350 CHANGES IN FOX-HUNTING 



the brink of the grave. What sings Egerton War- 

 burton ? — 



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



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

 In boots of black leather let fishermen paddle, 

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



It is a long time also since I saw a white top worn 

 by a gentleman, though I can remember when that 

 colour was de riguem^ and surmounted a boot whose 

 great beauty was to be as wrinkled as a concertina; 

 I have seen many fashions in the shades of tops since 

 that day, though. It would appear from the verses 

 of Egerton Warburton that he was one of the inno- 

 vators who made the velvet cap fashionable and caused 

 it again to supersede the heavy, quaintly shaped, tall 

 hat which we see in the pictures of Aiken : — 



" Old Wiseheads complacently smoothing the brim. 

 May jeer at my velvet and call it a whim. 

 They may think in a cap little wisdom there dwells. 

 They may say they who wear it should wear it with bells. 



But when broad brim lies flat, 



I will answer him pat, 

 Oh I who but a crackskull would ride in a hat ? " 



From our very earliest hunting pictures, however, 

 it would appear that a hunting-cap of dimensions 

 equalling a fireman's helmet and something of the 

 same shape surmounted the brows of our ancestors ; 

 so fashions come and go and come again, and " nothing 

 is new under the sun." 



As regards the change in other articles of attire, 

 I can recollect when almost every hunting man en- 



