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"Dresses laughed at in our forefathers' wardrobes or pictures, when by the circulation of time and vanity they are brought about, we think becoming."

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"A coat of light green with sleeves too small for the arms and buttons too big for the sleeves-a pair of Manchester fine stuff breeches without money in the pockets, clouded silk stockings but no legs, a club of hair behind larger than the head that carries it, a hat of the size of sixpence on a block not worth a farthing."

DISRAELI'S CURIOSITIES OF LITERATURE.

Whether temporarily reversed or not we do not know, but the revolutions of the engines of these great screw boats of modern times we have been discussing, have some how or another drawn us back with a retrograde motion to old fashions. And now we feel once again that we tread upon ticklish ground! We may if we go wrong expect perhaps rough handling by even the gentler, we cannot, as some ruffians do, say the softer sex, and this for three reasons amongst many-the first is that being that secondary portion of our body in the construction of which our poor ribs had to suffer, it would be at least illogical and detrimental to ourself and to our dignity to raise any question-secondly because in former times the amazons and their descendant Joan of Arc displayed gladiatorial powers which man alone usually is left to exercise, and thereby proved themselves equal to the harder sex,-and lastly because if softer we as men must unquestionably acknowledge ourselves to be positively soft-we therefore-and we trust we in nowise offend our fair readers, must decline

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to place ourselves in the position of mentor and so decide the question of good, bad or indifferent, soft, softer or softest, but simply accept without a murmur the privilege of conferring upon them in sweetest accents not simply the positive, but the comparative degree of the gentler sex.

Mrs. Gamp's umbrella a full gingham of tent-like shape and when extended much allied to the form of a spreading chesnut tree, but when closed representing a species of green bolster without stays, tied tightly in at the waist, was much in keeping with the style of her head gear. We now feel ourselves ascending and this leads us somewhat abruptly we confess up to bonnets.

In dealing with this subject no one can deny, that is to say any one not of the gentler sex, but that the old fashioned copper scuttles, in the olden time almost invariably found ready filled with coals on the right-hand side of the library fire-place, were mechanical contrivances of no mean order. With a substantial swing handle attached to the main body by a kind of gimbal articulation, which your left hand could sieze hold of, and again a fixed loop in the rear for your right hand grip, what a sensible addition you could make to a collapsing fire by one swoop, without the fiddling process now too often adopted, of picking and picking and dropping and tumbling about with a pair of beefsteak tongues, insulated knubs' leaving the slack behind, which if good free burning binding stuff should so sensibly contribute to the establishment of a good blaze!

It is not however to these magazines of comfort in their plenary condition of fuel, that we now particularly desire to refer, but rather in their empty form.

Many, many years ago, let it be as remote as we can make it, a favorite aged relative like other aged relatives of ours possessed several articles of the form we have indicated, some were copper, some were straw, and we have a distinct recollection that in our juvenile days, no one being at hand, we more than once took the unwarrantable liberty of seeing how we looked in each, and we well remember after our struggles and disregard of coal dust, how little indeed was the degree of difference between the two styles.

In those days the shape and size, we mean of the straw article were both sensible to the naked eye at long range, and undoubtedly were comfortable barriers against neuralgic affections of the head and face in the cold windy season-essentially so when tacking close hauled, and we dare say they were deemed ornamental too, when contrasted with the designs of a prior period.

The similarity, indeed the identity of the outline in the one as in the other, must then have struck our young but artistic fancy!

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In a few years to come probably the flimsy, pardon expression-the finnikin bonnets now SO indistinguishable from the hats, will in the then old photographs or portraits of the period, be regarded as very fragile and infinitessimal, perhaps as outré as the coal-box bonnet is to our mind-whilst, with the

exception of the grand picturesque Reubens adornment, the hats will be incapable of identification.

As to dresses who does not recollect the real good old fashioned leg of mutton' sleeve and tight wrist! -the 'great big' lace collars that ran well over the shoulders, the very very high waists almost reaching to the arm pits, so elevated indeed that they were apt to lead us into difficulties did we attempt to clasp them under the mistletoe; and again what about those protuberances a tergo!-but stay again, let us leave bran, and paniers-we are drifting from our moorings, let us bustle and get our ship under weigh, there are shoals and quicksands about us, and with just one allusion to the living statuary of the day, the tied back costume, or want of costume as the case may be in some eyes, and there are eyes and eyes, let us quit a subject much better discussed by the fair sex themselves, and fall back upon the shortwaisted, immensely high, voluminous, roll-collared, swallow tailed coats of the gentlemen of a former period, the tight pantaloons, and formidable ribbon and seal appearing just below the waistcoat, the whole crowned either as the Welsh peasant women, with the long tapering chimney pot, or the more dapper hat with the "Regency Cock."

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How different is a man's dress in the present day, so loose and easy compared with former styles. Stay loose and easy'! even in this view of the case there may be grave exceptions—for instance last season the friend of a friend of ours incidentally dropped in at a garden party and was

ultimately, notwithstanding his inappropriate costume hurriedly inveigled into a Tennis set, regardless of proper shoes and all else. We can only suppose that the intense attractiveness either of the fair parties engaged or of the game itself, led the friend in question so hastily to join them, for the error in judgment of which he had been guilty very soon presented itself, and when in the progress of the game the time arrived for the restoration of the balls to his fair partner he suddenly found himself incapacitated for the duties devolving upon him,-more particularly did his error prove egregious at a moment when his gallantry became absolutely necessary, for on the effort of nimbleness oft-times required in the exhilarating game, she fell and unfortunately sprained her ankle, and was unable to rise without that assistance, he, being on the spot, was naturally expected to afford. With a stolid stare and a sense of abject disability, he for reasons too well known to himself stood gaunt and helpless over the fair form on the lawn, whilst, shocked at his own inaction, some one apparently more gallant came to her rescue. The title of Goldsmith's celebrated comedy "She stoops to conquer" had no charms for him. On the contrary as we perfectly well know Holcroft's "Road to ruin," or "He stoops to inevitable disaster" would have been a play more in his way, for alas need we say it he had on what is known as his 'walking costume' and suffered from mechanical cramp!

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