A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



Pepys, who had a never-failing eye for a pretty woman, tells us a little better how 

 they looked when they went racing than might be imagined from the loosely draped 

 canvases of Lely or Kneller. The busy little Secretary had just passed a very 

 anxious day over the conflicting news of the naval fight with the Dutch in 



the June of 1666, when he was 

 consoled with the sight of "the 

 Ladies of Honour dressed in 

 their riding garbs, with coats and 

 doublets, with deep skirts, just for 

 all the world like mine, and 

 buttoned their doublets up to the 

 breasts, with periwigs and with 

 hats ; so that, only for a long petti- 

 coat dragging under their men's 

 coats, nobody could take them for 

 women in any point whatever ; 

 which was an odde sight, and a 

 sight did not please me. It was 

 Mrs. Wells and another fine lady 

 that I saw thus." It all depends, 

 however, on circumstances, whether 

 a woman's dress is agreeable or 

 not. This same costume when 

 seen on horseback in the Park 

 mightily delighted the observer 

 who was shocked with it in 

 Whitehall, and " Mrs. Stewart, 

 with her hat cocked and a red plume," riding with her celebrated grace among 

 the bevy of mounted Maids of Honour, completely conquered Mr. Pepys. 



In the memoirs of the Comte de Grammontthis same " Mrs. Wells "is described. 

 She was one of the ladies who had replaced the Portuguese attendants of the Queen, 

 to the joy of the whole Court. " She was a tall girl," writes the critical and cosmo- 

 politan gallant, " born to be made into a picture, well dressed, and with the walk of a 

 goddess. Her face, moulded like those which are most winning, yet pleased but little, 

 because Heaven had spread a veil of uncertainty above it which made her features 



Lord Arlington. 

 By Sir Peter Lely. 



