96 • THE BAEB AND THE BRIDLE. 



tional dress in the hunting field, I trust I may be pardoned for 

 describing what appeared to me an equally consistent innovation in 

 summer costume for the saddle. Last summer I sa^Y fom* young 

 ladies taking an early morning canter over a breezy down in this 

 neighbourhood. The weather was sultry. Three of the ladies wore 

 habits of different shades of grey, according to their respective 

 complexions, the fabric evidently very thin. Their equipment was 

 completed by felt hats of different shapes, exceedingly becoming 

 The fourth lady, who was very fair, wore a perfectly white 

 habit, made, I presume, of linen ; the jacket edged with a narrow 

 light blue cord ; her headdress was a yachting hat of Tuscan straw, 

 encircled by and also fastened under her chin with light blue 

 ribbon. In the front of her jacket she wore a moss rosebud. She 

 was riding an Arab-like blood horse, and being, like her companions, 

 not only well mounted, but a first-rate horsewoman, the effect was 

 not only pleasing to the eye and full of " dash," but, I am sure, 

 most conducive to the comfort of the fair riders themselves. 

 Fashion apart, I may fairly ask, would not these four ladies have 

 looked equally well, and felt as much at their ease, in Rotten 

 Row as on the springy Leicestershire turf? I devoutly hope 

 yet to see some of the leaders of fashion in the gay London 

 season inaugurate some such change as I venture to suggest ; and 

 certain I am if they did so. Rotten Row in the month of May would 

 present a brilliant Watteau-like appearance, very different from 

 that produced by the prevalence of sombre colours now worn by the 

 equestrian habitues of that fashionable ride. 



To return to our fair pupil (having made such selection of riding 

 di'ess as is most suitable to her style). Her first outdoor rides 

 should be taken on some quiet and little frequented road until she 

 becomes accustomed to control her horse ; for there is a great 

 difference in the form of going of the same animal in the riding 

 school and on the road, as many horses that require consider- 

 able rousing in the school are all action and lightheartedness out of 

 doors. 



On the road, especially when they are hard, walking and trotting 

 should be the pace, the pupil riding equally on snaffle and curb 



