inch or two. It is a good plan for short
men when travelling, and likely to ride strange horses, to carry their
stirrup-leathers with them, as nothing is more annoying than to have to
alter them in a hurry with the help of a blunt pen-knife.

"The stirrup for ladies should be in all respects like a man's, large
and heavy, and open at the side, or the eyelet hole, with a spring." The
stirrups made small and padded out of compliment to ladies' small feet
are very dangerous. If any padding be required to protect the front of
the ankle-joint, it had better be a fixture on the boot.

It is a mistake to imagine that people are dragged owing to the stirrup
being too large, and the foot passing through it; such accidents arise
from the stirrup being too small, and the foot clasped by the pressure
of the upper part on the toe and the lower part on the sole.

Few ladies know how to dress for horse exercise, although there has been
a great improvement, so far as taste is concerned, of late years. As to
the head-dress, it may be whatever is in fashion, provided it so fits
the head as not to require continual adjustment, often needed when the
hands would be better employed with the reins and whip. It should shade
from the sun, and if used in hunting protect the nape of the neck from
rain. The recent fashions of wearing the plumes or feathers of the
ostrich, the cock, the capercailzie, the pheasant, the peacock, and the
kingfisher, in the riding-hats of young ladies, in my humble opinion,
are highly to be commended.

As to the riding-habit, it may be of any colour and material suitable to
the wearer and the season of year, but the sleeves must fit rather
closely; nothing can be more out of place, inconvenient, and ridiculous,
than the wide, hanging sleeves which look so well in a drawing-room. For
country use the skirt of a habit may be short, and bordered at the
bottom a foot deep with leather. The fashion of a waistcoat of light
material for summer, revived from the fashion of last century, is a
decided improvement, and so is the over-jacket of cloth, or sealskin,
for rough weather. There is no reason why pretty young girls should not
indulge in picturesque riding costume so long as it is appropriate.

Many ladies entirely spoil the sit of the skirts by retaining the usual
_impedimenta_ of petticoats[147-*]. The best-dressed horsewomen wear
nothing more than a flannel chemise with long coloured sleeves, under
their trousers.