The history of the tea-cup - Softcover

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1878 edition. Excerpt: ...still worn by the elder, in tiny close coifs that receded till the hair came into fashion again, and so marked a reversion to the past. The uncovered hair, simply decked, had a run through such artificial dressings as seem inseparable from Elizabeth, till it reached the extreme negligence under Charles II., which was too trying to plain and elderly women to be very long popular, though young and pretty fashionables ran about in this negligee for some years. Then came the reaction in buckram--kind refuge of the ill-proportioned; and soon the entire costume was ' in curl,' from the foot to the head crested with stiffened lace and ribbons. And then, as usual, when the gown has become over-weighty with trimmings, we find the hoop, in some form, coming to its relief, and hoisting aloft the burden no longer supportable by aching ankles. After the stiff Dutch caps and lappets came the stacks of meal and false hair which disgraced our great-grandmothers, and which were allowed to' last' from six weeks to three months without being ' opened.' And when they were opened the common results of mouldy meal subjected to the action of animal heat and moisture may be better imagined than described; but we apprehend why the backscratcher and the fan were equally valuable companions of the dirty'belle,' and why the nuisance had such a ricocJut as its reaction in the 'imitation Greeks.' A simple garb usually springs from simple manners, while a complex social state and a lowered morale fly to furbelows and 'intemperance in ornament'; but we must distinguish between real and affected simplicity such as unrobed the Lely beauties and misrobed the 'shepherdesses' that appeared in George II.'s time. The attempted revival of Greek dress that followed the French Revolution...