THE RIDING MASTER

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 189, 12 August 1933, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE RIDING MASTER

CHELTENHAM YEARS AGO

A FAMOUS SCHOOL. (By F. B. FORESTER.) English of Cheltenham, prince of riding masters, with what delighted surprise was the mention of jour name seen by one of your pupils, in the pages of tho "Star" a few weeks ago. By one at any rate of those whom you taught so many years ago, your lessons have been remembered with gratitude when riding, under such different conditions from those surrounding the garden city, in tho back country of Now Zealand. Martinet you might be, and strictest of tho strict with regard to the handling of curb and snallle, indeed of "hands" generally, but although, or because, so severe, tho teaching was thorough, and impossible t9 forget.

Your head and your heart keep bravely up, Your licels and your hands keep down. Your legs keep close to your horse's sidrs, And your elbows keep close to your own.

Such was, in cffect, the sum and substanco of his teaching, but the third line of tho quatrain would have been hardly applicablo in the days of which one writes, since riding astride for girls had not then come into practice. It is doubtful whether, at that time of day, the famous riding master would have countenanced it if it had.

Onco again one hears in memory the brief order to shorten reins for a canter, and can see him, smart and well turned out as ho always was, mounted on his hog-maned cob Jack, keeping steadily to tho trot in the midst of a bevy of cantering girls. Ho knew intuitively tho mount best suited to each individual pupil, and great was tlio satisfaction of the girl who found herself promoted to Barmaid, or even tho coveted Miss Chapman. Medora was invariably tho beginner's mount, for the reason that she never hammered tin tacks in the trot, but could bo depended upon to keep up a steady canter, tho easiest pace, naturally, to a learner.

But, if tho sight of tho name of the famotts riding master, away down in the South Seas, made one inclined to rub one's eyes with astonishment, ho would most assuredly have rubbed his; could he, smart and'well-groomed invariably, both as to liorso and man, have seen the tag, rag and bobtail style of costume affected by so many riders of both sexes at tho present day, not only in New Zealand, but, if report speaks truly, ill what used to bo regarded as the very pink of equestrian perfection and j>ropriety, the Row itself.

Other recollections of the famous school come thronging thick and fast. There is one hymn never heard in church without recalling tlio great college hall, tho white-capped principal surrounded by her staff on tho platform, the endless procession of girls filing into morning prayers, tho pealing of tlio organ, and the ringing tones of fresh young voices rising to tho roof. Beyond, there were tho corridors, smelling strongly of new wood and varnish, along which the newcomer wandered, wondering behind which of tho double leadliglited doors sat tho teacher of whom sho was ill search. The rides to Cleave or Lockliampton—on one of which, incidentally, oxen were seen for £ho first time ploughing, the papercliases over the hills, the dances in the big kindergarten room on wet Saturday nights, the excursions by train to tho daffodil meadows of Longhope. Apart altogether from the name of the hall, Tennyson's pocin was recalled in moro ways than one. With tho exception of tho visiting masters, and the caretakcr, no "'male thing" was to be seen among tho crowding hundreds, and tho prevailing press of petticoats became tiresome at times. Even the tradition of the innkeeper in the Princess, who "always posted with mares," was inadvertently observed, for upon mares, invariably, tho riding pupils, were mounted.

In all probability, with tho progress of these later years, many changes and innovations have set in around the old school. Twenty years is a long time to be out of England; and information

that would conic as a matter of course at Home, does not always reach thoso who havo gone to tho ends of all the earth. There is, no doubt, a school uniform for Ladies' College now. Yet the crocodiles may still crawl, as of old, up Lansdowno and round by St. Luke's Church, unless, as is quite possible in the greater freedom enjoyed by girls in these later days, the crocodiles may have ceased to exist at all.

And the principal herself? If to conduct a school for girls on similar lines to the public schools for boys in England was her ambition, she was successful, without a doubt. In figure and bearing Dorothea Beale resembled another great Englishwoman of her day, tho late Queen Victoria; and although only of medium height, she carried herself with a dignity that nothing seemed to shake. She was one of the few women fitted to rule others, having a way with girls, and a few quiet words from lior would reduce the most defiant to order, while her briefly spoken commendation and encouragement brought tho most professedly indifferent under her spell.

Concerning tho girls, tho seniors at all events, enough to say that, recognising, as most of tliem did, the preparation for their life work to lie under their hands within those walls, nothing could equal the wholehearted enthusiasm they brought to the task. Yet they could frivol on occasions, as witness the irreverent quatrain, often misquoted, but running thus:

Miss Buss and Miss Beale Love's darts never feel; So they leave them to us I'oor Beale and poor Buss.