A few verbal alterations only have been made in the original;—the good sense of every reader will enable him to understand the local allusions, and where they belong to England alone, to make the application.

[CONTENTS.]


[CHAPTER I.]
PAGE
DESCRIPTION OF HEAD-DRESSES,1
[CHAPTER II.]
DRESS, AS A FINE ART,10
[CHAPTER III.]
THE HEAD,53
[CHAPTER IV.]
THE DRESS,61
[CHAPTER V.]
THE FEET,73
[CHAPTER VI.]
REMARKS ON PARTICULAR COSTUMES,84
[CHAPTER VII.]
ORNAMENT—ECONOMY,95
[CHAPTER VIII.]
SOME THOUGHTS ON CHILDREN'S DRESS.—BY MRS. MERRIFIELD, 121

[ILLUSTRATIONS.]


[PLATE I.]
Figure 1.Head-dress of Lady Ardene.
2.A kind of hat.
3.Steeple head-dress.
4, 6.Head-dresses of Lady Rolestone.
5.Heart-shaped head-dresses.
7, 8.Head-dresses of the time of Henry VIII.
9, 11.Hats of the time of George II.
10.Nithsdale hood.
12.Hat of the time of William III.
13, 14.Hats of the time of Charles I.
15, 16, 17.Head-dresses of 1798.
18.Head-dress of 1700.
19.Head-dress of the time of Henry VI.
20.Combination of figs. 7, 8.
21, 22.Hats for ladies in 1786.
23.Style of 1785.
24, 25, 26.Style of 1782.
[PLATE II.]
Figure 27.Style of 1782.
28, 30.Head-dress of 1790.
29.Head-dress of the French peasantry.
31.Fashion of 1791.
32, 33.Fashion of 1789.
36.Head-dress of the commencement of the present century.
35.English housemaid.
37.Gigot sleeves, with cloak worn over.
38.From a picture in the Louvre.
[PLATE III.]
Figure 39.Dress, with short waist and sleeves.
41.Dress of the mother of Henry IV.
40.Dress of Henrietta Maria.
42.From the “Illustrated London News.”
[PLATE IV.]
Figures 43, 44.From the plates of Sommaering, shows the waist of the Venus of antiquity.
45, 46.The waist of a modern lady, from the above.
49.From the “London News.”
50.Woman of Mitylene.
53.Algerine woman.
54.The archon's wife.
[PLATE V.]
Figure 47.Athenian peasant.
48.Shepherdess of Arcadia.
51.Athenian woman.
52.French costume of the tenth century.
62.Lady of the time of Henry V.
[PLATE VI.]
Figure 55.After Parmegiano.
56.Titian's daughter.
57.Lady Harrington.
59.Roman peasant.
61.Gigot sleeves.
[PLATE VII.]
Figure 63.From Bonnard's Costumes.
64.Sancta Victoria.
65.Anne, Countess of Chesterfield, from Vandyck.
67.Woman of Markinitza.
[PLATE VIII.]
Figure 60.Lady Lucy Percy, from Vandyck.
69, 70.By Jules David, in “Le Moniteur de la Mode.”
68.The hoop, after Hogarth.
[PLATE IX.]
Figure 66.From Rubens's “Descent from the Cross.”
71.From a drawing by Gainsborough.
72.Woman of Myconia.
74.Queen Anne.
[PLATE X.]
Figure 73.Charlotte de la Tremouille.
75.After Gainsborough.
76.After Gainsborough.
77.Costume of Mrs. Bloomer.
[PLATE XI.]
Figure 78.From the embroidery on fig. 47, pl. 5.
79.From the sleeve of the same dress, above.
80.From the sleeve of the pelisse.
81.The pattern embroidered from the waist to the skirt of the dress, fig. 51, pl. 5.
82.The border of the shawl, fig. 51.
83.Sleeve of the same, figure 51.
84.Design on the apron, fig. 48, pl. 5.
85.From the border of the same dress, fig. 48.
[PLATE XII.]
Figure 86.Pattern round the hem of the long under dress, fig. 51, pl. 5.
87, 88.Borders of shawls.
89.Infant's dress, exhibited at the World's Fair in London.
[90, 91.]From “Le Moniteur de la Mode,” by Jules David and Réville, published at Paris, London, New York, and St. Petersburg.

[CHAPTER I.]
DESCRIPTION OF HEAD-DRESSES.

[Fig. 1] is a front view of a head-dress of Lady Arderne, (who died about the middle of the fifteenth century.) The caul of the head-dress is richly embroidered, the veil above being supported by wires, in the shape of a heart, with double lappets behind the head, which are sometimes transparent, as if made of gauze.