CH. VII.] CAPE KNICKERBOCKERS. 101 



anything more aggravating than, when turning 

 homewards after your work is done, and you are 

 longing for a quiet pipe, to find that your matches 

 are all saturated and no light is procurable. While 

 actually shooting, the cape will be found surpris- 

 ingly little in the way, it being easy to dispose it, 

 so that, while your locks are protected, you can 

 instantly throw it aside sufficiently to shoot with 

 ease. When going up to a point, you can, if you 

 please, throw it quite back off the right shoulder. 

 The only thing against it, that I know, is that in 

 a high wind it is apt to get blown up over your 

 head, but this is easily obviated by having a but- 

 ton sewn on inside it at the bottom, and a corre- 

 sponding button-hole in the middle back-seam of 

 your shooting-coat. 



While on the subject of dress, I will just say a 

 word as to one or two other points. By far the 

 best leg-coverings for walking in an open country 

 are, I think, knickerbockers. These are gene- 

 rally made to buckle at the knee, so that they 

 cannot be worn otherwise. I rather prefer how- 

 ever, for grouse-shooting, to have them simply cut 

 quite loose, so as to hang about six or eight inches 

 below the knee, with strings run through the 

 bottoms to tie on the inside, and a slit, also in the 



