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smaller; but what they lost in curls was made up by an immense bag hanging on the shoulders. Gradually that, too, dwindled down to a pigtail.

Great alterations, also, were perceived in the shape of the coats. The skirts no longer rivalled the hoop, from having their skirts stiffened with whalebone; they now assumed a modern form, and the waists were much shorter. Every colour was used for these garments for gentlemen did not then, as at present, appear in black, dark blue, brown, or green coats; on the contrary, the petit-maitres of the eighteenth century seemed to delight in every brilliant tint and shade, from the brightest scarlet to the most dazzling cerulean blue, rendered still more splendid by bindings of gold and silver lace. Cloth was the material most generally worn, but velvet was also often seen.

The waistcoats were no less brilliant than the coats. They were very long and had deep pockets, and were usually covered with embroidery and buttons. These latter ornaments to a gentleman's attire in this reign attained such a size, that they and the buckles were at last laughed out of fashion.

The nether garments, of silk, cloth, or velvet, assumed the shape of breeches, and were fastened below the knees; the stocking was gartered underneath them. Shoes were long in the quarters, broad at the toes, and had immense buckles.

After the lace tie came the white stock. This was succeeded by a muslin cravat, and shortly afterwards a shirt-collar appeared.

Subsequently coats with tails, frock-coats, short waistcoats, trousers, pantaloons, and round beaver

hats, with narrow turned-up brims, have been introduced, and have quietly maintained their place for many years with comparatively little change. Indeed, the present century is by no means so celebrated for the vagaries of fashion as most of its predecessors, at least as far as regards the costume of the gentlemen.

The following lines describe certain varieties of dress worn by the ladies in the year 1766 :

"Painted lawns and chequer'd shades,
Crape that's worn by love-lorn maids,
Watered tabbies, flowered brocades;
Vilets, pinks, Italian posies,

Myrtles, jessamines, and roses;
Aprons, caps, and kerchiefs clean,

Straw-built hats, and bonnets green;

Catgut gauzes, tippets, ruffs,

Fans and hoods, and feathered muffs;
Stomachers, and Paris nets,

Ear-rings, necklaces, aigrets,

Rings and blondes, and mignionetts."

Ladies now wore wigs like the gentlemen, and frequently added a club, or chignon, behind, in imitation, probably, of the toupées of the other sex. Caps of every kind were also seen; some towering high in air, some equally low; some sloping down to the nose, others standing straight upwards. Mountains of lawn, muslin, net, lace, gauze, riband, flowers, and wire, assisted in composing these structures, many of which really deserved the censures of critics quite as much as those of former years.

In addition to these enormous coiffures, the fair ladies very often placed on the top of them a gipsy bonnet, surrounded with numerous bows and streamers.

A few years later a coiffure, which certainly rivalled the commode, was very fashionable, and, in spite of caricaturists and abuse, continued so for many years. It was a perfect mountain of curls, powder, pomatum, flowers, feathers, blonde, and riband, rising one above another.

After this came the corkscrew curls, adding by their long twisted form to the ludicrous effect of the

Alps, which towered high in air on the foreheads of our ancestors.

A work published in 1776 mentions that a parroquet, its wings and tail extended, was very often perched on the top of the powdered edifice. This rivalled the coiffures of the Chinese ladies, and their favourite head-dress of the fongwang.

Powder remained the fashion till the year 1794. After it disappeared the hair was worn in curls, which were sometimes short, at others long and straggling, falling completely over the face, so that the bright orbs beneath could with difficulty peep out from the ringlets which almost entirely concealed them.

[graphic][graphic]

Then came the crop, that frightful coiffure, which no beauty, however youthful and graceful, could wear with impunity. Often a narrow band surrounded the head, and perhaps a rose was placed upon the forehead, or an immense feather stood up like the panache in a soldier's helmet, as seen in the foregoing cut.

Bonnets were equally remarkable, as will be seen by the accompanying specimens:

[graphic]

After long waists had been worn for some years, extremely short ones appeared, and the petticoats of the gowns were tucked up behind, like those of many peasants of the present day. Sacques, negligées, and the far-famed great-coat, now came into fashion. The latter is celebrated for having been a favourite dress of Queen Charlotte; and Madame D'Arblay has immortalized it by the following lines, in which she alludes to her majesty's predilection for it:

"The garb of state she inly scorn'd,

Glad from its trappings to be freed;
She saw thee humble, unadorn'd,
Quick of attire, a child of speed."

A little later the fashionable costume is thus described by a modern female writer: "Ladies wore cloth pelisses, formed like a man's coat, with a velvet

collar; a round black beaver hat, silk cravat, and boots with high military heels, a sprigged black lace veil, the trousers, which peeped below the short petticoat, alone shewing the weaker sex. The driving dress usually was a box-coat and cape, a round white beaver hat, lined with green muslin, a cravat, and Hessian boots; the costume beneath the coat consisted of a cambric dress sitting close to the form, sometimes even without any plait in the skirt, and gored in such a manner as to disclose the shape of the limbs. The robe was sometimes even damped to make it sit closer. The lighter the clothing, the more fashionable."

The bust was at this period frequently enrolled in a white satin spencer. The petticoats were frightfully scanty, the shoes elaborately sandaled, the stockings of thick silk, and the pocket handkerchief had a good sempstress hem, subject to no other ornament than its neat red mark in the corner.

The Swiss petticoat and white chemisette body, was our first launch into French fashions at the early part of the present century. The writings, songs, and caricatures of the day, took up the strangeness of the attire-strange even to ourselves, much more so, probably, to the people we sought to imitate, for the very materials of Parisian apparel were then new to us. We had never seen tulle; we were ignorant of satin rouleaux; a transparent standing-up French toque was a thing unheard-of; neither had we seen such short waists, or the dresses open behind and in front to the very waist.

The hair was now dressed à la Chinoise; the broad plait surmounting the head forming a sort of basket,

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