196 LADIES ON HORSEBACK. 



wits and hands ready to avert danger ; but 

 how frequently, also, is it the fashionable 

 stripling who escorts the lady — a cousin, or a 

 lover, perhaps — ignorant of all connected with 

 riding, except the pleasure of it ; or the booted 

 and belted servant, who touches his hat, and 

 thinks he has done his duty because the 

 saddle is clean and the horse sleek and shiny ; 

 or the riding-master, who has come out in a 

 hurry, anxious and flurried at the last moment 

 to see that everything looks right, and who has 

 had no time to see after such minor accessories 

 as stirrups, or has left the matter (if he thought 

 of it at all) in the hands of the groom, wha 

 has left it alone altogether. This being the 

 case, I maintain that a stirrup encumbered 

 with machinery is unsuited to a lady, because, 

 although she may have an escort who will look 

 after it, there is the possibihty that she may 

 not have such good fortune. Moreover, a 

 stirrup made sufficiently large to bear padding 

 over the instep, and yet enable the foot to- 

 slip easily in and out, must of necessity be a 

 considerable weight, and this alone would be 

 an objection, especially to a hunting lady^ 



