LADIES IN THE HUNTING-FIELD 289 



of the schoolroom ; but, fortunately, these ladies do 

 not direct public opinion. 



On the 24th of December, 1837, at the Chateau 

 of Poszhenhofen, on the lake of Starnburg, in 

 Bavaria, the late Empress of Austria was born, 

 whose indirect influence over the English hunting- 

 field has probably been greater than that of any 

 other lady during the century, though it was not 

 till January, 1878, that she first hunted in England, 

 and she never hunted again after the 1882-3 

 season. Of her assassination by the anarchist 

 Luccheni, at Geneva, on the loth of September, 

 1898, it is unnecessary to speak at length, for the 

 details of the dastardly crime which aroused the 

 universal sympathy and horror of Europe must be 

 fresh in the memories of my readers, as also must 

 be her biography. She is a notable proof of my 

 postulate, that the nervous system should be 

 educated during girlhood, for while only a child at 

 her Bavarian home she was encouraged in her fond- 

 ness for swimming and riding, with the result that 

 when she was past forty her nerve was as strong 

 as that of any woman who ever rode in an English 

 hunting-field. During her first season, however, it 

 was rather the fashion to decry her riding abilities ; 

 but the Kaiserin soon lived, or rather rode, down 

 the petty jealousy which had given birth to the 

 fashion. It is true that she had the best and safest 

 hunters that money could buy ; that her three 

 successive pilots, namely Captain "Bay" Middleton, 

 u 



