LADY FOXHUNTERS 289 



Stick-in-the-mud's grandson, who is always in a stew 

 — always in motion and never doing anything — 

 railways have really made idle people believe that 

 their time is valuable. 



Housekeeping and riding we take it had been part 

 of a woman's stock education in former days. If we 

 consult the old novelists we shall find that quite as 

 many heroines disappeared on side - saddles or on 

 pillions, as in the more aspiring mode of hack 

 chaises and four. Fielding, who had great knowledge 

 of both town and country life, makes his Sophia 

 Western arrive at the inn at Upton on horseback at 

 night, attended solely, if we remember rightly, by Mrs. 

 Honour, the housekeeper. We have not seen any 

 writer attempt to subjugate a railway train, so as to 

 invest it with the interest and sentiment necessary for 

 a novel. The noise, the smoke, the hiss, the " now, 

 marm, if you please ; tickets, tickets, tickets, show your 

 tickets " — the riotous bell, and alarm whistle, are all 

 against the quiet privacy of an elopement. 



Riding for ladies is now become wholly a matter 

 of luxury — there are no journey ridings — even the 

 pillions have disappeared with recent years, and 

 farmers' wives drive to market in gigs with " Giles 

 Jolter," or whatever their husband's name may be, 

 painted up behind. When her Majesty took her 

 daily prome?iades a cheval, as the French call them, 

 in the Park, equestrianism was all the rage, and we 

 had nothing but smart habits and slate-coloured veils. 

 Indeed, each season shows a good muster of fair 

 equestrians still, though, perhaps, not so many as 

 there used to be. We never go into the Park 

 without thinking how much better it must be for 

 them than the enervating, listless motion of a 

 carriage. Even park riding is slow work compared 

 to the free gallop of the country, but to be sure park 

 riding is generally pursued at a season of the year 

 when it is too hot for hard exercise. 

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