. . .Second’s reign, observes, “Likewise, noble ladies then used high heads and cornets, and robes with long trains, and seats, or side-saddles, on their horses, by the example of the respectable Queen, Ann, daughter of the King of Bohemia; who first introduced the custom into this kingdom: for, before, women of every rank rode as men do” (T. Rossii, Hist. Re. Ang. p. 205). In his beautiful illustrative picture of Chaucer’s Canterbury Pilgrims, Stothard appears to have committed an[14] anachronism, in placing the most conspicuous female character of his fine composition sideways on her steed. That the lady should have been depicted riding in the male fashion, might, it strikes us, have been inferred, without any historical research on the subject, from the poet’s describing her as having, on her feet,

“a paire of spurrés sharpe.”

Neither the original example of Ann of Bohemia, nor that, in later days. . . Read More