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rest; the true seat is in that part of your saddle, into which your body would naturally slide, if you rode without stirrups; and is only to be preserved by a proper poise of the body, though most riders imagine it done by the grasp of the thighs and knees. The rider should consider himself as united to his horse in this point, and when shaken from it, endeavour to restore the balance.

The two extremes of a bad seat are when the rider sits very far back on the saddle, so that his weight presses the loins of the horse, or when his body hangs forward over the pommel of the saddle. The first is practised by grooms, when they ride with their stirrups affectedly short; the latter, by fearful horsemen on the least flutter of the horse.

To have a good seat yourself, your saddle must sit well. Have your saddle press as nearly as possible on that part which we have described as the point of union between the man and horse; how ever, so as not to obstruct the motion of the horse's shoulders. Place yourself in the middle or lowest part of it; sit erect, but with as litile constraint as in your ordinary sitting. The ease of action marks the gentleman: you may repose yourself, but not lounge.

If your horse stop short, or endeavour, by rising and kicking, to unseat you, bend not your body forward, as many do: that motion throws the breech forward, and you off your fork or twist, and out of your seat; whereas by advancing the lower part of your body, and bending back the upper part and shoulders, you keep your seat, and recover it when lost. The bending your body back, and that in a great degree, is the greatest security in flying leaps; it is a security, too, when your horse leaps standing, The horse's rising does not try the rider's seat; the lash of his hind legs is what ought chiefly to be guarded against, and is best done

by the body's being greatly inclined back. Stiffen not your legs or thighs; and let your body be pliable in the loins, like the coachman's on his box. This loose manner of sitting will elude every rough motion of the horse; whereas the fixture of the knees will, in great shocks, augment the violence of the fall.

Was the cricket-player, when the ball is struck with the greatest velocity, to hold his hand firm and fixed when he receives it, the hand would be bruised, or perhaps the bones fractured by the resistance. To obviate this accident, he therefore gradually yields his hands to the motion of the ball for a certain distance; and thus by a due mixture of opposition and obedience, catches it without sustaining the least injury. The case is the same in riding the skilful horseman will recover his poise by giving some way to the motion; and the ignorant horseman will be flung out of his seat by endeavouring to be fixed.

Stretch not out your legs before you; this will push you against the back of the saddle: neither gather up your knees, like a man riding on a pack; this throws your thighs upwards: each practice unseats you. Keep your legs straight down; and sit not on the most fleshy part of the thighs, but turn them inward, so as to bring in your knees and toes; and it is more safe to ride with the ball of the foot pressing on the stirrup, than with the stirrup as far back as the heel; for the pressure of the heel being in that case behind the stirrup, keeps the thighs down.

When you find your thighs thrown upward, widen your knees to get them and the upper part of your fork lower down on the horse. Grasp the saddle with the hollow or inner part of your thighs, but not more than just to assist the balance of your body: this will also enable you to keep your spurs from the horse's sides, and to bring your toes in. Sink your heels straight down; for while your heels and thighs keep down, you cannot fall: this,

aided with the bend of the back, gives the security of a seat, to those who bear themselves up in their stirrups in a swift gallop, or in the alternate rising and falling in a full

trot.

Let your seat determine the length of your stirrups, rather than the stirrups your seat. If more precision is requisite, let your stirrups (in the hunting saddle) be of such a length, as that, when you stand in them, there may be the breadth of four fingers between your seat and the saddle.

Because a saddle with a high pommel is thought dangerous, the other extreme prevails, and the pommel is scarce allowed to be higher than the middle of the saddle. The saddle should lie as near the back-bone as can be, without hurting the horse; for the nearer you sit to his back, the better seat you have. If it does so, it is plain the pommel must rise enough to secure the withers from pressure: therefore, a horse whose withers are higher than common, requires a higher pommel. If, to avoid this, you make the saddle of a more straight line, inconvenience follows; you sit too much above the horse's back, nor can the saddle form a proper seat. There should be no ridge from the button at the side of the pommel, to the back part of the saddle. That line also should be a little concave, for your thighs to lie at ease. In short, a saddle ought to be, as nearly as possible, as if cut out of the horse.

When you want your horse to move forward, raise his head a little, and touch him gently with your whip; or else, press the calves of your legs against his sides. If he does not move fast enough, press them with more force, and so till the spur just touches him. By this practice he will, if he has any spirit, move upon the least pressure of the leg. Never spur by a kick; but, if necessary to spur briskly, keep your heels close to his sides, and slacken their force as he becomes obedient.

When your horse attempts to be vicious, take each rein separate, in each hand, and advancing your arms forward, hold him very short. In this case, it is common for the rider to pull him hard, with his arms low. But the horse by this means having his head low too, has it more in his power to throw out his heels; whereas, if his head be raised very high, and his nose thrown out a little, which is consequent, he can neither rise before nor behind; because he can give himself neither of those motions, without having his head at liberty. A plank placed in equilibrio cannot rise at one end unless it sinks at the other.

