Having thus disposed of your requirements as a learner, we come to consider your more advanced costume, and I shall find need to speak of every requisite for park, road, and country riding—reserving the hunting outfit for the last.
If you are a moderate rider, three hats will be sufficient for you; a silk one, which I prefer low-crowned; a jerry, or melon-shaped; and a soft felt. These should be all of the finest quality; in fact, I may here take occasion to warn you against cheap or indifferent articles of riding apparel; they are, in all instances, by far the dearest in the end. For my own part I really look with horror upon low-priced articles of clothing—not from any snobbishness, far from it, but because I have always found them wear so badly, look so unsightly after short service, and adapt themselves so indifferently to the wearer, that a perfect abhorrence of all so-called “bargains” has been the not unnatural result.
You should have at least two riding-habits—one of heavy, the other of light material. Wolmershausen and Co., of Curzon-street, Mayfair, are constantly showing a variety of beautiful stuffs, suitable for all places, in town and country, and for all weathers likewise. They are the introducers of the famous “Curzon Red,” in reality a dark claret-colour of most charming hue, fine texture, and durable quality, being perfectly impervious to the effects of rain or sun.
I am frequently asked for advice respecting the newest fashion in the cut of riding habits—the form or shape of the bodice, and so forth. The very best I can give is to go to a good maker, and leave the matter entirely in his hands, not hindering him by the setting forth of any ideas of your own. If he be a master tailor he will know his business, and will not relish interference. Should you, however, be called upon to give directions to a provincial or country workman of doubtful capacity, send for a good pattern of a skirt, and then get your tailor to cut it out in coarse, rough calico, and to tack it lightly together. Finally, let him adjust it to your shape when on horseback, making quite certain that the fit of it shall be perfect before attempting to cut it out in cloth. By this simple process you and he will be spared much disappointment, and you will be saved unnecessary expense. A well-cut habit-skirt should fit without wrinkle or fold; it should be barely long enough to cover the left foot; there should not be a particle of superfluous cloth about it; the end of the hem should form a line as nearly as possible horizontal; and the circumference inside the hem should certainly not exceed two and a-half yards, even for the most matronly rider.
I adhere to the belief that no habit-skirt can be properly adjusted unless the maker of it can have the advantage of adapting it to the figure of the intended wearer while she sits on horseback. All fashionable tailors have model or block horses, on which they mount their customers, and by no other plan can a perfect fit be secured. It must be borne in mind that the better shaped a habit-skirt is for riding the more unsightly it looks when seen on a standing figure, or when held in the hand; in fact, it is then a seemingly hideous and “all wrong” thing, full of irregularities, and apparently without form and void—whereas, when viewed in the saddle, it adapts itself to the figure of the wearer, and falls into perfectly correct and shapely lines.
All modern habit-bodices are made entirely without perceptible basque, having merely the coat-tail at the back. Some are made to open at the throat, and these look smart with a white or pale buff scarf tie. Others, again, are slightly opened at the waist, or very much so at the breast, displaying fancy waistcoats of various kinds and patterns, some of them quite startling in colour and design. The fashion is, in my opinion, not one to follow. The nicest shaped bodice for a lady is one made closely buttoned up, almost to the throat, showing merely a small linen collar above the braid or neck-band, with the addition of a neat tie of no conspicuous colour. The bodice itself should be entirely free from ornament of any sort whatever.
I think it a good plan, although some tailors reject it, to have two large strong hooks attached to the back of the bodice, with eyes of corresponding size affixed in proper position to the band of the skirt. When these are fastened there can be no danger of getting “out of gear.”
Bodices which open much at the throat are very apt to give colds and coughs to the wearers of them. There is an old saying that pride feels no pain, and certainly ladies who fancy their own appearance in this particular style of garment are unfortunately only too apt to forget, or overlook, its tendency to admit the chill blasts and treacherous breezes which frequently make havoc with the most delicate portion of the frame. Nobody could condemn the practice of muffling up the throat more heartily than I do myself, but to leave the chest exposed to harsh wintry winds—as I frequently see done—with only a trifle of silk or muslin to serve as a protector, seems to me to be positively suicidal. I therefore recommend that when open bodices are worn in chilly weather, a fold of chamois, or warm soft flannel, should be placed across the chest.
A habit-bodice should fit closely, without crease or wrinkle, but ought not to be by any means tight; if it be so, all comfort in riding will be destroyed. I am confidently of opinion that half the ladies who canter their horses in the park and never attempt to trot them, only adopt the fashion because they themselves are too tightly laced to effect the rise in the saddle. This system of compression is a great mistake. If ladies could only be induced to believe it, it certainly adds nothing to their charms, for Nature will not allow herself to be put out of sight, and the figure that is crushed in at the centre by unduly tightened corsets must bulge out above or below them—sometimes both—in a manner that is by no means pleasant to contemplate. Putting aside, therefore, all questions connected with hygienic principles, the fashion of squeezing the waist is not one to be recommended.