of a groom. She was told that there was no situation vacant that he could
fill. "Then I will create one," she said, and dubbed him "Her Majesty's
Stirrup holder." I would have done more for him--made him Master of the
Horse, in place of Lord Albemarle, who always rolled along in the royal
carriage, or created for him the office of Lord High Equerry of the
Realm.

N. P. Willis, in his delightful "Pencilings By the Way," gives a bright
glimpse of the Queen on horseback. It was in Hyde Park, and he saye the
party from the Palace came on so fast that the scarlet-coated outriders
had difficulty in clearing the track of the other equestrians. Her
Majesty has always liked to go fast by horse or steam-power, as though
determined not to let Time get ahead of her, for all his wings.

The poet then adds: "Her Majesty rides quite fearlessly and securely. I
met her party full gallop near the centre of Rotten Row. On came the
Queen, on a dun-colored, highly-groomed horse, with her Prime Minister on
one side of her, and Lord Byron on the other; her _cortege_ of Maids
of Honor, and Lords and Ladies of the Court checking their spirited
horses, and preserving always a slight distance between themselves and
Her Majesty. ... Victoria's round, plump figure looks exceedingly well in
her dark green riding-dress. ... She rode with her mouth open, and seemed
exhilarated with pleasure."

This was in 1839. Some years later, a young American writer, who shall be
nameless, but who was as passionate a lover of horses as the Queen
herself, wrote a sort of paean to horseback-riding. She began by telling
her friends, all whom it might concern, that when she was observed to be
low in her mind--when she seemed "weary of life," and to "shrink from its
strife"--when, in short, things didn't go well with her generally, they