Riding boot

“ Whether boots or leggings are worn, they should be of a length sufficient to come well up over the breeches, but should be about two inches shorter than a man’s boot or leggings would be, because the right knee in the side-saddle is bent at much more of an angle than it is when riding astride, and if the boot is too long it is very apt to pinch the flesh between the pommel and the top of the boot. ”

“ The use of tight boots in winter has the great disadvantage of keeping the feet very cold, [117] even when warm stockings are worn. Saddlers have invented safety bars and stirrups, habit makers have provided safety skirts, but bootmakers have not yet thought out a hunting boot which would release the foot in the event of a safety bar failing to act, or of a safety or other stirrup being crushed in a fall. A thin pliable sole and plenty of room over the instep to allow of the left foot being easily pulled through the boot, would greatly minimise the danger in question. ”

“ Boots, if not made by one’s own boot maker, should be a size larger than those ordinarily worn, as boots tight in the foot, particularly of the stiff-legged kind, are, at the end of a long day, instruments of torture, and I have known of many cases where they have had to be cut off because of the feet having swollen. ”

“ For wading, flight shooting, boat fishing or punting, and all winter water work, they are invaluable. They are a little too heavy for a hard day’s walking, and soon cut through in the leg or foot among stakes or bushes; but use them carefully, and they will be found by far the best water boots ever made. They are very warm, stand a long while, are perfectly water-tight to the last, and they have this advantage over a leather boot—they want no dressing. Only never keep them near a fire. ”

“ All day long these little roguish-eyed rascals wander round the plaza carrying their boot boxes and begging you to let them kneel in front of you and make your boots like looking-glasses. The boys are all so pretty and have got such winning smiles that you are insanely inclined to have your boots blacked every quarter of an hour. Joking apart, boot-blacking has been reduced to a science in Merida, and the operators put out of joint the noses of the London Boot Brigade. ”

“ They always put your other boots into inaccessible places. They chiefly enjoy depositing them as far under the bed as the wall will permit. It is because this compels you to get down in an undignified attitude and make wild sweeps for them in the dark with the boot jack, and swear. ”

“ A broad sole throughout materially stiffens the boot and gives a welcome sense of security when standing in ice-steps. The boot should fit closely at the heel and around the instep but entire freedom in all directions must be provided for the toes. If the toes are cramped they will freeze very easily. ”

“ Moreover, it makes people imitate sea-crabs, in being drawn sideways, as they are when they sit in the boot of the coach; and it is a dangerous kind of carriage for the commonwealth, if it be considered.” This boot, or this pair of boots—which did not in the least resemble, in shape or position, the fore and hind boots of a later age—was a method of carrying the outsides in days before the improvement of66 roads rendered it possible for any one to ride on the roof without incurring the danger of being flung off. ”

“ When the old man had placed himself in position to begin the ascent, with both hands on the rope, and all his weight on one leg, the girl stooped down, and placing her lithe hands round his great wet fisherman's boot, deftly lifted the other foot and placed it in the right position on the first ledge of rock. ”

“ Many were the nudges, and many the 'look at this chap's trousers,' that were given by ambitious men emulous of his appearance as he passed along, and many were the turnings round to examine their faultless fall upon his radiant boot. The boots, perhaps, might come in for a little of the glory, for they were beautifully soft and cool-looking to the foot, easy without being loose, and he preserved the lustre of their polish, even up to the last moment of his walk. There never was a better man for getting through dirt, either on foot or horseback, than our friend. ”

“ Get boots like those of a man, low-heeled and with a straight line from heel to back of top. Don't have the tops wider than absolutely necessary not to bind, and don't have them curved or fancy in shape. Be sure that there is no elbow sticking out like a horse's hock at the back of the boot, and don't have a corner on the inside edge of the sole. And don't try to wear a small size! ”

