It is time that we should now consider the additions and alterations which will be necessary for your wardrobe before it can be pronounced a complete one for a lady who intends to hunt.
A very great deal must, of course, depend upon whether you mean to be an inveterate huntress, or only to enjoy the pleasures of an occasional day out. Following the hounds thrice a week, and sometimes oftener, I have found the following outfit sufficient: two silk hats, two jerry ditto, and two soft felt; two Melton cloth riding habits; one thoroughly rainproof ditto; one ordinary cloth, for mild days, such as are to be met with even in winter time; two pairs of hunting breeches; six chemises; six pairs of web drawers; six web vests; two corsets; two pairs of Wellingtons; six pairs of fine wool stockings; six pairs of silk ditto; one Latchford spur; three pairs of strong leather gloves; one hunting crop, with long lash attached; three net veils; one celluloid collar, with cuffs to match; six linen collars and cuffs; two woollen neck-mufflers; two silk ditto; one rainproof cape or jacket; one warm, lined jacket, to fit over habit-bodice; and one Newmarket overcoat, to wear when driving to and from covert.
It will be only necessary to notice a few of these articles in detail, having already given advice concerning most of them. To begin, then, with stockings. Wear woollen ones if you want to have your feet always dry and comfortable, with a pair of silk drawn over. Nobody who has not tried this plan can possibly realise the warmth and comfort of it—especially when the outer stocking is of spun silk; a material in itself almost as warm as wool. If the sensation of wearing wool next the skin is objected to, the silk may be worn underneath. As a rule, however, it is only cheap wool stockings that “tickle”; the finer kinds seldom do, and I cannot recommend the “cheap and nasty” in any article of riding gear, no matter how comparatively unimportant it may seem to be.
Your breeches for hunting should be especially well-made; large enough in the seat not to burst in case of a fall, and long enough in the thigh not in any way to hamper the knees. Nothing save a garment of this description can be worn with top boots, nor will anything else do so well for hunting, or be half so comfortable. They should be carried below the calf of the leg, in order to check the tendency to work up, and ought to have the last four or five inches made of silk, or better still, good serviceable satin, by which I certainly do not mean the abomination known as cotton-back, which in reality gives no wear at all. This arrangement will prevent the top of the boot (a Wellington, of course), from being overcrowded or bulky, and is in fact, for many reasons, a desirable one. The legs of the breeches should button from the knee down—four buttons being ample to allow—and the fastening of the right leg should be on the inside, while that of the left is on the outside, in order to prevent rubs. These breeches, if made of cloth, should be lined with chamois; but I prefer deer-skin to any other kind.
With regard to securing perfection in the fit of them—a thing indispensable where comfort is desired—it will not be at all necessary to submit to a tailor’s measurements. Very few ladies indeed would like to do so, and it is pleasant to know that nothing of the kind is required. Application to any first-class house will bring back the necessary directions, simply given, for self-measurement, and by paying attention to these and forwarding the precise particulars, a perfect fit will be ensured. In saying this, I would draw attention to the words printed in italics, for there is no other article of ladies’ riding apparel which can be, and so frequently is, utterly and completely ruined by incompetent cutters. I have heard ladies say that they made their own hunting-breeches and found them answer very well. No doubt they may do so, by ripping up an old tailor-made pair, and proceeding to cut out exactly by them; but that they can succeed in the first instance without a pattern to go by, I cannot bring myself to believe, any more than I can credit the expediency of home millinery and dressmaking, except when attempted by unusually clever and competent hands.
I do not like riding trousers for hunting, although many are wedded to a firm belief in them. If adopted, they must, of absolute necessity, be the exact colour of the habit, must be made long enough to allow even fuller freedom to the knees than in ordinary riding, and be fastened beneath the arch of the foot with a leather strap (always leather for hunting purposes), although elastic is in some respects not to be despised, inasmuch as it yields easily with pressure, and is consequently not altogether undesirable when the trousers have been made too short in the legs. It very soon wears out, however, as stated in a former chapter, requires constant renewing, and is unpleasantly apt to give way when least expected to behave badly—very often on hunting days, or when a long distance from home—and then good-bye to everything save extreme discomfort, for the trouser-leg will assuredly ruck up, and a good many lady riders—and, indeed, gentlemen also—have a disagreeable knowledge of what that means.
I now come to speak again of boots, a subject on which I have already given some advice. The so-called fashionable boot—an awful invention, utterly misshapen, with toe narrow and pointed, and long heel protruding like a spike from almost the centre of the sole—must be altogether discarded. It is to be hoped that this will not go hard with sensible girls, or women. Nobody can ride with comfort who is not prepared to lay aside all cherished prejudices in favour of cramped feet, hour-glass waists, and gloves that are two sizes too small for the hands they are meant to protect. I do not believe that anybody really admires a stuffed doll on horseback. The elegance of the figure depends upon its flexibility, and a supple foot is in its own way quite as much to be commended. If the boots are too tight, the feet will be cold; nothing on earth conduces so largely to that oft-complained-of evil as wearing boots that are disproportionately small and close-fitting. The foot should be able to move freely within its covering, even though clad in the double stocking which I have so confidently recommended. A broad sole, wide toe, and flat broad heel, placed properly back, as far as the natural heel, are the requisites for a comfortable riding-boot.
