MEN I HAVE PAINTED
unfortunate because of his virtues rather than his vices—Charles I—were called "cavaliers," in distinction to the opposite and plebeian party, who were designated by the coarse and contemptuous name of "roundheads." That is, Swift would have described the followers of Cromwell and Milton—that rebellious poet who imagined a revolution in heaven—Yahoos, while the long-haired cavaliers would have been more to the refined taste of Gulliver, who, after a long sojourn as the guest of the Houyhnhnms in the odour of clover and sweet hay, on his return home was unable to bear the presence of his wife and children because they smelt so abominably.
And as long hair, arranged in curls, was also at some periods affected by the noble cavaliers, so likewise the pure-bred Arabs are never docked and hogged, but wear their tails and manes long and flowing. This fashion is also a mark of the high office of the King's "creams," for as their service is to draw His Majesty's coach on state occasions, their manes and tails are dressed as carefully as a woman's hair; and when the gorgeous trappings are put on their backs, the most elaborate silken cords are woven in and out of the manes as adornments that add colour and lustre to the august processions of coronation days.
The following extracts from letters written at the time these studies were being made at the Royal Mews will describe more accurately than I can from memory the King's horses:—
November 9, 1911.
I was very well received by Captain Nicholas at the Royal Stables at Buckingham Palace. He has put the
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