“ For positive use, the boot ought to come up fully to, or above, the knee, in order to stand the wear and pressure of the saddle; but for ornament, it may well be allowed to rise only partially up the leg, and to be, in short, the beautiful Hessian or Hungarian boot—far the most graceful covering ever put on the leg of a modern European. That such a truly elegant boot, so gentlemanlike, so dressy, and yet so thoroughly serviceable, should ever have gone out of fashion, is to us a melancholy, though not a needed, proof of the sheer caprice by which men's fancies are commonly swayed. ”

“ In more than one instance a foot was thrust through a silver stirrup while the toes of the rider came peeping through the broken ends of his boot. A more wretched company mounted upon more beautiful chargers it would be difficult to imagine. ”

“ And once again all my powers of will and muscle were centred on a single design and action as with machine-like rhythm the boot wore itself against the rock. Disengaged from every other theme, my mind dwelt on the one steady, inevitable purpose. Rub! Rub! Rub! And I fancied I saw leathern dust fall like filings from iron down deeper into the crevice. Before dawn the boot was working freely, and with one arm on the compressed body of the wallaby to case my weight, rest was possible. The plan for the disengagement of the right foot, painfully rigid and cold, was perfect in theory. ”

“ Fortunately they are very distinctive—the right boot is a badly worn one, and a small tag of leather, where the soul is damaged, is doubled over and trodden into the soft earth. Nothing could be luckier. ”

“ He sat and eyed the motionless boot, and then an impulse, swift and irresistible, seized him.
“Come out of that, you beggar!” he cried; and, stooping down, he gripped the boot, wondering whether he was to be rewarded with a haul or whether he would have to laugh at himself for grabbing someone’s discarded footgear. ”

“ I hadn't nails in my boots, either, which made climbing all the more difficult.
'Hold up, old chap; you can't afford to slip,' Gerald said, clutching me as I stumbled, a few minutes after we had started, 'it's a long way to the bottom.'
I told him about my boots.
'Boots are a nuisance,' he answered; 'those little chaps of mine looted an army boot-store yesterday; they think boots make them look more like real soldiers. They've never worn boots before, and will be footsore in an hour, but they will wear them. ”

“ You need to exercise more care in the selection of shoes than of any other article of your outfit. Tight boots put an end to all pleasure, if worn on the march; heavy boots or shoes, with enormously thick soles, will weary you; thin boots will not protect the feet sufficiently, and are liable to burst or wear out; Congress boots are apt to bind the cords of the leg, and thus make one lame; short-toed boots or shoes hurt the toes; loose ones do the same by allowing the foot to slide into the toe of the boot or shoe; low-cut shoes continually fill with dust, sand, or mud. ”

“ One of our naval friends, who was an ardent naturalist, had a pair of French wooden shoes, which he found a great protection while wading among sharp rocks in search of specimens, where india-rubber boots would have been cut and become leaky. A perfectly waterproof boot or garment of any kind is an excellent thing, but an imperfect one is worse than useless; and for wading after specimens or working in the water, if it is not convenient to be naked, a pair of wooden clogs, with a flannel shirt and drawers, and a straw hat or Tam o’ Shanter bonnet, is as good an equipment as any. ”

“ I dispense with toecaps, or have a very short one just covering the ends of the toes, as I have never found a bootmaker who could put on a toecap of the regular length without contracting the end of the boot and compressing the toes in a dangerous manner.
The ordinary bootmaker knows nothing about an alpine boot, which is very different from a shooting boot. The fault of Swiss-made mountain boots is that the leather is very hard and the boots much too cumbersome and heavy. A guide’s equipment is the very last to be imitated. ”

“ That boot was afterwards found on a ledge of rock near the waterfall. I soon after lost the other one, or rather, I should say, it came off, and I could not get it on again, so I carried it in my hand some time, but lost it in one of my p. 44many severe falls. The fact of the loss of my boots has astonished all those who have heard of it, and I believe has excited more comment than any other part of my adventure. ”

“ Each of the different kinds of boots has certain peculiar advantages which, in addition to its being fashionable, contribute to make it popular. The side-spring boot, that has been a favourite so long, seldom slips at the heel, and this is a decidedly good point; it also, by fitting closely at the ankles, gives a feeling of snugness and security which is comfortable, [Pg 140] while it admits of perfect freedom in all movements of the ankle in walking. ”

