The national head-dress of the Highlanders is the round flat bonnet of blue cloth, with an eagle's feather; and for many centuries men and women wore plaids alike, the usual colours being white striped with red, black, or blue, the men's stockings matching these.
Thinking seriously over the dress of the peasant in the North, South, East, and West, I am tempted to protest that progression has meant retrogression, and that the modern country-woman, with her indiscreet lace-trimmed blouse revealing the ragged belt of her mud-coloured petticoat, makes a sorry figure in comparison with her sister-toiler of the past; and I recall sorrowfully even this description of an early Victorian peasant-woman's dress which reads: "To consist of a full skirt of print gathered into a band at the waist; there is a full crossover-bodice over a full vest of the same material, finished with a frill at the neck. The sleeves are full above the elbow with two puffs, and from these are tight to the wrists, and a muslin mob-cap is worn with a bow of ribbon in front."
The country-woman who dwells in the indulgent times of Edward VII. should ponder over the picture, and repent of her shapeless bodice divorced from her unsympathetic skirt, and her cloth cricket cap held by aggressive pins above a group of tortured wisps of hair bound in steel bondage to a cruel curler.
CHAPTER XI
OF SOME FOREIGN PEASANTS
I regret, from the practical as well as the artistic point of view, the threatened disappearance of local colouring, as emphasised by the characteristic costume of the people, for I am convinced that the adoption of a uniform style of dress by a community greatly furthers the cause of neatness and economy.
No opportunity being afforded for the display of personal bad taste, extravagance is discouraged, and the spick and span are virtues which may distinguish the careful from the slatternly, and reveal much to the student of character. A love of colour and personal adornment is inherent in the human race, and it is to be regretted that the relentless advance of commerce is responsible for the blotting out of a country's individuality, and reducing all places to the same dead level of monotony.
Differing slightly but distinctly with the locality, the dress of the peasants of Brittany is second in interest to none in Europe. This fact, coupled with an instinctive conservatism common to those who "go down to the sea in ships," is, no doubt, accountable for the tenacity with which the Bretons cling to their national costume, bearing it with them when they emigrate and donning it on gala occasions in the new land.