SIDE-SADDLE VS. CROSS-SADDLE 75 



progressive, that one might safely place riding astride 

 for women. 



Moreover, it will probably interest, if it does not 

 necessarily please, the advocates of the cross-saddle, 

 to learn that the fashion is not as entirely modern 

 as they think it to be. It has been tried before, and 

 given up, probably because it did not prove satis- 

 factory in the long run, and in England it was not 

 until Queen Anne of Bohemia, wife of Richard II, 

 introduced the side-saddle that women ever attempted 

 to jump or hunt. There are many laughing allusions 

 made to the fact that the side-saddle was supposed to 

 have originated in order to facilitate riding for a lame 

 queen, and that modern women should scorn to use 

 an invention that was primarily made for a cripple. 

 However, it would be as foolish for women to hold 

 its origin against the side-saddle as it would be for 

 us to discard all inventions that have been evolved, 

 largely by accident, in much the same way — as, for 

 example, glass or saccharine. Women do not scorn 

 to play cards because the game was invented to amuse 

 an imbecile king, nor do they refuse to have profile 

 portraits, or silhouettes made, just because it so hap- 

 pened that the first profile was made for a one-eyed 

 emperor in order to conceal his defect. 



Furthermore, the side-saddle invented for the lame 

 queen was as different from our modern side-saddle 

 as the old-time sailing vessel is from the Mauretania. 

 The original side-saddle had no leaping head,* which 

 latter addition was not invented until 1830, by M. 

 Pellier, of Paris, f Before the introduction of this 



* See chap. XV, page 206. 



t Miss Nellie Holmes was, I believe, the first woman to ride cross- 

 country in England with this new invention. 



