254 LADIES ON HORSEBACK. 



discarding head-gear, whether natural or artifi- 

 cial. As a rule, nothing that is properly made 

 and properly adjusted ever comes to grief. It 

 is by going to cheap and incompetent habit- 

 makers, neglecting to stitch elastics to their 

 hats, and plaiting the hair too loosely (being 

 also too sparing of hair-pins), that ladies are 

 inconvenienced and made to blush. Two 

 yards wide round the hem is ample for a 

 hunting-habit, which should fit like a glove 

 about the hips. First-class tailors always have 

 a model horse, upon which they mount their 

 lady customers, and thus secure the right 

 position for the slope at the knee, upon which 

 so much of the ^^ set " of the skirt depends. 

 A well-dressed woman, sitting properly upon a 

 well- constructed saddle, cannot, in my opinion, 

 be improved upon for style and comfort, and 

 I hope it will be long indeed before ladies 

 strive to follow in any way the customs or 

 calhngs of the sterner sex. I may add that 

 one of the chief recommendations of a box 

 spur is that it does not get out of order, nor 

 can it possibly become entangled, unless the 

 habit-skirt be one of those which some ladies 



