294 CENTURY OF ENGLISH FOX-HUNTING 



to ride, but horses could be schooled. Jogging along 

 country lanes, or cantering in the Row, will not 

 make a lady a good horsewoman from a hunting 

 standard. As for the riding masters and mistresses 

 who profess to teach schoolgirls, my experience is 

 that they generally require teaching themselves. 

 This may sound severe criticism, but I believe it 

 to be the truth, and I base my belief upon personal 

 observation. The very first lesson that a lady should 

 be taught is to sit square in the saddle, so that her 

 eyes look straight through her horse's ears. Yet 

 not only the pupils, but the mistresses whom I have 

 observed, as a rule, ride all on one side. Such a 

 seat is not only ungraceful and unfirm, but is almost 

 certain to give the horse a sore back. Again, it is 

 rarely that I have seen the pupils with their elbows 

 close to their sides, and equally rarely does a pupil 

 rise properly and gracefully in the saddle. Now, 

 if these rudiments of the art of horsemanship are 

 neglected in the first place, and the pupil is allowed 

 to acquire a wrong seat, it will take her a long time 

 to get rid of the pernicious habit, for the training 

 of the girl forms the woman in horsemanship as 

 in most other things. The best women to hounds 

 with whom I am personally acquainted were taught 

 by their fathers when they were little girls, though 

 I know fair women to hounds who never hunted till 

 after they were married, when they were taught 

 by their husbands, who wished for their companion- 

 ship in the hunting-field. 



