DRESS AND EQUIPMENT 285 



and Mr. Sawyer certainly would not appear at the 

 covertside an3rwhere in a cap, nor could a stranger 

 be detected by his boots. As long as you wear 

 a tall hat or a respectable bowler, have a thong 

 to your whip, and don't put your spurs on upside 

 down, do not wear a coloured tie, or in any other 

 way outrage the reasonable prejudices of society, no 

 one will care how you are dressed. The crowds are 

 so large that no individual is of much consequence. 

 You will find, or make, your own friends according 

 to what you are and have. The way you ride and the 

 quality of your horses are of infinitely more importance 

 than anything to do with yourself or your attire. 



The outfit of the horse is quite another matter. 

 That should be of the best. Need I say that plain- 

 flapped saddles are at once the most comfortable and 

 the most usual, that nobody nowadays puts a breast- 

 plate on, and that reins are always sewn, not buckled, 

 to the bit. If you have a second horseman, he carries 

 your luncheon on his back ; if not, you carry it in a 

 neat canteen on the D's of your saddle. This is pre- 

 ferable to the hunting horn flask, which is nevertheless 

 not uncommon. I have never seen any one smoking 

 a pipe in the hunting field, but cigarettes and cigars 

 are usual. It adds greatly to your comfort to carry 

 vesuvians in your match-case, unless you are very 

 clever at lighting a cigar or a cigarette from an 

 ordinary match in the open air, which apparently 

 very few men can do. 



People differ theoretically about lunch, but in 

 practice most men enjoy it. I do not believe a big 

 meal is good for riding, any more than for shooting. 

 Two sandwiches in the middle of the day and a small 

 slice of cake to eat on the way home are quite enough 

 for health. As to the contents of the flask, that is 



