COSTUME AND EQUIPMENT. 31 



until they are sixteen years old. WTiere I mostly 

 hunt all the little girls have ridden astride for the last 

 eight or ten years, and now some of them who are grown 

 up and " out " have taken to the side saddle. Yet these 

 one and all declare that riding astride is the most 

 comfortable, and that in a man's saddle they have more 

 command of their horse. There I leave it. It is a 

 matter for fathers and mothers to decide, but when 

 girls begin on a man's saddle they must have breeches 

 and boots and a long coat, rather tight at the waist, and 

 with big, deep skirts meeting the top of the boots ; this 

 looks smarter and better than the divided skirt arrange- 

 ment, which some big girls affect, because it leaves 

 the horse's or pony's back and loin free of covering, 

 while the divided skirt to a considerable extent covers 

 the horse's back, and has a rather untidy appearance. 

 In the matter of hats and hair girls cannot be too 

 particular. Even the smallest girls look better with 

 their hair loosely confined by one or two knots of 

 ribbon, and, when the girl is old enough for a pigtail, 

 she will find that form of wearing her hair more com- 

 fortable when hunting than having it loose about her 

 shoulders. The girl who is only a child should wear a 

 " tammy " (as I believe they are called), and not a pot 

 hat until she is into her teens. The latter makes her 

 look older than she is, and need not be worn until the 

 general costume has got beyond the childhood stage. 

 And to girls a little older it may be suggested that 

 frisettes (I believe that is the right word, but what 

 I want to signify is really " stuffing ") are fatal in the 

 hunting field. I may be told that no girl uses such things 

 when hunting, but that is not correct for I have noticed 



