CHANGES IN FOX-HUNTING 349 



fox-hunters were clad between the years of 1842 and 

 1865. We notice in these hunting sketches a hunting 

 boot that is now almost as extinct as the pigtail, but 

 which I remember very well ; these boots were called 

 " Napoleons," were usually made of some patent leather 

 and covered the knee-cap, but were cut away behind. 



" Don't have Napoleons," a boot-maker in one of 

 Leech's sketches is saying to a seated customer whose 

 calf he is about to measure. " Have tops, sir ! Yours 

 is a beautiful leg for a top boot, sir ! Beautiful leg, 

 sir ! Same size all the way down, sir ! " 



The difficulty of dealing with a limb of muscular 

 proportions when constructing a top boot is also 

 noticed in Market Harborough, when Mr. Sawyer is 

 fitting himself out with a couple of pairs in Oxford 

 Street, for his campaign in the Shires : — 



" ' Very muscular gentleman 1 ' says the foreman, passing his tape 

 round Mr. Sawyer's calf. ' I could have made you, now, a particular 

 neat Provincial boot ; but with this pattern it is exceedingly difficult 

 to obtain the correct appearance for the flying countries. You wouldn't 

 like a pair of Napoleons, I presume. Very fashionable just now, sir. 

 All the gentlemen wear them in the Vale of Aylesbury.' " 



Another writer on hunting matters at about the 

 same period says : " Of boots there are just two sorts — 

 those that protect the mechanism of the knee and 

 those that don't ; " but it is a long time since I have 

 seen a boot that " protected the mechanism of the 

 knee" worn by a gentleman in the hunting-field. 

 Even in my early hunting days Napoleons were not 

 fashionable, and were usually worn by our elders — 

 men who seemed, no doubt, to us to be tottering on 



