English wayfaring life in the middle ages : (xivth century) / by J.J. Jusserand ... tr. from the French by Lucy Toulmin Smith.

  • Jean Jules Jusserand
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: English wayfaring life in the middle ages : (xivth century) / by J.J. Jusserand ... tr. from the French by Lucy Toulmin Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    wheii the horse shall be sent home again, for I hope ye should be kept as tenderly here as ye be at London.” ^ Women were accustomed to riding almost as much as men, and when they had to travel they usually dld it on horseback. A peculiarity of their horsemanship was that they habitually rode astride. The custom of riding sidewise did not spread in England before the latter part of the fourteenth century^ and even then it was not general. In the invaluable manuscript of the Décrétais (Roy. lo E. IV.) in the British Muséum, ladies on horseback are constantly represented ; they always ride astride. At one place (fol. 310) horses are shown being brought for a knight and a lady ; both saddles are exactly the same ; they are very tall behind, so as to form a sort of comfortable chair. The numerous ivories of the fourteenth century in the South Kensington Muséum and In the British Muséum often represent a lady and her lover, both on horseback, and hawking. In almost ail cases the lady unmistakably rides astride. Both ways of riding are shown in the illuminations of the Ellesmere manuscript of Chaucer’s “ Canterbury Taies,” which illuminations belong to the fifteenth century. The wife of Bath rides astride, and carries large spurs, and the prioress sits sideways. There were few places in England where the sight of the royal cortège was not well known. The journeys of the Court were incessant. We hâve seen the motives for this above. The royal Itineraries that hâve been published throw a flood of light upon this ' “ Paston Lcttcrs ” (1422-1509), cJitcd by Jas. Gairdncr, 1872, vol. i. p. 49. [The spciling in this quotation is modernized. —L. T. S.]