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, Straw-built hats, and bonnets green; Catgut gauzes, tippets, ruffs, Fans and hoods, and feathered muffs; 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. 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. 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: — 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; 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, which held a profusion of roses. in length by the The forehead was quite uncovered, the hair being strained up from it; and at the side fell the long distinct ringlet, emulated gold ear-ring that hung pendent beside it. Never had we seen such a head as this; we looked like so many cropped schoolboys. The dress was equally new. A clear silk net over white satin, made very short both in the skirt and the waist, and trimmed round the petticoat with satin rouleaux. The morning dress of one of the first French ladies who made her appearance in England at the termination of the war, is described as having been formed of a plain English gingham, instead of silk or satin, with a beautifully worked chemisette; her hair à la Chinoise, without other ornament than a large Leghorn hat. No sooner did French modes once more reach our shores than they were instantly seized upon, and the dress of the British fair changed like magic! Toques, berets, tunics, manteaux, chapeaux, bonnets, every article of attire that a French modiste touched with her fairy fingers, was bought with avidity. Then appeared bonnets whose shape we cannot better describe than by borrowing the words of Moore: "That build of bonnet, whose extent |