HATS.
The tall silk hat has, during recent years, been largely superseded by the more comfortable if less elegant-looking bowler. On hunt full-dress occasions, such as a Quorn Friday, the ladies of the hunt generally wear tall hats, but I notice that bowlers have as a rule been worn during the rest of the week. The high hat is said to be the more becoming of the two, but it takes a lot of trouble to keep in order, and a bowler is more comfortable and useful for rough work. A lady who is wearing a tall hat for the first time, should not forget to lower her head well in passing under trees, as this kind of head-gear requires more head room than a bowler. The best arrangement for keeping a riding hat firmly fixed on the head is to have a small piece of velvet sewn inside the front, so that it comes on the forehead, and to have for the back, a piece of elastic an inch wide sewn to the hat, well to the front. Care should be taken that the elastic is not too tight, in which case it might cause a nasty headache, as well as a ridge on the forehead from the pressure of the hat. In selecting a bowler, a lady should be careful to choose a becoming shape, as these hats vary greatly in form. To my mind, the kind most generally becoming has a low crown and rather broad brim. High-crowned hats with closely turned-up brim are trying to most faces.
Although it is not usual for hunting women in the Shires to wear hat-guards, I would strongly recommend their adoption, because, however well a hat may be secured by elastic, an overhanging branch at a fence may knock it off, and it is as well to be able to recover it without assistance. When hunting this season, I lost my hat at a fence, and my long-suffering husband had to give up a good place in a run to go back and fetch it, whereas, if I had had a hat-guard, this tiresome occurrence would have been prevented. It is best to attach the cord of the hat-guard to a button-hole of the habit-jacket, for then, if the hat comes off, the cord can be more easily caught than if it is fastened inside the back of the collar of the coat. On windy days the advantage of a hat-cord is obvious. Ladies who object to its use may say that overhanging branches should be avoided, but when hounds are running, and one is mounted on a tall horse, it is impossible to always steer clear of stray twigs, and therefore men find a hat-guard very useful.
For tropical climates the pith hat or sola topee ([Fig. 62]) is best for the hot weather. Helmets, besides being apt to give one a headache on account of their weight, do not afford sufficient protection to the rider’s temples from the sun. The double Terai hat of grey felt ([Fig. 61]) is becoming, but it is very heavy. Pith is lightest and most suitable for wear during intense heat. In the cool weather a bowler or straw sailor may be worn; but even in the cold season ladies should avoid wearing a small hat when the sun is above the horizon, for its rays are treacherous. I have had many a splitting headache from disregard of this precaution.
In trying on a riding hat, the hair should be dressed low down, as it will be worn when riding, in order to obtain a comfortable fit; for the hat must fit the head and not be perched on the top of it, or it will not “remain” if the horse goes out of a walk. The old arrangement of dressing the hair in a coil of plaits at the nape of the neck has quite gone out, but it was a far neater one for riding than the “tea-pot handle” and other curious knobs and buns of the present time. The pulled-out style, in bad imitation of Japanese hair dressing, gives a dirty and untidy appearance, and looks perfectly hideous on horseback, and especially when the place where the back hair ought to be, is adorned with a round brooch! If ladies who adopt this bad style could only see how much it vulgarises an otherwise nice appearance, they would at once abjure it. A neat way to arrange the hair for hunting is to coil it firmly round the head, and fasten it with plenty of hairpins—those bent in the centre and with ball points are, I think, the most reliable—and to pin over the hair an “invisible” silken net the same colour as the hair, which will keep it tidy.