If your horse is headstrong, pull not with one continued pull, but stop, and back him often, just shaking the reins, and making little repeated pulls till he obeys. Horses are so accustomed to bear on the bit when they go forward, that they are discouraged if the rider will not let them do so.

If a horse is loose-necked, he will throw up his head at a continued pull; in which situation, the rider, seeing the front of his face, can have no power over him. When he does thus, drop your hand and give the bridle play, and he will of course drop his head again into its proper place: while it is coming down, make a second gentle pull, and you will find his mouth. With a little practice, this is done almost instantaneously; and this method will stop, in the distance of a few yards, a horse, which will run away with those who pull at him with all their might. When a horse feels himself pulled with the bridle, even when going gently, he often mistakes what was designed to stop him as a direction to bear on the bit, and to go faster.

Keep your horse's head high, that he may raise his neck and crest; play a little with the rein, and move the bit in his mouth, that he may not press on it in one constant and continued manner: be not afraid of raising his head too high; he will naturally be too ready to bring it

down, and tire your arms with its weight, on the least abatement of his mettle. When you feel him heavy, stop him, and make him go back a few paces: thus you break by degrees his propensity to press on his bridle.

Let your horse carry his head bridling in, provided he carries it high, and his neck arching upwards; but if his neck bends downward, his figure is bad, his sight is too near his toes, he leans on the bridle, and you have no command over him. If he goes pressing but lightly on the bridle, he is the more surefooted, and goes pleasanter; as your wrist only may guide him. If he hang down his head, and make you support the weight of that and his neck with your arms, bearing on his fore-legs, he will strike his toes against the ground, and stumble.

If your horse is heavy upon the bit, tie him every day, for an hour or two, with his tail to the manger, and his head as high as you can make him lift it, by a rein on each post of the stall, to each ring of the snaffle bit.

For the Literary Magazine.

OF

counts of Flanders were confined in it at different periods.

The Louvre, far from being cheerful in its plan, received also, from this enormous tower, a melancholy and terrifying aspect, which rendered it unworthy of being a royal residence. Charles V endeavoured to enliven and embellish this gloomy abode, and made it tolerably commodious for those times. Several foreign princes successively lodged in it: Manuel, emperor of Constantinople, Sigismund, emperor of Germany, and the emperor Charles V.

This large tower of the Louvre, which had, at different periods, served as a palace to the kings of France, as a prison to the great lords, and as a treasury to the state, was at length taken down, in 1528.

The Tower of the Library was famous, among several others, because it contained that of Charles V, the most considerable one of the time, and in which the number of volumes amounted to nine hundred.

The part of the palace which, at present, is called the Old Louvre, was begun under Francis I, from the plan of Pierre Lescot, abbot of Clugny, and the sculpture was executed by Jean Gougeon, whose minute correctness is particularly remarkable in the festoons of the frieze of the AN- second order, and in the devices emblematic of the amours of Henry II. This edifice, though finished, was not inhabited during the reign of that king, but it was by his son Charles IX.

DESCRIPTION OF THE LOUVRE
AND THE GALLERY
TIQUES, AT PARIS.

By a Traveller.

I CANNOT trace the origin of this palace, or even of its name. It certainly existed with this title in the reign of Philip Augustus, who surrounded it with ditches and tow. ers, and made it a fortress. The great tower of the Louvre, celebrated in history, was insulated, and built in the middle of the court. All the great feudatories of the crown derived their tenure from this tower, and came hither to swear allegigiance and pay homage. It was a prison previously prepared for them, If they violated their oaths. Three

Under him, the Louvre became the bloody theatre of treacheries and massacres, which time will never efface from the memory of mankind, and which, till the merciless reign of Roberspierre, were unexampled in the history of this country. I mean the horrors of St. Bartholemew's day.

But the fancy turns in horror from these scenes, and passes rapidly from this period of fanaticism and cruelty, when the Louvre was stained by so many crimes, to times

more happy, when this palace became the quiet cradle of the arts and sciences, the school for talents, and the asylum of artists and literati.

The centre pavilion over the principal gate of the Old Louvre was erected by Louis XIII, from the designs of Le Mercier, as well as the angle of the left part of the building, parallel to that built by Henry II. The eight gigantic cariatides seen there were by Sarrasin.

The front towards the Garden de l'Infante, that towards the Louvre square, and that over the little gate, towards the river, constructed by Charles IX and Henry III, amidst the civil wars of the league, partake of the taste of the time, as to the multiplicity of ornaments, but the interior announces the taste of Louis XIV.

That part which, with the two sides of the old building, completes the square, three hundred and seventy-eight feet in extent, called the New Louvre, consists of two fronts, still unfinished. Le Veau, and after him D'Orbay, were the architects by whom this addition was made, under Louis XIV.

That king at first resolved to continue the Louvre on the plan begun by Francis I; but having conceived a more magnificent design, he or dered the foundation of the present edifice to be laid, in 1665, under the administration of Colbert.

