THE GROOM 143 



any other article of dress — not only in the cut, material, and 

 keeping, but in the art of putting them on. London Grooms 

 — we mean men in the habit of coming to London — are almost 

 the only ones who really can put on top-boots. This arises 

 in a great measure from their having a proper respect for, 

 and appreciation of, the article itself. There used to be a 

 bootmaker in Paris, who, on a complaint being made by a 

 customer, used immediately to ask if the wearer had been 

 walking in his boots. If he replied in the affirmative, then 

 St. Crispin would shrug up his shoulders, and, throwing out 

 his hands, exclaim that he " e.xpressly defended "' his customers 

 from walking in his boots, " that they were only for riding and 

 carriage work." 



London Grooms are the only ones who seem to have any 

 idea that top-boots are only for riding in. A fellow in the 

 country pulls them on at all times and occasions, from walking 

 to church (or the public-house) to driving the market cart. 

 The consequence is, that after two or three good trudges and 

 paddles in them, the boots lose all shape, make, and sit, and 

 have that dejected melancholy air that only makes their fallen 

 greatness more painful. 



Boots and breeches, with the proper cleaning and putting 

 of them on, give an air and character to the entire turn out. 

 Who, on seeing a postilion in dingy leathers, and dull boots, 

 ever thinks of looking at his horses ? But to our Groom in 

 the greys. His boots are well made, of good material, well 

 cleaned, well kept, and well put on. The rose-tinted tops 

 are longish, not affectedly so, but bearing a fair proportion 

 to the boot itself. They fall in neat wrinkles down the leg, 

 and the sole is clean and free from mud stains, instead of 

 being marked half way up the instep, with the paddling 

 about before starting. Contrast that man's appearance with 

 the high-shouldered, blear-eyed, Tom-and-Jerry-looking fellow 



