Colours of Hunting-Coats. 481 



The best thing that can be said about it is that, made double-breasted, it is a very becoming 

 riding-habit when worn by the ladies' of the hunt. 



Early in the present century a Lord Vernon had a pack of foxhounds in Derbyshire, 

 and the uniform of the hunt was orange-plush ; but it did not take. The sky-blue uniform 

 of the Hatfield Hunt had been replaced by pink before the death of its greatest ornament, 

 the Marchioness of Salisbury. Forty years ago parsons compromised by wearing purple in- 

 stead of pink. Warburton, after referring to " Henry, our purple-clad vicar," continues in his 



Cheshire Song with — 



" If my life were at stake on the wager, 

 I know rot which brother I'd back ; 

 The parson, the squire, or the major, 

 The purple, the pink, or the black." 



In the fo.x-hunting fields of the present day there is no choice in cloth coats between black 

 and scarlet. 



The majority of established fox-hunting clubs are satisfied with the distinction of a button 

 bearing the crest of the Master, with an appropriate monogram or motto ; but several have 

 from the dawn of fox-hunting adopted a collar of a different colour from the coat. Thus, 

 the scarlet coat of the Quorn has a white collar ; the Berkeley, a black velvet collar, with a 

 fox's head embroidered in gold and silver ; the Cheshire and the old Surrey Clubs both wear 

 a green collar. 



An atteinpt has lately been reported from the fashionable hunting counties to bring black 

 coats into fashion, instead of the accepted pinks, " which have become too common and vulgar." 

 It is quite safe to prophesy that this bit of exclusive affectation will not survive many 

 seasons. The advantages of pink are many : it can be seen far off; it is a good letter of 

 introduction at every inn and turnpike-gate, for the man otherwise well appointed ; most 

 men look well in it ; properly treated it wears longer than black. Formerly it was considered 

 the correct thing to wear a scarlet coat much stained. Even artificial means were used to 

 produce the desired effect ; but of late the custom has been the other way, and hunting valets 

 have discovered some means of making two or three hunting-coats look new every day of 

 the season. 



A man had better defer putting on a scarlet coat until he feels at home in the hunting- 

 field. The simpler his attire — as long as his lower limbs are clothed in well-made fitting 

 boots and breeches — the better. A velveteen or tweed jacket may prepare the way for a 

 black coat, to be in its turn superseded by a correct pink ; and a pair of long black buttoned 

 gaiters, worn with brown Bedford cords, are a sensible preamble to boots. Although one may 

 lay down the principles on which a hunting-coat should be " built," it would be absurd to 

 enter into details which may be changed by the force of fashion any day. When the late 

 Lord Lytton — then plain Edward Bulwer — astonished the world with the first edition of 

 " Pelham," he devoted a chapter to describing how coats should be cut ; but in a very few 

 years the fashions had so much changed, that directions which had cost the dandy author no 

 small pains had to be omitted. 



A hunting-coat should be a real thing, made to suit the sort of weather to be expected 

 in November, December, January, and February — not a conventional sham — made not only to 

 look well in the ladies' eyes at cover-side, but to protect the wearer as much as possible from 

 cutting winds and heavy rain, when returning slowly home on a tired horse after a famous 

 run, or jogging from cover to cover on a bad-sceruing or blank day. 

 J J J 



