124 Ahoiit Breeches and Boots. 



impassable in the winter to all but equestrians. The houses 

 were victualled for the winter at Michaelmas, as regarded 

 groceries, flour, and other necessaries, and bacon was laid 

 down, and beef put in pickle in case of accidents, in the 

 event of being snowed out or flooded in. 



The Melton men and London dandies were very particu- 

 lar about their boots, and if you look in " Tom and Jerry 

 atTattersall's" in 1821, trousers were very rare, and you 

 may be sure that Cruikshank was accurate as regarded 

 details. Again, see in '' Tom and Jerry " the picture of the 

 Royal Academy, and observe the ridiculous trousers of the 

 period. The two neatest men who ev«r appeared in riding 

 costume were Jem Mason, the steeple-chase jockey, and a 

 dapper little man, Mr. Rice, the manager and principal 

 rider for Anderson, the horse-dealer in Piccadilly: from his 

 hat to his heels there never was such a picture of neatness, 

 and there was no one in London who could show off" a horse 

 in the Row better. He was a witness in the late Chief 

 Justice Earle's Court years ago in a running-down case, in 

 which a valuable hunter had been ruined by a brouo-ham 

 breaking its leg. Of course there was plenty of hard swear- 

 ing on both sides, as there always is in a horse case, and the 

 defence was that the man on the horse was drunk. On the 

 witness appearing, Justice Earle, speaking to counsel on 

 both sides, in gossip, intimated that the witness was an 

 expert whom he saw every morning. '^ Yes, my lord," said 

 witness, "I see you ride by every morning." ''Yes yes 

 witness," answered his lordship, who was very fond of riding' 

 and who had a very bad seat, "tell us, do you think 

 from his ridmg, the man was drunk or sober ? " '' Well' 

 my lord, that is impossible to say. I see your lordship 

 every morning, and did I not know who you are, and your 

 character, from the way that you roll about, first on the 

 pommel and then on the crupper, I should say, ' That old 



