The horse-riding that goes on is a thing to be chronicled;
they are always on horseback, and you may depend upon it that it is
better for them than all the gymnastic exercises ever invented. The
liability to strain, and even serious internal injury, which is incurred
in gymnastic exercises, ought to induce sensible people to be extremely
careful how they permit their daughters to sacrifice themselves on this
scientific altar. Buy them horses to ride, if you want them to enjoy good
health and sound constitutions. Nothing like horses for women. Send the
professors to Suakim, and put the girls on horseback. Whether Brighton
grows handsome girls, or whether they flock there drawn by instinct, or
become lovely by staying there, is an inquiry too difficult to pursue.
There they are, one at least in every group, and you have to walk, as the
Spaniards say, with your beard over your shoulder, continually looking
back at those who have passed. The only antidote known is to get married
before you visit the place, and doubts have been expressed as to its
efficacy. In the south-coast Seville there is nothing done but
heart-breaking; it is so common it is like hammering flints for road
mending; nobody cares if your heart is in pieces.
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