150 THE HUNTING FIELD 



there is more in top-boots than in any other article 

 of dress not only in the cut, material, and keeping, 

 but in the art of putting them on. London Grooms 

 we mean men in the habit of coming to London 

 are almost the only ones who really can put on top- 

 boots. This arises in a great measure from their 

 having a proper respect for, and appreciation of, the 

 article itself. There used to be a bootmaker in Paris, 

 who, on a complaint being made by a customer, 

 used immediately to ask if the wearer had been 

 walking in his boots. If he replied in the affirmative, 

 then St. Crispin would shrug up his shoulders, and, 

 throwing out his hands, exclaim that he " expressly 

 defended " his customers from walking in his boots, 

 " that they were only for riding and carriage work." 



London Grooms are the only ones who seem to 

 have any idea that top-boots are only for riding in. 

 A fellow in the country pulls them on at all times 

 and occasions, from walking to church (or the public- 

 house) to driving the market cart. The consequence 

 is, that after two or three good trudges and paddles 

 in them, the boots lose all shape, make, and sit, and 

 have that dejected melancholy air that only makes 

 their fallen greatness more painful. 



Boots and breeches, with the proper cleaning and 

 putting of them on, give an air and character to the 

 entire turn out. Who, on seeing a postilion in dingy 

 leathers, and dull boots, ever thinks of looking at his 

 horses ? But to our Groom in the greys. His boots 

 are well made, of good material, well cleaned, well 

 kept, and well put on. The rose-tinted tops are 

 longish, not affectedly so, but bearing a fair propor- 

 tion to the boot itself. They fall in neat wrinkles 

 down the leg, and the sole is clean and free from 

 mud stains, instead of being marked half way up the 

 instep, with the paddling about before starting. 

 Contrast that man's appearance with the high- 

 shouldered, blear-eyed, Tom-and-Jerry-looking fellow 



