lady of taste ever gallops on the road. Into this
pace the lady's horse is never urged, or permitted to break, except in
the field; and not above one among a thousand of our fair readers, it
may be surmised, is likely to be endowed with sufficient ambition and
boldness, to attempt the following of hounds." The saddle given in a
drawing in this book has no leaping head, but the writer mentions, as I
have previously noted, that movable crutches were being introduced to
enable a lady to ride on either side of her horse. The leaping head (p.
33), third crutch, or third pommel, as it was first called in England,
came into use in this country in the forties, and with its aid ladies
felt themselves endowed with sufficient ambition and boldness to follow
hounds. Captain Elmhirst, writing in 1877, says: "It will, I think, be
admitted by everyone that the number of ladies who hunt now is at least
tenfold as compared with a dozen years ago," and every year since that
was written, has seen a steady increase in the ranks of hunting women.

HUNT SUBSCRIPTIONS.

Perhaps it may not be out of place to say something about what a lady
should do if she desires to join a hunt and has no menkind to arrange
such business matters for her. Every woman who hunts should (and usually
does, I believe,) contribute her share of payment towards the sport in
which she participates. If a lady is well off, and intends to hunt
regularly, she would probably not give less than L25; but the Quorn and
some other fashionable hunts lay down no hard and fast rule concerning
the amount to be subscribed, which varies according to individual
circumstances. The minimum subscription to the Pytchley is L25 for a man
and L10 for a lady. Lord North, who is Chairman of the Committee of the
Warwickshire Hunt, states (_The Field_, 20th December, 1902), in a very
generous manner, that "fox-hunting must never be allowed to become the
sport of the rich alone. It is a national sport, and must be open to
all--to rich and poor alike." There is, however, a recognised sum which
qualifies the donor for hunt membership; for instance: the Craven
minimum subscription, with membership, is L10; the Crawley and Horsham,
15 guineas; while subscribers of L25 to the Meynell hunt are privileged
to wear the hunt button. In several hunts--Lord Fitzwilliam's, Mr.
Bathurst's, the Belvoir, when hunted by the Duke of Rutland, and
others--the Master hunts the country at his own expense, subscrip