A little later we again began to approach cultivated land, and a mile or two further brought us to a broad road, with high palings on either side, down which we drove, and through the yard, to the door of the estancia.  The house is a one-story building, one room wide, with a verandah in front and at the back, one side of which faces the yard, the other a well-kept garden, full of violets and other spring flowers, and roses just coming into bloom.  There are several smaller detached buildings, in which the sleeping apartments are situated, and which are also provided with verandahs and barred windows.  Having visited the various rooms, in company with our hosts, we sat down to a rough but substantial breakfast, to which full justice was done.  Travelling all night, and a ride of thirty miles in the fresh morning air, have a tendency to produce a keen appetite; and the present occasion proved no exception to that rule.

After breakfast I rested and wrote some letters, while the gentlemen inspected the farm and stud.  The proprietor of this estancia has the best horses in this part of the country, and has taken great pains to improve their breed, as well as that of the cattle and sheep, by importing thorough-breds from England.  Unlike the Arabs, neither natives nor settlers here think of riding mares, and it is considered quite a disgrace to do so.  They are therefore either allowed to run wild in troops, or are used to trample out corn or to make mud for bricks.  They are also frequently killed and boiled down, for the sake of their hides and tallow, the value of which does not amount to more than about 10_s_. per head.  Large herds of them are met with at this time of the year on the Pampas, attended by a few horses, and accompanied by their foals.

The natives of these parts pass their lives in the saddle.  Horses are used for almost every conceivable employment, from hunting and fishing to brick-making and butter-churning.  Even the very beggars ride about on horseback.  I have seen a photograph of one, with a police certificate of mendicancy hanging round his neck, taken from life for Sir Woodbine Parish.  Every domestic servant has his or her own horse, as a matter of course; and the maids are all provided with habits, in which they ride about on Sundays, from one estancia to another, to pay visits.  In fishing, the horse is ridden into the water as far as he can go, and the net or rod is then made use of by his rider.  At Buenos Ayres I have seen the poor animals all but swimming to the shore, with heavy carts and loads, from the ships anchored in the inner roads; for the water is so shallow that only very small boats can go alongside the vessels, and the cargo is therefore transferred directly to the carts to save the trouble and expense of transshipment.  In out-of-the-way places, on the Pampas, where no churns exist, butter is made by putting milk into a goat-skin bag, attached by a long lasso to the saddle of a peon, who is then set to gallop a certain number of miles, with the bag bumping and jumping along the ground after him.