Wilton, Mary Margaret Stanley Egerton: The Book of costume or, Annals of fashion: from the earliest period to the present time (London: Henry Colburn, Publisher, 1847)

68

THE TOILETTE IN ENGLAND.

much unlike the


pery or veil, edged with embroidery. The hair was
seldom seen underneath this mighty fabric. Some
ladies, however, preferred a crescent-shaped coiffure,
with long lappets ; some a heart-shaped head-dress ;
and others shewed their taste by merely confining the
hair in a net-work covering, over which was placed a
long veil.
A French writer of this period severely censures
the female costume. He declaims with much elo-
quence against the quantities of fur employed for trim-
ming the tails of the gowns, the hoods and the sleeves,
and laments that the love of useless and extravagant
fashions has become so prevalent among the lower
classes.
It is stated by authors of the time, that some ladies,
not content with the shapes that Nature had bestowed
upon them, stuffed their petticoats at the hips, till
they resembled the far-famed and much-reviled hoop
of later years.
An illumination painted during this reign, repre-
sents the gentlemen habited in close gowns, with arm-
holes opposite the elbows ; a tight vest underneath,
and the dress confined by a girdle, which supports the
sword.

pediment of a portico, with two
square horns standing out side-
ways from the forehead. It was
composed of a variety of mate-
rials, generally of silk or fine
linen, interwoven in a curious
manner with bands of riband
and gold and silver cord ; from
it was suspended behind, a dra-