20 THE MASTER OF HOUNDS 



good horsewoman from a hunting standard. As for 

 the riding masters and mistresses who prefer to teach 

 school-girls, my experience is that they invariably 

 require teaching themselves. This may appear severe 

 criticism, but I believe it to be the truth, and I base my 

 belief upon personal observation. Now, the very first 

 lesson that a young girl should be taught is to sit 

 square in the saddle, so that her eyes look straight 

 through her horse's ears : the second lesson is to keep 

 the elbows close to the side. If these rudiments of the 

 art of horsewomanship are neglected in the first place, 

 it is seldom that the girl will learn them in later life. 

 It must also be remembered that, unless a lady sits 

 square in her saddle, she will probably give her horse 

 a sore back. I need hardly add that, for a lady to 

 become a good woman to hounds, it is essential that 

 her nervous system should have been educated during 

 girlhood. 



The most notable example of this postulate was the 

 late Empress of Austria, for while only a child she 

 was encouraged at her Bavarian home in her fondness 

 for riding, with the result that, when she was past forty, 

 her nerve was as strong as that of any woman who 

 ever rode in an English hunting-field. I admit that 

 she had the best and safest hunters that money could 

 buy ; that her three successive pilots, namely, Captain 

 " Bay " Middleton, Mr. Trotter, and Colonel Charles 

 Rivers Bulkeley, were three of the finest horsemen in 

 England ; and that it was considered to be a breach of 

 etiquette for anybody to ride in front of her, either at 

 her fences or on the flat. But, great as these advan- 



