324 RIDING FOR LADIES. 



field until your " salad " days are over. It is a remarkable 

 colour, and of late many excellent sportsmen have discarded 

 it altogether. This may, perhaps, be owing to the fact that 

 ladies are putting it on ! Two fair Dianas who ride very 

 straight with the Meath hounds adopted scarlet last 

 season, and doubtless many more will ere long follow 

 suit. It is not to be admired, in my opinion, and can 

 scarcely fail to remind the beholder of things usually 

 associated with street-organs and itinerant grinders of 

 these instruments ! 



"Unknowing" Ones. — Ignorance concerning horsey 

 subjects is quite common among ladies who are otherwise 

 well educated, and, indeed, highly informed. Mrs. Beecher 

 Stowe relates of herself, in her ' Sunny Memories,' that 

 when dining one day with Earl Russell she spoke of hunting 

 as " a vestige of the savage state," when, to her great aston- 

 ishment, she saw laughter on all the men's faces. No 

 wonder. Fox hunting, or rather riding to hounds is an art 

 not yet a century old. Two of our most popular author- 

 esses — I might, perhaps, say the two most popular — make 

 such egregious mistakes on the subjects of hunting, racing 

 and betting, that men laugh, and women who know, say, 

 " What a pity it is ! " 



Hunting Centres. — A young Londoner cannot do 

 better than try his hand with the Surrey Foxhounds, or 

 with one of the Kentish packs. The hills of Surrey afford 

 good hunting ground, despite the flints, and the superfluity 

 of coverts. 



