Riding on Horseback is, confessedly, one of the most graceful,
agreeable, and salutary of feminine recreations. No attitude, perhaps,
can be regarded as more elegant than that of a lady in the modern
side-saddle; nor can any exercise be deemed capable of affording more
rational and innocent delight, than that of the female equestrian.
Pursued in the open air, it affords a most rapid, and, at the same
time, exhilarating succession of scenic changes, at a degree of personal
exertion, sufficient to produce immediate pleasure, without inducing the
subsequent languor of fatigue.
Nor is riding on horseback attended with that danger to ladies,
attributed to it by the indolent, the melancholy, and the timid.
Accidents, indeed, in the side-saddle, are of extremely rare occurrence.
Strange as it may seem, it is, however, an incontrovertible fact, that
horses, in general, are much more docile and temperate, with riders of
the fair sex, than when mounted by men. This may be attributed,
partially, to the more backward position, in the saddle, of the former
than the latter; but, principally, perhaps, to their superior delicacy
of hand in managing the reins.
As an active recreation, and a mode of conveyance, riding on horseback
appears to have been of very remote usage among our fair countrywomen.
During a long period, indeed, it was the only one known to, or, adopted
by them, for the performance of journies. Such, too, appears to have
been the case (with some modifications) in other European countries. The
only _voiture_ of the French, says Garsault, until the reign of Charles
the Sixth, was the back of the horse or mule: neither Kings, Queens,
Princes, nor subjects were acquainted with any other. In the time of
that monarch, litters, borne by two horses, first appeared; but these
were uncovered, and used, only, by ladies of the court. Froissart
describes Isabel, the second wife of Richard the Second of England, as
having been borne "en une litiere moult riche, qui etoit ordonnee pour
elle;" and this kind of vehicle, during the reigns of several succeeding
Monarchs, appears to have been used by women of distinction in this
country, but, only, it is to be observed, in cases of illness, or on
occasions of ceremony. For example,--when Margaret, daughter of Henry
the Seventh, went into Scotland, she generally rode "a faire palfrey;"
while, after her, was conveyed "one vary riche litere, borne by two
faire coursers, vary nobly drest; in the which litere the sayd Queene
was borne in the intrying of the good townes, or otherwise, to her good
playsher."
Towards the end of the thirteenth century, vehicles with wheels, for the
use of ladies, were first introduced. They appear to have been of
Italian origin, as the first notice of them is found in an account of
the entry of Charles of Anjou into Naples; on which occasion, we are
told, his queen rode in a _careta_, the outside and inside of which were
covered with sky-blue velvet, interspersed with golden lilies. Under the
Gallicised denomination of _char_, the Italian _careta_, shortly
afterwards became known in France; where, so early as the year 1294, an
ordinance was issued by Philip the Fair, forbidding its use to citizens'
wives. Nor was England far behind in the adoption of the vehicle; for,
in "The Squyr of Low Degree," a poem supposed to have been written
anterior to the time of Chaucer, we find the father of a royal lady
promising that she shall hunt with him, on the morrow, in "_a chare_,"
drawn by
"Jennettes of Spain that ben so white,
Trapped to the ground with velvet bright."
"It shall be covered with velvet red,
And clothes of fine gold all about your head;
With damask white and azure blue,
Well diapered with lilies blue."
However richly ornamented, the _careta_, _char_, or _chare_--and there
is little, if any, doubt, to be entertained as to their identity--may
have been, it was, probably, a clumsy, inelegant, and inconvenient
structure; for its employment appears to have been far from general
among high-born ladies, even on occasions of ceremony and pomp. During
the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, the French
Princesses usually rode on donkies; and so late as the year 1534, a
sacred festival was attended by Queen Eleonora, and the females of the
blood royal of France, on horseback. Nor did the superior and more
recent invention of coaches, for a long period, tend materially to
supersede, among ladies, the use of the saddle. These vehicles,
according to Stow, became known, in England, in 1580; but, many years
after, Queen Elizabeth herself is described as having appeared, almost
daily, on her palfrey. In the time of Charles the Second, the fashion,
among ladies, of riding on horseback, declined; during subsequent
reigns, it gradually revived; and the exercise may now be regarded as
firmly established, among our fair countrywomen, by the august example
of their illustrious Queen.
