Very tight trousers to the ankle buttoned up to the calf continued, or plain trousers were held by straps under the boot; twill, corduroy, or nankeen were both strapped or free at the ankle and rather short. Knee-breeches were still worn by many for evening dress, and long Italian capes with overcapes and high turn-over collars were fashionable, besides the very full-skirted greatcoat.
Boots and shoes were square at the toes and rather long and narrow, the shoes having a bow or buckle. Short Wellington boots continued much in use, also spats.
Fobs of gold seals, &c., were worn, and eye-glasses attached to a black ribbon is a noticeable feature.
NINETEENTH CENTURY. VICTORIA. FEMALE.
The hair was parted in the centre and tightened in a top setting of plaits, with side curls over the ears. This mode was retained by many till the fifties, but the top plaits began to be set lower at the back, and the same flat parted hair was brought in a curved shape to the front of the ears, often in a small plait, allowing the ear to show, or in a plaited knot at either side; about 1850 it was waved, parted, and simply curved from the forehead over the ears in a fuller manner, sometimes being turned under to increase the side fullness, while the back hair was arranged lower down the neck. In the sixties the hair was waved and caught behind in ringlets or was bunched into the hideous chignons, which are seen till about 1880.
Fig. 116.—1840-1860.
The variety of caps and hats is too alarming to deal with, and baffles comprehensible description, so it is best for the student to dip into the hundreds of illustrations through this period in the Ladies' Magazine, Punch, the Illustrated London News, or the Ladies' Treasury for the later styles.
The straw bonnet with a straighter poke front was favoured till 1850, when the front became considerably reduced in size and fitted closely round the face. The larger brimmed bonnets had a little frill by the ears, and the tight-brimmed bonnet often had the frill all round with a flower also tucked in effectively to the wearer's taste, and we see this favoured till the seventies. In the fifties a large flat Leghorn hat with a small crown was in evidence, the brim dipping back and front, decorated with feathers or bows, and a three-cornered French hat with feathers set in the brim came in with revival of the 18th-century style about 1860. A small bowler hat and a very small "pork-pie" hat appears in the late sixties, and a tiny-shaped bonnet of a curved form during the seventies.