The cultivation of the military mind has also
been cared for. There is his library, ranged
round as well as it can go round—the all-
absorbing tent-pole. The warlike Khâlif
Omar, who hated books, could scarcely
object to Mr. Downybeard's collection, for
it consists of only two volumes—the Military
Catechism, for severe study, and the Adventures
of an Aide-de-Camp, for moments of
literary recreation. A small pocket diary
lies near the Kalydor; but that is sacred.
The rest of the tent furniture is made up of
a small lanthorn, a piece of carpet over an
oil-cloth, an India-rubber "Victoria Regia"
sponging-bath, a spider-legged bamboo-
coloured wash-hand-stand, and a soda-water
tumbler nearly a foot high.

Like the letter which La Fleur gave to
Yorick, you have only to make one or two
trifling substitutions, and the description of
one interior will do for all the rest. The
tents of officers of the line display perhaps
less bouquet and more books; some are not
lucky enough to recline on embroidered
velvet; and others—these are mostly very
young officers—solace themselves, if not their
friends, with musical instruments.

With respect to external decoration, we
observe that it is not generally considered.
The Foot Guards are, however, an exception;
they, accustomed to horticulture—
at Chiswick and the Opera—indulge in
gardens in front of their tents. As the
space is limited to about the size of a
hearth-rug, variety is the great desideratum,
and this the Foot Guards have attained by
stocking their flower-beds with scarlet geraniums
and small fir-trees. We have been
doubtful about gardening being a particularly
successful experiment on Chobharn Common,
since we were told that when a shower of
rain comes pelting down, the soil is instantaneously
changed into black mud of the consistency
of bird-lime, "just as if," said our
military informant, "you had made a pulp of
salad oil and charcoal tooth-powder."

A private soldier's day at Chobham, when
no evolutions are to be performed, is nearly
over when he has eaten his dinner: if his
arms and accoutrements be in good order, and
ready for immediate use, he may, within the
limits of the Camp, enjoy his full swing of
recreation. The commanding officers of
regiments are no less solicitous for his amusement
than his instruction, and every species
of manly game is allowed and encouraged.
During the afternoon and evening, those who
are not anticipating a night surprise by lay-
ing in a good stock of sleep beforehand, may
be seen playing at cricket, pitching quoits,
putting the stone, and flying the garter, as
carelessly as if it had never entered into their
heads—and in all probability it never has—
that at any given moment they may become
food for powder. And who knows how soon?
"Ah," said an officer of Bides, who was our
last guide on the ground, "I may yet smoke
my pipe in Constantinople! But that,"
he added, with a sigh, that is a dream!"

He thought he could promise, however,
that, if ever the dream came to pass, the
troops Lord Seaton has trained would be
able to do something towards preserving the
integrity of the Turkish Empire. And after
what we have seen of them we think so too,
but fervently hope that their intelligence,
discipline, and courage, may never be put to t
he test.

WHIP AND SPUR.

MR. YOUATT tells us, that not only was the
stirrup unknown to the Greeks and Romans,
but that there is no evidence of its use earlier
than the time of William the Conqueror.
The Bayeux tapestry, worked at that period,
contains a figure of a horse, among whose
trappings are saddle, bridle, and stirrups;
and it seems doubtful whether anything
earlier, concerning the stirrup, is known. Among
the equestrians of the Middle Ages, who
fought with a spear or lance, many had
either a projection or a loop of cord on the
lance, about two feet from the butt end; this
served at once for a firmer grasp of the weapon,
and as a step by which the warrior could
mount his horse; and, regarding stirrups as
aids to mounting a horse, it is proved that their
being done without did not arise from any
manly superiority; for the horse was sometimes
taught to bend his neck or his knees
to ease the rider in mounting; sometimes
a slave was at hand to assist his master.
Some even made use of a short ladder; and it
was part of the duty of the local magistracy,
both in Greece and Rome, to provide convenient
stepping-stones, or mounting blocks,
at frequent intervals along the roads.

Stirrups have been the subject of the
deepest investigations. Beckmann ferreted
out all the little scraps which can be found in
Hieronymus, Gruter, Lipsius, Pitiscus,
Salmacius, Vossius, Polydore, Licetus,
Montfauçon, Le Beau, and Berenger, illustrative of
the manner in which the ancients mounted
their horses, and maintained their seat when
mounted. He found that no stirrups are
observable in ancient coins, statues, or
sculptures. That Hippocrates and Galen
speak of a disease which in their time was
occasioned by long and frequent riding with
the legs hanging pendulous and unsupported.
That Germanicus, the father of Caligula,
availed himself of this very pendulosity by
riding after dinner to strengthen his ancles.

The earliest form of spur was like some of
those seen on the effigies in the Temple
Church; a single-goad or sharp point. Such
were the ancient spurs, and such those worn by
the horse soldiers among the Anglo-Saxons,
the Normans, and the Anglo-Normans. The
shanks of the spurs were afterwards bent to
suit the ancle. The rowelled spur is said by
Sir Samuel Meyrick to have been invented in