Ladies in the Field: Sketches of Sport

"Of all the exercises indulged in by men and women, riding is perhaps the most productive of harmless pleasure. The healthful, exhilarating feeling caused by rapid motion through the air, and the sense of power conveyed by the easy gallop of a good horse, tends greatly to moral and physical well-being and satisfaction. Riding improves the temper, the spirits and the appetite; black shadows and morbid fancies disappear from the mental horizon, and wretched indeed must he be who can preser ve a gloomy or discontented frame of mind during a fine run in a grass countr y, or even in a sharp, brisk gallop over turfy downs. Such being the case, no wonder that the numbers of horsemen increase ever y day, and that the hunting field, from the select company of a few countr y squires and hard-riding young men, has developed into an unruly mob of people, who ride over the hounds, crush together in the gateways, and follow like a flock of sheep through the gaps and over the fences, negotiated by more skilful or courageous sportsmen. Women, too, have rushed in where their mothers feared to tread"