CHAPTEE lY. 



HUNTING CLOTHES. 



" Buckskin's the only wear fit for the saddle, 

 Hats for Hyde Park, but a cap for the chase ; 

 In tops of black leather let fishermen paddle, 

 The calves of a fox-hunter white ones encase." 



— Egerton Warburton. 



Tempora mutantur. The cap now has become almost as 

 extinct as the dodo, and is seldom worn except by the 

 M.F.H. and the Hunt servants. In fact anybody now 

 wearing a cap would be taken by the stranger for a 

 Hunt servant, so that many masters of hounds object 

 to see their followers wearing the velvet cap. On one 

 occasion, when the question of the members of his 

 Hunt wearing caps was mooted to a well - known 

 M.F.H., he replied : " Well, gentlemen, there is no law 

 to prevent you wearing velvet caps if you like to do 

 so; only if you do I shall put my men into white 

 hats." The cap is popularly supposed to have been 

 abolished owing to the fatal accident which happened 

 to the Marquis of Waterford, whose death was supposed 

 to be due to his having worn a cap, and the theory 

 was established that a man's neck is safer in a hat 

 than a cap. This is a pleasant reflection for Hunt 



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