THE KING'S HORSES
DEAN SWIFT, in that philosophic treatise called Gulliver's Travels, ostensibly written to amuse children, but in reality to ridicule the foibles of men, has placed the horse above men, or Yahoos, as he facetiously called them. I cannot do wrong, then, by including, with the men I have painted, some studies and observations I have made of those noble and distinguished creatures that live in the Royal Mews, behind Buckingham Palace, and known popularly as the "creams," or the State ponies.
Among the old titles of nobility in Russia is knias, a word that derives from kongne, a horse, and this title, knias, was given to the brothers of the king. Châteaubriand has said that all nobility comes from the horse. If the tradition of words is worth anything at all, and there is little doubt that words do give a truer insight into the past than most historians think, we have to conclude that Châteaubriand is right. Without pursuing the matter farther back than the French language, we find that the horse has always been associated with warriors, and from this warrior caste, and this only, nobility has been derived—the term chivalrous (chevalresque) meaning all that is elevated and refined in conduct. And it is a no less striking commentary upon the estimation given to the aristocratic horse that the followers of that King of England who was
31
