"Se il cavallo è restio, il più delle volte procede per colpa del Cavaliero, per una di questi ragioni. Overo il Cavallo è vile, e di poca forza, e essendo troppo molestato si abandona e avvilisce di sorte che accorando non vuole caminare avante; over è superbo, e gagliardo, e dandogli fatica, egli mancandogli un poco di lena, si prevalerà con salti, e con aggrupparsi, e con altre malignità, ò fara pur questo dal principio che si cavalca, di maniera che se allora conoscerà chi il Cavaliero lo teme, prenderà tant' animo, che usando molte ribalderie, si fermerà contra la volontà sua; e di queste due Specie di Restii [which J. R. will be pleased to note], la peggior è quella che nasce da viltà, e da poca forza."—Folio 92, verso.
Thus much for the equestrian part of the subject. With regard to the use of the word restive by the author of the Eclipse of Faith, that is purely a matter of taste, which it is unnecessary here to discuss; but I hope that the foregoing opinion of one who in his day passed for the most accomplished horseman of Europe, will suffice to show that, in the passage quoted, the term is not so entirely misapplied as J. R. supposes.
F. S. Q.
MEN OF KENT AND KENTISH MEN.
(Vol. v., p. 321.)
In your answers to Minor Queries (Vol. v., p. 321.) I find it stated, that the inhabitants of the part of Kent lying between Rochester and London being invicti, have ever since (the Norman Conquest) been designated as Men of Kent; while those to the eastward, through whose district the Conqueror marched unopposed, are only "Kentish Men."
As I have always understood that the contrary is the case, and that the inhabitants of East Kent are called "Men of Kent," and those in West Kent, "Kentish Men"—because in East Kent the people are less intermixed with strangers than in West Kent, from its proximity to the metropolis—I was desirous of correcting what appeared to me to be a manifest error: but not finding any direct authority on the point, I consulted my friend Charles Sandys, Esq., of Canterbury, as a Kentish antiquary, on the subject. And I now send you a letter from that gentleman, which you are at liberty to print.
Geo. R. Corner.
Eltham.