COSTUME AND EQUIPMENT. 43 



to hold his own mth others in knowledge of the spor 

 and ability to ride across country. But the intending 

 foxhunter usually (and always if he is wise) makes his 

 dehut during the period of cubhunting, and here the 

 matter of costume is not the grave affair it is on and 

 after Xov. 1. Indeed, some of the cub-hunting costumes 

 one sees in these days are really grotesque, especially 

 in late summer, when the weather is still warm. A 

 straw hat, flannel jacket, white polo breeches, and 

 brown jack boots ; a Norfolk jacket, knickerbockers, 

 and shooting boots ; white breeches and puttees under a 

 long black morning coat, and a motor cap. All these 

 and sundry others of an equally curious kind were seen 

 during the present autumn, and my advice to novices 

 is that they should in no way make themselves con- 

 spicuous, but wear not too light-coloured clothes, with 

 cloth breeches, and either jack boots or leggings, as 

 the fancy takes them. A cloth cap can be worn, too, 

 with this undress costume ; but the appointments of 

 the horse should be as carefully attended to as in the 

 regular season, and, even if one has to turn out in the 

 middle of the night, saddle, bridle, bit, and spurs should 

 be as clean and bright as it is possible to make them. 

 A hunting whip should be carried, too, for there are 

 always gates to open or to hold open for others on cub- 

 hunting mornings, and the crop is a necessity for this 

 business, and, by the way, nothing looks so lonely and 

 bald as a crop without a thong attached. And before 

 I close this paper I may just remind the lady novice 

 that the old-fashioned cutting whip of a former period 

 is quite out of date, and has been for many years. 

 Indeed, this riding whip was only intended for park 



