482 The Book of the Horse. 



♦ 



The coats to De worn as spring advances, or hunting the wild stag of the West in a 

 dry September, may be of hghter material, and without the flannel linings which make 

 modern winter coats so comfortable. 



According to sporting novelists and sporting journalists, there are only two or three 

 tailors in the world equal to building a correct scarlet coat ; but that is nonsense, although 

 the best reputed names have carried their art to great perfection, and made important im- 

 provements. Good workmen are to be found in every hunting centre. Imitation from a good 

 pattern is easy, and it certainly is not necessary to send to London for a hunting costume 

 from York, Bristol, Cheltenham, Chester, Northampton, or even Manchester. 



At the same time it must be noted that no pretence is more contemptible than a badl}-- 

 fitting scarlet coat of inferior materials. 



A hunting-coat should have at least four pockets, besides a ticket or small-change pocket 

 — that is to say, one outside the breast, for the handkerchief, one inside for the purse, and 

 two in the flaps. Fashion has sometimes placed the pockets of a hunting-coat behind, like 

 that of a frock, instead of on the hips. The flaps may somewhat detract from the elegance 

 of the waist, but pockets so cut are easily accessible for either hand, even when half-frozen, 

 to extract the many useful things a hunting-coat-pocket may contain. I remember, when the 

 Earl of Hopetoun had the Pytchley Hounds, seeing one of the whips painfully trying to grope 

 his way with a fox's pad into the pocket of his tight frock. Nothing could have a more 

 absurd effect. Tailors of the first class perfectly understand how to combine elegance of cut 

 with ease and liberty for every limb. 



The best rule is to go to some tailor in town or country who makes hunting-coats a 

 specialty. A hunting-coat of any colour should leave the horseman the most perfect liberty 

 to use his arms, and be so made that the collar will turn up and button over the throat, as 

 well as nearly down to the bottom of the waistcoat. Every man who prefers his comfort to 

 his figure will have pockets at the sides. The waistcoat of a winter hunting-coat should be 

 made like a jacket — that is, the same material, whether cloth, velvet, or fur, should continue 

 all round the back, and not be eked out like ordinary waistcoats with calico or silk. The 

 hollow part of the back is the place where one is most apt to catch cold, after getting into 

 a violent perspiration. Hunting-waistcoat pockets should have flaps, to keep the small change 

 from rolling out when you and your horse are rolling and struggling in a ditch. A recent 

 useful in\-ention is the " ^rrttv;--tailed waistcoat," made all of wool, with a flap falling over 

 the loins. 



The Crimean War universalised one of the greatest comforts of the hunting man — the 



flannel shirt. Many of our ancestors must have been sacrificed to the chill of linen worn 



■ before cotton became respectable. With the flannel shirt came another friend in cold 



weather — elastic woollen drawers, which superseded the horribly irritating Welsh flannel 



drawers ; and, by abolishing stockings and garters, facilitated the fit of boots and breeches. 



"The Cardigan" — the elastic sleeved woollen jacket, to be worn under the coat and 

 over the waistcoat — is another Crimean result much to be commended. It may be white, 

 grey, or black, the grey for choice — be worn open at chest until slow paces succeed tlie 

 run, or strapped with an overcoat to the saddle. A very good sportsman, in a very wild and 

 rainy country, once showed me a compact roll, consisting of a hand-knitted Cardigan jacket 

 and a woollen comforter, wrapped in a mackintosh riding apron, occupying very little room 

 when strapped close to the cantlc of his saddle. With these he had frequently ridden home, 

 after a long day with the hounds, wet, but warm and comfortable, five-and-twenty miles. 



