NOS. 1 AND 2, 1814; NOS. 3 AND 4, 1815.
CHAPTER XIII.
Ladies' dresses — The Dandizette — Waltzing — The Quadrille — Almack's — Women's education — Women's work — Women Soldiers and Sailors — Female rowing match — Female pedestrian — Gretna Green Marriages — Some curious marriages.
For the limits of a book like this, I have spent enough time on the Roads, Streets, Country, and even Gipsies, so let me turn to the men and women of the time. Place aux dames of course—so we will begin with the ladies first. And in the next few engravings which I give are culled specimens of women's dresses from 1811 to 1820.
Of course there would be caricatures—some rather outrée, others very moderate—I give two of the Dandizette or Dandyess as she was indifferently called, one true, the other, as with her concomitants, perhaps, a trifle exaggerated—but not a great deal. Perhaps it is most so in "the Fashionables of 1816," where, I must own, the feathers in the bonnets, the large Muffs, and the short skirts are, doubtless, slightly in advance of the fashion, but it is an amusing picture, with no harm in it, and I give it. Of course, I cannot vouch for its truth, but the following little story is as I find it: "June 8, 1812. A young lady of rank and high Condition, in the warmth of her dancing heart, thus addressed her partner at the late Lord Mayor's ball.—'God bless you—take care and don't tread upon my muslin gown, for you see that I have nothing under it.'"
And, when we look at a really sensible picture of a dance (Waltzing), I do not think it is very much exaggerated. Waltzing was considered by some as awfully wicked. It may be. Personally, my dancing days are over, but I never felt particularly sinful when waltzing—Mrs. Grundy is another name for nastiness. For instance, take two separate verses in the same paper:—
"What! the girl of my heart by another embrac'd?
What! the balm of her lips shall another man taste?
What! touch'd in the twirl by another man's knee?
What! panting recline on another than me?"