THE FIELD 133 



may unknowingly inaugurate a new fashion, but the 

 chances are that they have few followers in their eccen- 

 tricities, and yet such men will, year after year, intro- 

 duce some new detail — probably a very insignificant 

 one — of costume. In one popular hunt a hard-riding 

 squire always uses white evening ties for boot garters, 

 while a neighbour, also a very hard man to hounds, in- 

 variably carries a twenty-inch "swagger" cane, such 

 as a soldier uses, instead of a crop. A third member 

 of this hunt used, a year or two ago, to appear in a very 

 high, flat-brimmed tall hat of French appearance, and 

 occasionally this same man was seen in a hunting frock 

 of orthodox cut, but made of the roughest and gaudiest- 

 patterned Harris tweed. In both of two different hunts, 

 three hundred miles apart, a most important, never- 

 miss-a-day man invariably dresses in black boots, a 

 whipcord suit, and a bowler hat all the season through, 

 and each of these men is a pillar of his hunt, whose 

 opinion on any point would carry as much weight as 

 the opinion of any man but the master. 



Another eccentric we know of carries all sorts of 

 things, and when his long coat-flaps are not hiding his 

 saddle, his horse looks more like a troop horse than 

 a hunter. He has holsters on either side, a large 

 whisky and soda in one, and port in the other ; he has 

 of course a sandwich case, a shoe in a leather case, a 

 pair of wire nippers, and a little leather ''first-aid " case 

 fitted with one or two simple instruments, a roll of lint, 

 and other things likely to be useful in case of accident. 

 He also carries a huge knife, with a foot-picker, and 

 several nails for horses' shoes, has a watch in the 

 handle of his crop and another on his wrist — one to 

 check the other — while his pockets are full of cigars, 

 ginger nuts, sweets for the children, etc. We once 



