My experience of life is that a man who loves horses is a good member of society. A man who is kind to his horses is kind to everyone else. I belong to a Four-in-hand Club, two of the leading members, Lord Onslow and Lord Carrington, being close personal friends of mine. A relative of Lord Onslow once wrote:
"What can Tommy Onslow do
He can drive a coach and two;
Can Tommy Onslow do no more
Yes, he can drive a coach and four."
Yet Lord Onslow and Lord Carrington are something more than splendid whips; they are highly successful governors of British Dependencies.
May Day Horse Show Dinner,
March 2nd, 1889.
[TALKS ON EDUCATION.]
I have been delighted to hand so many prizes to lady pupil teachers, and I recall the philosopher who once said, "All that is necessary is that a girl should have the morals of an angel, the manners of a kitten, and the mind of a flea." But after this distribution one cannot go away with the impression that the female mind is only the mind of a flea.
Pupil Teachers' Prize Distribution,
January 16th, 1903.
We have been informed, to-night of different foreign educational systems, the German, the French, and the American, which we are generally told in this country we ought to copy. In the French system there is too much centralization. Every teacher, whether at a university or at a small elementary school, is simply a Government Official. The German system is a splendid one, but it is all subsidized by Government. The English Government is not generous enough to do that for English Schools, so we can hardly hope to copy the German system. Then there is the American system. That is also certainly splendid, but unfortunately we have no great millionaires in England who will help us to copy the American system. It has been said that when an Englishman becomes a millionaire, and he feels that he is nearing his end, he thinks—to use a sporting expression—that it is time to "hedge for a future state." Then he builds a Church. The American millionaire founds a university, or leaves large sums of money for a training college, and I think he is right.