In London, of course, the Park was the place for showing off both beautiful horses, and men’s riding, and the accompanying illustration portrays Lord Dillon, an accomplished rider, showing people
HOW TO BREAK IN MY OWN HORSE.
The costume here is specially noteworthy, as it shows a very advanced type of dandy.
That this was not the ordinary costume for riding in “the Row,” is shown in the accompanying illustration, where it is far more business-like, and fitted for the purpose.
ROTTEN ROW—1803.
As we see, from every contemporary print and painting, the horses were of a good serviceable type, as dissimilar as possible from our racer, but closely resembling a well-bred hunter. They had plenty of bottom, which was needful, for they were often called upon to perform what now would be considered as miracles of endurance. Take the following from the Annual Register, March 24, 1802, and bearing in mind the sea passage, without steam, and in a little tub of a boat, and it is marvellous: “Mr. Hunter performed his journey from Paris to London in twenty-two hours, the shortest space of time that journey has ever been made in.”
