to defeat its truth. It was in contradiction to sense, to propriety, and meet discretion. Upon this subject thus speaks the immortal Shakespeare, the great moral bard, and poet of nature:—
"Too old, by heaven; let still the woman take An elder than herself; so wears she to him, So sways she level in her husband's heart. For——however we do praise ourselves, Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm, More longing, wavering, sooner lost or worn, Than women's are!"
We must now attempt to present to the reader's eye a just description of the peripatetic, or walking-dress, of Mrs. Rocket, which no doubt pertained to a strange, peculiar, and extraordinary costume, which was in vogue in the times to which we advert. Upon her head she wore a small cap of Valenciennes lace, which was enveloped in a large and ponderous machine, ycleped a calash; which was so denominated from its structure and conformation, bearing a close similitude to the head or leather covering of the French vehicle which is called by a similar name. This structure was formed of various hoops of whalebone, arranged in equidistant, semicircular, parallels, forming en massé a huge and outlandish head-gear; the outside was covered with black lutestring; and the penultimate circle of this pent-house was adornated and fringed with deep lace; the interior was lined with rose-coloured silk, which artfully threw a bloom upon the wearer's visage, whether wife or widow. This ponderous machine could be advanced or drawn back (like the head of a modern barouche or landau) by the occupant ad libitum, according as wind or weather permitted, or caprice might dictate. Likewise, with equal facility, the head of the wearer might be wholly divested of this incumbrance, which, in such a case, was handed over to the custody of the attending lackey.
The reader will please to observe, that this head costume was prevalent before the modern umbrella, or still more recent parasol came into general use; and indeed, in some degree, so far as the covering of the head was taken into calculation, this invention, strange though it may at the present time appear, so far fully answered the functions and intentions of these later discoveries of modern art. The lady wore a large silk cloak, trimmed and flounced with ermine; she also carried a muff, small in size and calibre, formed of the same materials. To these were added, as the materialé of her dress, a stiff flowered silk mantua, supported upon a bell-hoop; an apron trimmed with lace; high heeled shoes formed likewise a part of the dress, with the dangerous appanage of pattens, long since exploded in these parts.
Such was the strange costume which formed the morning or peripatetic habiliments of Mrs. Rocket. This lady also carried a walking-staff, or cane; by this we do not, in any measure, mean to assimilate it to the most formidable and terrific walking-staff once borne by the bluff king Harry of tyrannic memory, and now exhibited in the tower of London with sundry other curiosities that belong not to our province to enumerate. No, gentle reader, the simple staff which the lady bore was of a most placable description; it was, in sooth, a tall tapering indian cane, and adorned on the top with a head of beautiful china porcelain, upon which, in rich and brilliant colouring, were depicted some of the most beautiful wild flowers of summer. And through every change of weather, hail or snow, storm, rain, or sun-shine, was to be seen this indefatigable pedestrian trudging her daily peregrinations. Often, when remonstrated with for thus running the risk of catching cold, and so forth, when in good humour, which was not always the case, she was wont to hum or troll forth an old ditty, one stave of which ran pretty much to the following effect and tenor:—
Why at home should I budge, Not abroad freely trudge, My bairns and I altogether? While my skin I don't grudge, So be heav'n my judge! To melt or to freeze with the weather.