There are always two or more men from every cavalry regiment in the service at Maidstone. The recruits for the regiments in India, China, and the Cape are put through their drill with all possible despatch, both here and at Canterbury, and are generally considered proficient in about six months, after which they are drafted off in detachments to join the head-quarters of their corps on foreign service; and hundreds of them never return to their native land. I have, however, occasionally met with men who, after being discharged, from purchase or some other cause, have preferred to remain in India, the Cape, Canada, etc, until they have amassed sufficient means to return home and live in comparative comfort, like others of the same grade in society. CHAPTER TWENTY ONE. Excess of bodily exercise may render us wild and unmanageable, but excess of arts, science, and music, makes us faddled and effeminate. Only the right combination makes the soul wise and manly. Plato. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The difference between the walk of a cavalry and infantry soldier cannot fail to be noticed, even by a person the most indifferent to military matters. The gait of the dragoon is distinguished for its ease and elasticity over that of the foot soldier, which may be accounted for by the mounted exercise having the effect of suppling the loins and hips of a recruit in the first stages of drill, which seldom, if ever, becomes eradicated in after life, even though the man may leave the army after a short term of service. Horse-exercise brings every muscle of the body into play, and thereby imparts to the proper method of walking, attained by infantry drill, an amount of ease and grace never seen in our infantry soldiers. As I shall probably write a series of articles on horsemanship in a separate form, I shall, for the present, confine my remarks to the manner in which both cavalry and infantry soldiers are taught to throw off that lounging, shuffling style of walking, into which many young gentlemen fall, through habits of indifference and carelessness, which grow with their growth until the limbs become set and modelled with age, so that no amount of drill or gymnastic exercise can alter or improve the figure.