Fox-HuNTixG Costume. 479 



The quotations from the journals of the Tarporley Chib, given in Chapter XVIL, record 

 tlie (late at which fox-hunters finally adopted scarlet, as distinguished from the green or blue 

 of tlie hare-hunting clubs. 



When George Prince of Wales' consulting counsel, Beau Brummel, ruled the roast of 

 fashion, elegance was sought in tightness ; comfort and convenience were cast on one side as 

 vulgar, like vegetables and other wholesome things. Doeskins fitting like a skin were the 

 usual morning and hunting-dress of the period. 



Once the Prince, ever on the look-out for some costly extravagance, astonished his world 

 with a pair of white kidskin breeches ; but the attempt was a failure. The British leather- 

 dressers of those days were not then able to produce an article sufficiently stout for the 

 purpose, and foreign aid was prohibited. Leathers continued in vogue for morning and 

 hunting-dress until the Peace of 18 14, when trousers of extraordinary shape were imported 

 from Russia. Some time afterwards doeskin breeches were voted slow, and white corduroys 

 became the only possible wear for a man of fashion in the hunting-field. There was a good 

 wear-and-tear appearance about the hunting-dress in the first fifty years of George III., which 

 was superseded by the Regent's style, as may be seen in George Morland's hunting pictures. 

 The gold lace of George II.'s time had been for the most part discarded. The coat was 

 single-breasted, and not scanty ; the brown tops of the boots, tied with many ribands to 

 the leather breeches, were long. The manufacture of a decent article in blacking had not 

 made much progress ; and the cravat above the largely frilled or laced shirt was more like 

 a pudding-bag than anything else. But the men, in spite of their pigtails, looked like workmen ; 

 and it was in this stamp of costume that Beau Brummel made his rare appearances in the 

 hunting-field, when he was the favoured guest of the Duke of Rutland at Belvoir. 



But the Prince and the Beau quarrelled. The latter, ruined, carried his wardrobe, his 

 insolence, and his talent for begging-letter writing to Calais, leaving, as a legacy to his numerous 

 pupils, the white starched cravat, an absurdity which was indispensable in society until the 

 Crimean War and the introduction of arms of precision abolished the soldiers' stock, and gave 

 a degree of freedom to the necks of all Her Majesty's subjects, which had previously only 

 been enjoyed by sailors, artists, and poets of Byronic proclivities. 



Leathers are such delightful wear in dry weather that they never entirely passed out of 

 use amongst the provincial hunting public, but at the period recorded by " Nimrod's " tours 

 in Leicestershire, and etched by George Cruikshank's needle, the hunting-dress, in fashionable 

 counties, had reached the lowest depths of vulgarity and inconvenience. A bell-crowned 

 hat, which could not be kept on the head in windy weather, superseded the velvet cap ; a 

 high-starched cravat imprisoned the sportsman's neck. The roomy garment of his fathers 

 was replaced by a dress-coat as tight as a tailor could make it, with a very short waist, a 

 high collar rising to the ears, and swallow-tailed lappels, affording the least possible protection 

 against rain and cold weather ; while baggy white corduroy breeches, cut long at the knees, 

 superseded orange or cream-coloured doeskins, to meet short pale pink tops, which were 

 prepared, according to rumour, with champagne. Such was the correct costume of the 

 swells of the period, faithfully depicted in George Cruikshank's illustrations of " Tom and 

 Jerry." 



Since those days a series of changes have taken place in hunting costume. Hats were 

 superseded in 184O by velvet caps, which were worn in nearly all the best hunts in the kingdom. 

 Since the Prince of Wales joined the hunting-field, hats have once more taken the place of 

 caps. Mr. Charles Greville records that when George IV. died, amongst his collection of 



