lop, in ancient Assyrian as well as mediaeval art, for instance, in
the Bayeux tapestry (Pl. II, fig. 6). We find, further, (2) that the
second pose made use of for this purpose is the "flexed-leg prance,"
in which all the four legs are flexed, so that the hind legs rest on
the ground beneath the horse's body, whilst the forelegs "paw" the
air. This is seen both in Egyptian, Greek, and Renaissance art
(Leonardo, Raphael, and Velasquez). It is by no means so graceful or
true to Nature as the next pose, but gives an impression of greater
energy and rapidity. The third pose represents a kind of "prancing,"
and is seen on the frieze of the Parthenon (Pl. III, fig. 4), and in
many subsequent Greek, Roman, and other works copied from or inspired
by, this Greek original. One only of the hind legs is on the ground,
and the animal's body is thrown up as though its advance were checked
by the rein. It is called "the canter" by M. Reinach, but that term
can only be applied to it when the axis of the body is horizontal and
parallel to the surface of the ground.

The reader will perhaps now suppose that we must attribute the "flying
gallop" to the original, if inaccurate genius of an eighteenth century
English horse-painter. That, however, is not the case. M. Reinach has
shown that it has a much more extraordinary history. It is neither
more nor less than the fact that in the pre-Homeric art of
Greece--that which is called "Mycenaean" (of which so much was made
known by the discoveries of that wonderful man Schliemann when he dug
up the citadel of Agamemnon)--the figures of animals, horses, deer,
bulls (see the beautiful gold cups of Vaphio), dogs, lions, and
griffins, in the exact conventional pose of "the flying gallop," are
quite abundant! (See Pl. II, figs. 2, 3 and 4.) There was an absolute
break in the tradition of art between the early gold-workers of Mykene
(1800 to 1000 B.C.) and the Greeks of Homer's time (800 B.C.). Europe
never received it, nor did the Assyrians nor the Egyptians. Thirty
centuries and more separate the reappearance in Europe of the flying
gallop--through Stubbs--from the only other European examples of
it--the Mycenaean. What, then, had become of it, and how did it come to
England? M. Reinach shows, by actual specimens of art-work, that the
Mycenaean art tradition, and with it the "flying gallop," passed slowly
through Asia Minor north eastwards to the Trans-caucasus (Koban, 500
B.C.), to Northern Persia