Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/516

 496 Hijiory of Domejiic Manners lervant. The accompanying cut (No. 317) reprefents a couple thus mounted, the lady holding in her hand the kind of fan which was ufed at the period. From a comparifon of the figure of the Anglo-Saxon ladies on horfeback, who were evidently feated in the faddle as in a chair, fideways to the horfe, we are led to fuppofe that the Anglo-Saxon lady's faddle, and probably the faddle for females in general during the middle ages, was the fame as that which was known in the fixteenth and feven- teenth centuries, by the name of a pillion. The rider placed her feet ufually on a narrow board, which was called in French the planchette. No. 317. Riding on a Pillion. It is evident that a woman could not be very folidly feated in this manner, and not only did llie want the command over the horfe which would enable her to take part in any very a6tive exercifes, but it was confidered almofi: neceffary to place a man on a faddle before her. We have, accordingly, feen that, from a very early period, when engaged in hunting and in any fort of a6tive riding, the lady ufed a faddle, as at prefent, in which the raifed one leg over a part of the faddle-bow, made for that purpofe, and placed the other foot in the ftirrup, by which llie obtained a firm feat, and a command over the horfe. Different writers have afcribed, without any reafon, the introdu6tion of this mode of riding for