WILD SPORT IN BRITTANY. 141 



region I chiefly frequented, do I ever remember seeing more 

 than one Breton woman ride after the feminine fashion in other 

 countries. 



The isolation of the land, and the slow growth of civilization 

 among the people, who have no more affinity in race or habits with 

 their Gallic neighbours than the Celts of Galway have with the 

 Anglo-Saxons, will account, perhaps, for the non-introduction of 

 the side-saddle into the primitive and poverty-stricken district of 

 Cournouaille. Yet, when it is remembered that this convenient 

 article of horse-furniture, which Johnson badly defines as "a 

 woman's seat on horseback," was introduced into England by 

 Anne of Luxembourg, the wife of our Richard the Second, and 

 thus, as Stowe in his " Commentaries " tells us, superseded the 

 use of " whirlicotes, except at coronations and such like 

 spectacles," it is a marvel the side-saddle should still be unknown 

 even in that land. Catharine de Medici, too, if not the originator 

 of the side-saddle, is said to have greatly improved its form, 

 and, from her devotion to hunting and rare seat on horseback, 

 it must have been brought into general use throughout France 

 even in those days. Still it appears not yet to have penetrated 

 the neighbouring region of Cournouaille, or surely the habit of 

 riding astride would not still be the common practice of the 

 women in that country ; and surely, here or there, the wife of 

 some well-to-do peasant would have adopted its use for comfort's 

 sake, if not as a " seat " more in accordance with the fashion of 

 modern civilisation. 



On the very edge of the great cover of Gwernez the two lots 

 of hounds, belonging to M. de St. Prix and Shafto, were now 

 assembled, awaiting impatiently in their couples the consultation 

 held by those gentlemen and their friends, the result of which was 

 to determine the operations of the day. Suddenly, but not unex- 

 pectedly, the trusty piqueur, Louis Trefarreg, emerged from the 

 forest, and with his favourite Lymer, a big-headed half-bred hound, 



