A DAINTY LITTLE BONNET, 1809.
In turning over the thousands of fashion-plates of the first quarter of the last century one is constantly confronted by designs bearing such titles as "Costume for the Seaside," "Toilette for the Seaside," "Dress for the Seashore." Seaside in those days meant Margate, Weymouth, and Scarborough; and we naturally expect to find trim little frocks, accompanied by tight sailor hats, capable of withstanding the stiffest breeze. But instead of this we find transparent, flowing gossamers and top-lofty turbans, which would never weather the mildest gale.
AT FASHIONABLE MARGATE, 1810.
A BOND STREET PROMENADE, 1810.
About the same time we read: "As our families of rank are fast migrating either to their country seats or some fashionable watering-place, and as the Metropolis at this season offers little of novel elegance save an occasional display at Vauxhall, we shall follow the varying goddess to all her favourite haunts, and contemplate her fair votaries as they ramble on the sea-shore, saunter on the lawns, or lounge at the libraries, as they grace the déjeuné, animate the social party, or illume the theatre and ballroom."
Of our next illustration (1810) we may glean a notion from the following extract from a contemporary fashion letter:—
"Mantles and coats of green vigonia or merino cloth of various shades, from the sober hue of the Spanish fly to the more lively pea-green, have succeeded to the purple, which, though a colour most pleasing in itself, is now become too general to find a place in a select wardrobe. Scarlet cloaks are no longer seen on genteel women, except as wraps for the theatres; the satiated eye turns, overpowered by their universal glare, to rest on more chaste and more refreshing shades. Mantles and pelisses are now considered more elegant when trimmed with gold or silver lace, or binding; or with black velvet, bound or laid flat, and which is sometimes finished at its terminations with a narrow gold edging of flat braid. Some are decorated with borders of coloured chenille."