It will be only necessary to notice a few of these articles in detail, having already given advice concerning most of them. To begin, then, with stockings. Wear woollen ones if you want to have your feet always dry and comfortable, with a pair of silk drawn over. Nobody who has not tried this plan can possibly realise the warmth and comfort of it--especially when the outer stocking is of _spun_ silk; a material in itself almost as warm as wool. If the sensation of wearing wool next the skin is objected to, the silk may be worn underneath. As a rule, however, it is only cheap wool stockings that “tickle”; the finer kinds seldom do, and I cannot recommend the “cheap and nasty” in any article of riding gear, no matter how comparatively unimportant it may seem to be.
Your breeches for hunting should be especially well-made; large enough in the seat not to burst in case of a fall, and long enough in the thigh not in any way to hamper the knees. Nothing save a garment of this description can be worn with top boots, nor will anything else do so well for hunting, or be half so comfortable. They should be carried below the calf of the leg, in order to check the tendency to work up, and ought to have the last four or five inches made of silk, or better still, good serviceable satin, by which I certainly do _not_ mean the abomination known as cotton-back, which in reality gives no wear at all. This arrangement will prevent the top of the boot (a Wellington, of course), from being overcrowded or bulky, and is in fact, for many reasons, a desirable one. The legs of the breeches should button from the knee down--four buttons being ample to allow--and the fastening of the right leg should be on the inside, while that of the left is on the outside, in order to prevent rubs. These breeches, if made of cloth, should be lined with chamois; but I prefer deer-skin to any other kind.
With regard to securing perfection in the fit of them--a thing indispensable where comfort is desired--it will not be at all necessary to submit to a tailor’s measurements. Very few ladies indeed would like to do so, and it is pleasant to know that nothing of the kind is required. Application to any _first-class_ house will bring back the necessary directions, simply given, for self-measurement, and by paying attention to these and forwarding the precise particulars, a perfect fit will be ensured. In saying this, I would draw attention to the words printed in italics, for there is no other article of ladies’ riding apparel which can be, and so frequently is, utterly and completely ruined by incompetent cutters. I have heard ladies say that they made their own hunting-breeches and found them answer very well. No doubt they may do so, by ripping up an old tailor-made pair, and proceeding to cut out exactly by them; but that they can succeed in the first instance without a pattern to go by, I cannot bring myself to believe, any more than I can credit the expediency of home millinery and dressmaking, except when attempted by unusually clever and competent hands.