No notice of the life of Newcastle would be complete without a few quotations from the book with which his name is chiefly associated. Let us begin with a description “Of the true Seat and the necessary Actions of a good horseman.[154] Before a horseman mounts, he ought first to take care that all his horse’s furniture be in order, which is soon done, without prying into every minute circumstance, to show himself an affected connoisseur in the art. When he is seated (for I take it for granted that everyone knows how to mount a horse)”—a large assumption—“he ought to sit upright upon the twist, and not upon the buttocks, though most people think they were made by nature to sit upon; however it is not so on horseback.
“When he is thus placed upon his twist in the middle of the saddle, he ought to advance, as much as he can, towards the pommel, leaving a hand’s breadth between his backside and the arch of the saddle, holding his legs perpendicular, as when he stands upon the ground, and his knees and thighs turned inwards towards the saddle, keeping them as close as if they were glued to the saddle; for a horseman has nothing else but this, together with the balance of his body, to keep himself on horseback. He ought to fix himself firm upon his stirrups, with his heels a little lower than his toes, so that the ends of his toes may pass about half an inch beyond the stirrup, or something more. He should keep his hams stiff, having his legs neither too near, nor too distant from the horse; that is to say, they should not touch the horse’s sides, because of the aids which shall afterwards be explained.
“He ought to hold the reins in his left hand, separating them with his little finger, holding the rest in his hand, having the thumb upon the reins, which should be held strait over the horse’s neck.
“He should have a slender switch in his hand, not too long, like a fishing rod, nor too short, like a bodkin; but rather short than long, because there are many useful aids with a short one, that a long one will not admit of. The handle of it ought to be a little beyond the hand, not only for the sake of caressing the horse with it, but likewise to hold it the faster. The right hand, that holds the switch, ought to advance a little before the bridle hand, with the small end of the switch pointing to the inside.