12 



INTRODUCTION. 



gentlewomen of the same period, on horseback, with 

 an individual of the other sex, engaged (as is shewn 

 by some parts of the design, which it would be need- 

 less, for our present pui-pose, to copy) in the once 

 much-favoured diversion of Hawking. 



«6%s 



Queen Elizabeth, says a writer in the Encyclopsedia 

 Londinensis, " seems to have been the first who set the 

 ladies the more modest fashion of riding sideways. 

 Considerable opposition was, at first, made to it, as 

 inconvenient and dangerous : but, practice, in time, 

 brought it into general use ; particularly when ladies 

 found they could ride a-hunting, take flying leaps, and 



