alf-past seven on a cold March morning, and almost the first people I
saw there were the Kaiser and the Kaiserin, so I no longer marvelled at
German ladies' taste for early rising.

When I was in the Bois de Boulogne last season, it was greatly
frequented as usual, but it struck me that fewer women ride there now
than formerly, and that motor cars have absorbed their attention.

Although the riding schools of Paris are not to be compared to those of
Berlin, the worst of them is far superior to the two miserable civilian
riding schools in St. Petersburg, where riding is almost entirely a
military function. Very few Russian women ride, although history tells
us that Peter III. kept a pack of hounds, and that his wife, Catherine
II., according to her memoirs, listened to the loving solicitations of
Soltikov while they were riding together "to find the dogs." A saddle
belonging to this amorous lady, which I saw at the Hermitage, was like
an Australian buck-jumping saddle, with large knee rolls and a high
cantle. It was covered with red velvet and decorated with cowrie shells.
The side saddle appears to have been first used in Russia by the
daughters of the Emperor Paul.

The Duchess of Newcastle, writing in _Ladies in the Field_, on "the
untidy slipshod way the riders are often turned out" in Rotten Row,
terms this state of things "a disgrace to a country which is considered
to have the best horses and riders in the world," and wonders what
foreigners must think of the sorry spectacle. This "floppy" untidyness
of riding dress appears to have been introduced by the "new woman."
Twenty years ago, top hats and perfectly fitting habits were _de
rigueur_; but now neither horses nor riders are so well trained for park
hacking as they were in those days. The Duchess also points out that it
is as cheap to be clean as dirty, and there is no reason why the horses
should not be groomed, and their bits burnished.

CHAPTER XVIII.

WALKING FOXHOUND PUPPIES.

I believe I am correct in stating that no woman who has ever hunted,
professes any other feeling than that of ardent admiration for the
hounds which provide her with sport; but I would like to see this
admiration take, among hunting women, the more practical form of walking
hunt puppies, in whose future well-being they should have a keen
personal interest. There are two maiden ladies in Ireland, who, although
they have never hunted, and are long past the age at which th