ii2 THROUGH STABLE AND SADDLE-ROOM. 



Latterly, however, the fashion has been to discard 

 them altogether, and to substitute what I have 

 said are termed plain flaps — that is to say, flaps 

 without any such stuffing whatever. 



I somewhat shrink from entering upon this 

 subject at all, for a few years ago, a letter appear- 

 ing in the Field, which was written by a man who 

 had then but recently returned home from abroad, 

 and who was anxious to be in the fashion and to 

 know which of the two to adopt — viz., knee-rolls 

 or plain flaps — I was weak enough to reply to his 

 queries as fully and honestly as I could. My 

 letter produced such a storm of correspondence, 

 and my reasons (which I here give) were so twisted 

 and turned about, and my meaning, which I thought 

 and hoped I had made so clear and simple, so dis- 

 torted, that I was very sorry I had taken the 

 trouble to put pen to paper. Eventually it evoked 

 a leading article on the subject. I did not make 

 reply to any of the letters, or I should probably 

 have caused still further misunderstanding ; but all 

 the same, my reasons were as simple and matter-of- 

 fact as I will endeavour to make them in the 

 present instance, hoping that the reader will be 

 more lenient to me in his judgment, if he disagrees 

 with me, than my unknown correspondents were. 



As I stated above, the proper leg-muscles for a 



