MEN I HAVE PAINTED
The result of the four days' work is ten pastel drawings and one sketch in oil. The horses grow to be more beautiful every day. They are queer creatures, just like some old Chinese emperor who never shows himself to the world. They live a secluded and exclusive life, so that the public may be awed into wonderment when they appear with all their gorgeous trappings on. I believe they are the only aristocrats left in England! And they have such ugly red-pink noses and small, pale eyes!
The grooms are all very ordinary-looking men, mostly young, but the head groom is a man of forty—very small and very capable.
The horses are docile and mannerly. They are trained first at Hampton Court, and afterwards in London. There are eleven here, and I do not know how many at Hampton Court.
Next Monday the gala harness is to be put on "Crown Prince." It is a great undertaking, for his mane has to be plaited. When the harness is on, very little of the horse can be seen. *****
When I entered the stables this morning there were four men at work dressing "Crown Prince" and putting the last touches on his toilet. Slack, the head groom, was perched up on a high bench, so that he could reach the mane of the gorgeously bedecked aristocrat. The horse seemed to be smothered in red and gold and purple, and, in the subdued light of the stable, looked more magnificent than he does in the street, when he is drawing the state coach.
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