“ More, perhaps, depends on fitting the work, than the workmanship; a union, therefore, of skill, in these two points, constitutes a good boot-binder. The leg is next passed on to the closer, who, with the awl, instead of the needle, closes the seams of the golosh; and then, having lasted the boot, attaches the leather by means of a neat row of stabbing round the edge, thoroughly through the leg and its lining. ”

“ But as this kind of sensitiveness is, in healthy persons, very much a matter of habit, it is perhaps quite as well for such to accustom themselves to wearing an ordinary doubled boot through the winter, unless much exposed, and put on a light boot, shoe, or gaiter for the summer. Appropriateness and adaptation to weather or circumstances are always to be considered. A heavy leather boot with double sole is as much out of place and time in a warm day, as a light cloth gaiter in a snow-storm. ”

“ But no matter how frequent and plentiful the wreck and refuse in the matter of bottomless kettles, superannuated umbrellas,262 and broken dishes, the Old Boot is the commonest object of the seashore, highway, by-way, lane, or ditch—no mountain too high, no valley too deep for it to be found. The angler lands it with language and dashed expectations from the trout stream; the trawler finds it unaccountably in his trawl-net when he returns from the bay; the ploughman disinters it from the field; and children dig it up from the sands: everywhere is the Old Boot. ”

“ In all outdoor life long boots ensure dry feet, and the top should reach the knee-cap to be of real use in wet ground, or when one kneels cooking beside the camp fire. The boot legs guard one against venomous reptiles and insects, and protect the shin bone which, for lack of any muscle, is liable to be broken by many kinds of accident. ”

“ The sole does not hit a road with monotonous regularity upon the same dry spot of blistering skin.
I find that in the mountains a boot of rather lighter sole is preferable, with either brads or Phillips rubbers. One must nevertheless beware of shoddy. After the second scramble amid rocks I have seen the whole sole of a boot part company with the upper. I have seen the heel come off. Well established lines of workingmen’s boots are safer than fair-seeming boots for clerks. On the other hand, boots whose nails come through are a nuisance, digging holes in the soles of one’s feet. ”

“ Yet half a sole and a sound upper are better than no boot; and what climber but would postpone till after his descent the discarding of his damaged footgear?
Could it be, I asked myself, the relic and evidence of an inhuman crime? Was it possible that some party of climbers, arriving at the top lunchless and desperately hungry, had sacrificed their plumpest, disposing of his clothes over the cliff, but failing to hole out with this tell-tale boot?
But no, I bethought me of the price of leather. They would have reserved the boots, even at the risk of suspicion. ”

“ The room is entirely filled, while at the same time the foot is easy, and can make its natural movements in walking with ease and grace; which it can not do when squeezed into a boot that is too tight. A person wearing a tight boot has a stiff and unnatural walk, which can not be compensated by any beauty of the fit so gained, provided it is gained. ”

“ It consists of a skate blade attached by means of plates screwed to the sole of the boot. The front plate is under the ball of the foot, and the heel plate at the heel, and if a very thick-soled boot be used, the absence of support between the two points of attachment, is not practically felt. But a heavy boot is not only unsightly, but fatiguing. If a thinner-soled boot be used, the heat of the foot softens the leather of the sole, which, bending, no longer supports the instep, and fatigue and cramp ensue. ”

“ It takes experience to put the sole of a boot back on the upper, when it has fetched loose, with four horseshoe nails, and it is not every man that knows that the place to intrench is on the edge of a cut bank, near water, if one expects ever to get out of a round-up. ”

“ Rubber boots are indispensable for hunting in most seasons, and a rubber coat should also be included in every hunter's outfit. I found the Hannaford ventilated rubber boot the most comfortable and perfect footgear I have ever worn. You can scarcely walk a mile in any direction in this country at any time of year, on mountains or lowlands, without encountering water. Moccasins soon become soaked, and are then the most uncomfortable things imaginable. ”