[Illustration]
The present graceful, secure, and appropriate style of female
equestrianism is, however, materially different from that of the olden
time. In by-gone days, the dame or damosel rode precisely as the knight
or page. Of this, several illustrations occur in an illuminated
manuscript of the fourteenth century, preserved in the Royal Library. In
one of these, a lady of that period is depicted on horseback, enjoying
the pastime of the chase. In another, are represented two gentlewomen
of the same period, on horseback, with an individual of the other sex,
engaged (as is shewn by some parts of the design, which it would be
needless, for our present purpose, to copy) in the once much-favoured
diversion of Hawking.
[Illustration]
Queen Elizabeth, says a writer in the Encyclopaedia Londinensis, "seems
to have been the first who set the ladies the more modest fashion of
riding sideways. Considerable opposition was, at first, made to it, as
inconvenient and dangerous: but, practice, in time, brought it into
general use; particularly when ladies found they could ride a-hunting,
take flying leaps, and gallop over cross roads and ploughed fields,
without meeting with more accidents than the men: besides, it was not
only allowed to be more decorous, but, in many respects, more congenial
to the ease and comfort of a female rider."
Our author is, however, wrong in ascribing the fashion of riding
sideways, by women in this country, to Elizabeth; by whom it could only
have been confirmed, or, at the most, revived;--the honour of its
introduction being clearly attributable to another Queen of England, who
lived at a much more early period of our history.
Ann of Bohemia, consort of Richard the Second, is the illustrious
personage to whom we allude. She, it was, according to Stow (whom
Beckman follows on this point), that originally shewed the women of this
country how gracefully and conveniently they might ride on horseback
sideways. Another old historian, enumerating the new fashions of Richard
the Second's reign, observes, "Likewise, noble ladies then used high
heads and cornets, and robes with long trains, and seats, or
_side-saddles_, on their horses, by the example of the respectable
Queen, Ann, daughter of the King of Bohemia; who first introduced the
custom into this kingdom: for, before, women of every rank rode as men
do" (T. ROSSII, _Hist. Re. Ang._ p. 205). In his beautiful illustrative
picture of Chaucer's Canterbury Pilgrims, Stothard appears to have
committed an anachronism, in placing the most conspicuous female
character of his fine composition sideways on her steed. That the lady
should have been depicted riding in the male fashion, might, it strikes
us, have been inferred, without any historical research on the subject,
from the poet's describing her as having, on her feet,
"_a paire_ of spurres sharpe."
Neither the original example of Ann of Bohemia, nor that, in later days,
of Elizabeth, as female equestrians, however extensively followed, had
sufficient force, entirely to abolish, among our countrywomen, the mode
of riding like the other sex. In the time of Charles the Second, it
appears, from a passage in the Duke of Newcastle's great work on
Horsemanship, to have still, at least partially, subsisted. Another
writer of the seventeenth century, whose manuscripts are preserved in
the Harleian collection, speaks of it, as having been practised, in his
time, by the ladies of Bury, in Suffolk, when hunting or hawking; and
our venerable contemporary, Lawrence (a voluminous writer on the horse),
it is worthy of remark, states, that at an early period of his own life,
two young ladies of good family, then residing near Ipswich, _in the
same county_, "were in the constant habit of riding about the country,
in their smart doe-skins, great coats, and flapped beaver hats."
[Illustration]
Although entirely relinquished, at present, perhaps in this country, the
mode of female equestrianism under notice continues to prevail in
various other localities. In the following sketch, taken from Charles
Audry's magnificent "Ecole d' Equitation," a Persian lady is delineated
as just about to start on a journey, in the saddle; and, in the next,
which is engraved from an original drawing, "done from the life," a lady
and gentleman of Lima are represented on horseback. "I have
endeavoured," the artist says, in manuscript, on the reverse of his
sketch, "to depict the horses '_pacing_;' as they are almost universally
taught to do, in Peru: that is, to move both the legs, of one side,
forward together. It resembles an English butcher's trot in appearance;
but, it is so easy, that one might go to sleep on the horse: and, after
riding '_a pacer_,' it is difficult to sit a trotter at first. It is,
also, excessively rapid;--good _pacers_ beating other horses at a
gallop. The ladies of Lima do not always ride with the face covered:
but, only, when the sun is powerful. They, sometimes, ride in _ponchos_,
like the men: in fact, it is excessively difficult, at first sight, to
determine whether a person on horseback be male or female."
