THE HOUSE OF MANNERS AND THE CHASE 



than doeskin, and do not require cleaning every day. 

 Fashion changes in hunting dress, and there is far less 

 strictness in the matter now than formerly. The following 

 description of the dress in the shires in 1826 is taken from 

 Mr. Birch Reynardson's Sport and Anecdote : — 



" The Meltonians, many of whom are great dandies, are 

 almost refulgent in their white cords, white buckskin gloves, 

 and well-brushed hats, for their grooms have given them a 

 tickle-up for the occasion ; their well-polished boots have 

 also had a lick over where any spot of mud chanced to 

 appear ; in fact, they are the beau-ideal of a good turn- 

 out, and, in spite of having ridden from Melton in mud 

 boots, look, at least the greater part of them, as if they 

 had just come out of a band-box" (p. 15). 



" They would ride up to the meet in their white cord 

 breeches, with either what were called mud boots or spatter- 

 dashes, to keep their boots free from mud, and swallow-tailed 

 coats (no one wore cutaways in those days) " (p. 1 2). 



Then, as now, nearly every one rode to covert, though a 

 few of the more luxurious Meltonians used to come to the 

 fixture in a post-chaise, as some few of their successors do 

 to-day in a brougham. But the covert hack was the usual 

 conveyance, as the polo pony is now. 



In other ways the customs of those days differed from 

 ours. Luncheon was unknown, for a biscuit or two suf- 

 ficed ; nor did a second horseman carry a substantial meal 

 in a portmanteau for the use of his master. Old-fashioned 

 people were a good deal scandalised by this custom when 

 it first came in, but it seems a sensible one, and is probably 

 better for the health than abstinence during violent exercise. 

 No doubt the exhaustion occasioned by the long fast had 

 something to do with the quantity of wine the old fox- 

 hunters drank. In the golden age of fox-hunting claret 

 superseded port, and Snead's claret was the rage, since it 

 was said the sportsman required something after dinner that 

 would " stick to his ribs a little better than the light mixtures 

 of the present day." The following anecdote gives an idea 

 of the capacities of our predecessors : — 



19 