Through a natural prejudice, Louis XIV thought that he could find nowhere but in Italy an artist to execute his projects of magnificence. He sent for Bernini from Rome. This artist was received in France with all the pomp due to princes. The king ordered that, in the towns through which he might pass, he should be complimented, and receive presents from the corporations and magistrates.

Bernini was loaded with wealth and honours yet, notwithstanding his talents, he did not succeed in his enterprize. After having forwarded the foundation, he urged the impossibility of spending the winter in

VOL. III. NO. XXI.

a climate colder than his own. He was promised three thousand louis a year if he would stay, but he said he would positively go and die in his own country. On his departure, the king sent him three thousand louis, with the grant of a pension of five hundred. He received the whole with great coolness.

Several celebrated architects now entered the lists to complete this grand undertaking. Mansard presented his plans, with which Colbert was extremely pleased: the king also approved of them, and insisted on their being literally executed. Mansard replied, that he would rather renounce the glory of building this edifice than the liberty of correcting himself, and changing his design, when he thought he could improve it. Among the competitors was Claude Perrault, that physician so defamed by Boileau, the poet. His plans were preferred, and merited the preference. Many pleasantries were circulated at the expence of the new medical architect, and Perrault replied to those sarcasms, by producing the colonnade, the master-piece of French architecture, and the admiration of all Europe.

This colonnade, of the Corinthian order, is five hundred and twentyfive feet in length: it is divided into two peristyles and three pavillions. The principal gate is in the centre, which is decorated with eight double columns, crowned by a pediment, whose raking cornices are composed of two stones only, each fifty-four feet in length by eight in breadth, though no more than eighteen inches thick. They were taken from the quarries of Meudon, and formed but one block, which was sawed into two. The other pavillions are ornamented by six pilasters, and two columns of the same order, and disposed in the same manner. On the top is a terrace, bordered by a stone balustrade, the pedestals of which are intended to bear trophies intermixed with vases.

Perrault's enemies maintained

8

that this plan belonged to Le Veau, the architect; but, since the disco very of the original manuscript and drawings of Perrault, there no longer remains a doubt respecting its real author.

Before this magnificent colonnade, a multitude of salesmen erect their stalls, and there display quantities of old clothes, rags, and other trumpery. This contrast still speaks to the eye of the attentive observer. It is the image of all the rest, grandeur and beggary, side by side.

Like St. Paul's in London, the prospect of the Louvre is interrupted and obscured by surrounding buildings; and, like many other great works, will probably never be completed.

Louis XIV, after residing here many years, abandoned it for Versailles, and it has since been devoted to different academies, and the residence of men of science and artists, such as the French Academy, the Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres, the Academy of Painting and Sculpture, and the Academy of Architecture. All these are now replaced by the National Institute of Arts and Sciences.

There formerly existed, in the Louvre, a hall, called the Salle des Antiques, where, besides some original statues by French artists, were assembled models in plaster of the most celebrated pieces of sculpture in Italy, with a small number of antiques. In another apartment of those assigned to the Academy of Painting, and called the Galérie d'Apollon, were seen several pictures, chiefly of the French school; and it was intended that the Great Gallery should be formed into a museum, containing the finest pictures and statues at the disposal of the

crown.

This plan, partly carried into execution under the kings, is now completed in a manner infinitely more magnificent than was possible without conquest. The Great Gallery and the Saloon of the Louvre are confined to pictures of the old

masters of the Italian, Flemish, and French schools; and the Gallery of Apollo to that of their drawings; while several lofty rooms have been fitted up for the reception of antiques, in lieu of those copies of them before-mentioned. In other rooms adjoining the Great Gallery are exhibited, as formerly, one month in the year, the productions of living painters, sculptors, architects, and draughtsmen.

These different exhibitions are placed under the superintendance of a board composed of antiquaries, artists, and men of science, inferior to none in Europe in skill, judgment, taste, or erudition. The whole of this grand establishment bears the general title of Central Museum of the Arts.

The treasures of painting and sculpture which the French nation have acquired by their arms, or by treaties, are so immense as to enable them, not only to render this Central Museum the grandest collection in the world, but also to establish fifteen departmental museums in the principal towns of France. This measure, intended to favour the progress of the arts, will ease Paris of a great number of the pictures and statues gleaned from different parts of France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Piedmont, Savoy, and Venice.

If you suppose yourself near the exterior south-west angle of the Louvre, or, as it is more commonly styled, the National Palace of Arts and Sciences, you will be in the right hand corner of the Place du Louvre, where is the present entrance to the Central Museum of the Arts. Here, after passing a court, you enter a vestibule, on the left of which is the Hall of the Administration of the Museum. the ground-floor, facing the door of this vestibule, is the entrance to the Gallery of Antiques.

On

In this gallery, which was, for the first time, opened to the public on the 9th of November, 1800, are now distributed one hundred and forty-six statues, busts, and bas-re、

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