For all formal occasions, when you are driving any kind of a phaeton with a rumble, you should always have a servant on the rumble. For any formal occasion, where it is correct to drive a trap with a rumble, it is incorrect not to have the servant. It is better form, even for country driving, if you take a servant, to have him on the rumble, where he should always be if there is a rumble. It is not correct, where you have a rumble, to have the servant at your side. If the horses are pulling too hard, it is quite permissible to pass the reins back to the servant, or he may even drive them from the rumble,
where he can control them quite as well as he could if he were sitting beside you.
For this reason the reins are made longer for a woman than for a man.
CHAPTER XVI
DRESS
While, except for four-in-hand, there is no prescribed formal costume required for driving, at the same time there are certain general principles which women should always observe, not only for formal occasions, such as the show ring or park, but whenever they take the ribbons.
For formal ladies’ traps, such as phaetons, it is perfectly permissible to wear a large hat of the prevailing fashion and an afternoon or calling gown. Where the owner is driving a trap of this kind on a formal occasion, the costume should not be tailor-made, and her costume should produce the effect that she is out for a pleasure drive. With sporting traps and carts of all kinds, on the other hand, the costume should be strictly tailor-made and the hat small and not inclined to blow off. This is particularly so for tandem driving, and in that case the general effect should be mannish, and particular care should be taken to have everything securely fastened so that undivided attention may be given to the horses and reins. For driving tandem, or for any kind of a sporting vehicle or cart in the country,
a plain sailor is the most appropriate as well as one of the easiest to keep on, and veils, as well as other feminine adornments, look quite out of place. The hair, of course, should be neatly and securely done, and boots or low shoes are much more appropriate than high-heeled slippers with open-work stockings.
It is always correct, under any circumstances, to carry a lap robe, and while in the show ring it may remain on the seat on the left side of the driver. For other occasions it is better to spread it over the knees to keep off the dust. If it is spread, be sure that it is neatly tucked in about the feet, but to do this requires some knack, and the best way to arrange the robe is to have it come over the feet so that the heels will rest upon it, and then to have the right end placed under you so as to entirely cover the lower part of your knee. If you are driving alone both sides should be adjusted in the same way, but, of course, if you have a companion the robe should cover you both.
For tandem a driving apron is permissible, but is not required, instead of a robe, and for four-in-hand driving it is required.