I have already drawn attention to the fact that a considerable distance has sometimes to be walked in boots that have been made, ostensibly, for riding in alone. For example, a horse may get away from his rider after a fall, and leave her to walk across several fields—over very rough ground perhaps—ay, and to climb fences, and get through rutty gaps too, before arriving at a point at which he can be brought up for her to remount him; while, in addition to all this, a gentle-hearted equestrian will often of her own accord like to get off, when taking a tired horse home to his stable, and will walk alongside of him with the bridle thrown over her arm, a piece of humanity which eases her own limbs as well as his. To have comfortable pliant boots, and everything else proportionately easy-fitting, will be found both healthy and wise. In short, a lady dressed for riding ought to be able when dressed to take down or put up her hair, draw off her boots and put them on again, and walk a mile or two with them on, if required, without feeling any desire whatever to remove them after the exercise. This—if it will only be believed—can be accomplished without any unsightly clumsiness, or necessity for making feet or figure look in the least degree larger than if tortured and compressed into unnatural proportions. Well-made clothing, composed of pliant materials and properly put on, will never impart an appearance of bulk, even if worn sufficiently easy-fitting to be slipped on and off at a moment’s notice; while ill-cut garments, unnaturally strained and tightened, will make figure and extremities look absolutely larger than they really are. Who, for instance, that has ever seen a No. 6 glove stretched upon a hand that ought to take at least four sizes larger has ever been deceived into believing that there was not something painfully amiss? Straining seams, fingers only half drawn on, and ominous gaps, yawning and wide, where the first buttons ought to fasten, attest the “vanity of vanities” against which we have been warned. With boots and corsets it is just the same,—and yet, despite the uncontrovertible evidence brought to bear upon the matter, ladies still persist in destroying the symmetry of their appearance, undermining their health, and leaving themselves exposed to disparaging observations, rather than give up the follies into which an undue desire to appear “slim” have by degrees drawn them. After all, when we come to consider the subject, is it really worth while to undergo suffering and inconvenience in order that one or two persons may, perhaps, say, “That girl has small feet”; or “What a slender waist that lady has?” Ten to one the utterers of such remarks never think a second time about them, but turn away to make their comments upon the next person who chances to come in their path—and for this trifling gratification, distress and pain are borne, and the seeds of inward disease are in some instances suffered to take root. If anything that I can say, in this or future chapters, shall have even a trifling influence in deterring my sisters from destroying the natural attributes which a wise Creator has apportioned to them, I shall deem myself happy in having written it, and feel that my efforts have not been altogether in vain.
The Newmarket coat, for going to covert, is, I think, the only article of which I have not now fully spoken. The nicest of these are made of dark strong melton, or beaver cloth—the latter wears splendidly—and are lined all through with good satin, being well quilted about the bodice to keep out the cold. Some ladies affect the coachmen’s garment, a drab coat, with double capes, but I have a strong objection to it myself. The collar should be made pretty deep, so as to be capable of turning up about the neck in wet or chilly weather, and the skirts should come quite down to the feet. It is almost superfluous to say that an overcoat of this description should be cut so as to fit very easily over the habit, nor need I add that the task of fitting should be entrusted to none save a really first-class tailor.
Ladies have frequently inquired of me, by letter and otherwise, what ought to be the price of various articles of riding apparel. Indeed, to judge by the number of communications which have from time to time reached me, a great and stirring interest appears to be centred in the matter, and the fact that I at times delay answering the multitude of writers who ask questions and beg for immediate replies is not really attributable to any discourtesy, but is rather the result of over-work, coupled with a sense of difficulty in detailing the average cost of a variety of articles which are manufactured in every quality—good, bad, and indifferent—the cheapest, or lowest priced, being in all cases the dearest in the end. A thoroughly good article will look respectable to the very last bit, while a cheap one can never be made to do so at all. I can, for my own part, see no virtue in the so-called “bargains” in which many ladies are so curiously fond of investing. I use the word “curiously” advisedly, for to me it is most strange how sensible practical women, who on most subjects have their wits well about them, are nevertheless afflicted with a positive craze for bargain-hunting, and are willing to bear any amount of pushing and trampling upon, in slummy shops with “Selling off” emblazoned in large letters all over the windows, for the very doubtful satisfaction of carrying home some three or four pairs of half-soiled gloves at one shilling per pair, or a few yards of mildewed ribbon at something very much too dear for it.