box seat and should be
given to a lady, when ladies are of the party.
If a bachelor is a good whip, a coaching party is an excellent way for
him to entertain. The start should be from some fashionable locality in
town, and eight or ten is a large party. It is needless for me to call
the attention of a whip to the importance of his drag and horses and
appointments being perfect. During the progress of the coach the guard
who sits in the rear blows his horn at regular intervals. A bugle or
cornet is not good form, although I have heard it in small towns.
It may seem elementary, but for the requirements of those who have never
coached I might as well state that the guests sit on the top and not
inside the coach. A neat and serviceable team may be made with two
browns as leaders and a brown and a bay as wheelers. To the novice the
names of these will indicate their position.
A coaching route should be about ten to fifteen miles. A halt is made at
a country club, of which the host is a member, or a hotel, where
luncheon is served. The _menu_ consists of the usual comestibles with
plenty of champagne. Two hours altogether are allowed for rest, and then
the start homeward is made. The whip should wear driving costume, with
gray or black high hat. The men guests can be dressed in morning
costume, tweeds, and Derby hats, unless the occasion is one of
formality, such as a coaching parade, when one should don afternoon
dress. The general etiquette of driving applies to coaching.
_Wheeling_ is the popular and fashionable amusement at present writing,
and it bids fair to continue so until quite late in the twentieth
century. As yet there are no special rules of etiquette for this new
sport, except that which would govern its dress. Otherwise there are the
rules of the road--keeping and turning to the right--and the extending
by gentlemen of those civilities which they should never forget to the
fair sex, and consideration for their fellow-men. A man should always
wait for a lady to mount, holding the bicycle. He should ride at her
left, keeping pace with her, and sufficiently near to be of assistance
in case of an accident. He should dismount first and help her to do so
if necessary. The present fashionable costume for cycling consists of
tweed knickers and short lounge jacket of same material, brown leather
or linen waistcoat, colored shirt, with white turn-down collar and club
tie, golf stockings, and low-quartered tan whe
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