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CHAP. XIII]
Shoes for Tricycling.
227

and 20 are suitable for tricycling as well as for riding, walking tours, and travelling, for the last two of which purposes the dresses I have described are also admirably suited.

Boots or shoes for tricycling should be made to fit the shape of the foot, so as to be perfectly comfortable, not according to the present absurd fashion, which, instead of allowing that movement in the toes which should take place in walking, cramps them together into a mangled and deformed mass. The chief points to be observed in getting boots or shoes are that the toes should be broad, to allow full play to the toes of the foot; the heels, if any are worn, should be low and broad, and under the natural heel, instead of being a sort of peg pushed forward right into the middle of the foot, like the fashionable Wurtemburg heels. The waist of the boot, answering to the arch of the foot, should be, to a certain extent, elastic; and the boot, though it should not press in the slightest upon any part of the foot, should not be too large, or it will chafe both stocking and skin. On this subject, however, I need say no more here as the next chapter will be entirely devoted to it.

With proper care, and such protections against cold and wet as I have mentioned, tricycling may be rendered both possible and profitable in almost all weathers; and I hope that lady tricyclists will soon be as plentiful in our streets as they are now rare—at any rate, in London.