CHAPTER XIII 



HUNT UNIFORMS 



The appearance, what is it without the reality ? 

 And what were the reality without the appearance ? 



Goethe. 



When Carlyle undertook to expound the philo- 

 sophy of clothes he appears to have considered 

 the question of hunt uniforms as altogether 

 beneath his notice, and the question is one which 

 perhaps does not call for much discussion. 

 Still, it is a subject which may be worth a 

 moment's thought, were it only because, as a 

 good sportsman once said to me, it is a matter of 

 individual taste as to whether a man conforms to 

 les convenances. 



And, after all, it is a matter of some importance 

 to all of us that the people with whom we consort 

 regularly should possess sufficient good taste to 

 conform to the ordinary usages of society, and 

 that they should not possess that vulgar self-asser- 

 tion which prompts some men to fly in the face 

 of the recognised custom simply because it is a 

 recognised custom. 



But it is not of the costume of men in the 

 hunting field that I wish to speak on this occa- 

 sion, but rather of the dress uniforms of hunting 

 men. 