[Illustration]
The side-saddle introduced to this country by Ann of Bohemia, differed,
materially, from that now used by British ladies; having, no doubt,
been a mere pillion, on which the rider sate, as in a chair.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
At what period our fair countrywomen first began to ride with the knee
over the pommel, we are not enabled to state: it is, however, clear,
according to the original of the above sketch, which occurs in one of
the historical illustrations of equestrianism, given by Audry, that the
courtly dames of England did so, about the middle of the seventeenth
century. Our author describes the figure, as being that of the Countess
of Newcastle.
[Illustration]
It may be conjectured, that a single crutch, only, for the advanced leg,
was at first used; and this, it is not improbable, was fixed on the
centre of the pommel, as in the lady's saddle, now, or at least very
lately, common in some parts of Mexico; where the women, it would seem,
ride with the left hand towards the animal's head. This, also, appears
to have been, sometimes, the case, down to a recent period, in our own
country; for, in rather a modern description of the side-saddle, the
crutches are spoken of as being moveable, in order to afford a lady, by
merely changing their relative positions, the means of riding, as she
might please, on either side of her horse.[18-*] That a second crutch
was used about the middle of the last century (we are unable to state
how much earlier), in France, at least, is evident from a plate of the
lady's hunting saddle, at that period, given by Garsault; in which, it
is curious, a sort of hold-fast is provided for the fair equestrian's
right hand. But, even so recently as Garsault's time, the saddle in
ordinary use, by French women, was, we learn from his work on
equitation, still, a kind of pillion, on which the rider sate,
diagonally, with both feet resting on a broad suspended ledge or
stirrup. The pillion in this country has not yet become obsolete; being
still, frequently, to be seen, on the backs of donkies and hack ponies,
at watering places. During the early part of the present century, its
employment continued to be general. It was fixed behind a man's saddle,
on the croup of a steady horse, trained to go at an easy though
shuffling pace between a walk and a trot. The groom, or gentleman,
equipped with a broad leathern belt buckled about his waist--by which
the lady secured her position, in case of need--first mounted; and his
fair companion was then lifted, backwards, and behind him, into her
seat. In an old work on horsemanship, written by one William Stokes,
and published at Oxford, it is not, perhaps, unworthy of notice,
directions are given for vaulting into the saddle, _after_ the lady has
been placed on the croup; together with a plate illustrative of so
exquisitely nice and marvellously absurd an operation. In Mexico "they
manage these things," if not "better," at all events, with more
gallantry, than our forefathers did, for with them, "the _pisana_, or
country lady," we are told, "is often seen mounted _before_ her
_cavaliero_; who, seated behind his fair one, supports her with his arm
thrown around her waist." Our illustrative sketch of this custom (in the
preceding page) is taken from a beautiful model,--the work of a native
Mexican artist.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
Having, now, offered our fair readers a slight and unpretending
historical sketch of female equestrianism, we shall proceed, after a few
preliminary remarks, to the practical details of the art.
Its various advantages, inducements, and attractions, as an exercise,
have, already, been noticed. Much, however, as we wish to interest our
fair countrywomen, in its favour, it is proper, on our part, to tell
them, frankly, that equestrianism is far from being an intuitive
art:--there is no "royal road" to it. To be enjoyed and appreciated, it
must be learnt. That ease and elegance,--that comparative safety in the
side-saddle, of which we have spoken,--it is impossible to achieve,
without considerable practice, based upon proper principles. Many young
ladies, however, feel a delicate repugnance to passing through the
ordeal of a riding-school; some, again, do not reside in situations,
where the benefit of a teacher's directions can be procured; while
others, erroneously flatter themselves, that they are in possession of
every needful acquirement, as regards equestrianism, when they have
discovered how to retain a seat on the saddle, and guide a horse by
means of the bridle. To such of our readers as happen to be comprised
within either of these classes,--and to those, also, who, after having
received a professor's initiative instructions, are desirous of further
improvement, the following pages, if carefully perused, will, the writer
most zealously hopes, prove beneficial.
[Illustration]