ought to ride a horse more than sixty-five miles in one day,
provided he has any regard for his horse's back, or his own either. See
to your horse at night, and have him well rubbed down. The next day you
may ride your horse forty miles, just as you please, but never foolishly,
and those forty miles will bring you to your journey's end, unless your
journey be a plaguy long one, and if so, never ride your horse more than
five and thirty miles a day, always, however, seeing him well fed, and
taking more care of him than yourself; which is but right and reasonable,
seeing as how the horse is the best animal of the two."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account