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Borrow, George Henry, 1803-1881

"The Romany Rye"

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.


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