/roasters of tbe 1Ro\?al JSucKbounbs 805 



her for a man. To the waist her costume differed in no 

 point from that of his own sex, but she had not the 

 courage to go the whole animal, like the wearers of the 

 ' rational dress ' to-day, and tamely ended in a petticoat. 



It was to this fact that one of Lord Lexington's 

 daughters, according to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, 

 owed her marriage to a bishop. For, in taking a fence, 

 the fair horsewoman was upset into a ditch. The 

 bishop, being the only person near, rushed to her rescue, 

 and, adds Lady Mary maliciously, ' found the display of 

 her charms so irresistible' that he proposed to her 

 the next day. From which I gather that the petticoat 

 had, in episcopal eyes, an advantage over the mascu- 

 line garment. 



Pope, describing his meeting the Prince with all 

 the Maids of Honour coming from hunting, passes 

 these uncomplimentary remarks upon the women- 

 folk : ' To eat Westphalia ham in the morning, ride 

 over hedges and ditches on borrowed hacks, come 

 home in the heat of the day with a fever and (what is 

 a hundred times worse) with a red mark on the forehead 

 from an uneasy hat ! All this may qualify them to make 

 excellent wives for fox-hunters, and bear an abundancy 

 of ruddy-faced children.' Clearly this was not the sort 

 of woman that commended herself to the taste of the 

 spiteful and fastidious little poet of Twickenham. 



In George the Second's time, and for sixty years 

 afterwards, the sum devoted annually to the maintenance 

 of the Royal Buckhounds was £2^14. Out of this the 

 Master had to defray all his expenses ; and his duties, 

 besides hunting, included the distributing of the King's 

 Plates at the various race meetings all over the 

 kingdom, the feeding of the wild turkeys at Windsor, 



