244 HACKS AND HUNTERS 



thin leather straps, the same color as the boot, which 

 pass through a loop in the latter and are buckled in 

 front just above the top of the boot. 



For summer wear tan leather butcher boots are 

 most useful. They should be well-fitting and stained 

 (if new) a dark shade of tan. For formal wear, with 

 a white skirt at summer shows, black patent-leather 

 boots, though hot, are smartest. But for roughing it 

 in the country, shoes with worsted puttees, tan gaiters, 

 or box-cloth gaiters, which button on the side like a 

 man's, are permissible. They are not as smart, how- 

 ever, and no cooler or more comfortable than field 

 boots, which lace up to the ankle. The latter have 

 the advantage of coming in handy for long tramps 

 on foot, or for shooting parties. 



As in the case of breeches, women should not at- 

 tempt to copy men too closely in the fit or exact shape 

 of their boots. Fashion dictates that a woman's boots 

 should be as high as a man's, but " fashion," and boot- 

 makers in general, forget that a woman's position in 

 a side-saddle is very different from a man's, and that 

 high boots are extremely uncomfortable for her. The 

 hard leather of a high boot not only presses disagree- 

 ably against the breeches buttons, but also is very 

 apt, on the left leg, to catch underneath the little leather 

 flap which covers the safety-bar of the saddle, and on 

 the right leg to rub against the pommel. For this 

 reason it is best always to order boots cut at least 

 two inches lower than the regulation height, which is 

 scarcely noticeable and much more comfortable.* In 

 conversing on the subject with various women, I have 



* Some women, finding that a high boot on the left leg is less objec- 

 tionable than on the right, merely have the right one cut down. They 

 go on the principle that as the left leg is the only one that shows when 

 a woman is walking, the difference in height will not be noticed. I 



