286 CENTURY OF ENGLISH FOX-HUNTING 



attempted to follow hounds. Thus little encourage- 

 ment was given to improvements in the side saddle, 

 and it is only within the last few years that Messrs. 

 Champion and Wilton brought the side saddle to 

 its present state of perfection. 



It appears to us living at the end of the century 

 to be an anomaly that it should have been considered 

 outre for a lady to hunt at the beginning of the 

 century, especially when we remember that, during 

 the Regency and the reign of George the Fourth, 

 there was, to say the least of it, much greater freedom 

 in feminine manners than the customs of modern 

 society permit. It has been said that the general 

 atmosphere of the hunting-field was not as refined 

 as it is now, and that the habits of ladies who lived 

 in the country were far different , to the habits of 

 ladies who frequented London and Brighton. The 

 truth of the latter assertion is universally admitted, 

 but for many reasons I doubt the truth of the first 

 assertion. It is a question whether the very best 

 horsemen of the century have not been clergymen. 

 Thus Mr. G. S. Lowe, the present editor of the 

 Sporting Life, who was formerly on the hunting staff 

 of The Field, writes as follows : — 



*' I have often heard good sportsmen say that the 

 Rev. Harry Taylor, uncle to Lord Willoughby de 

 Broke, was the best man in a run they had ever 

 seen. He always rode cheap horses, but they would 

 go with him to be ever in the front line, and as to 

 refusing, it seemed out of their power to do so. 



