the
elbow; in one case with very narrow ribbon loops. Randle Holme says that
a sleeve thus tied in at the elbow was called a virago sleeve.

Madam Shrimpton's sleeve has also a falling frill of embroidery and lace
and a ruffle around the armsize. The question of sleeves sorely vexed
the colonial magistrates. Men and women were forbidden to have but one
slash or opening in each sleeve. Then the inordinate width of sleeves
became equally trying, and all were ordered to restrain themselves to
sleeves half an ell wide. Worse modes were to come: 'short sleeves
whereby the nakedness of the arm may be discovered' had to be
prohibited; and if any such ill-fashioned gowns came over from London,
the owners were enjoined to wear thick linen to cover the arms to the
wrist. Existing portraits show how futile were these precautions, how
inoperative these laws; arms were bared with impunity, with complacency,
and the presentment of Governor Wentworth shows three slashes in the
sleeves.

"Not only were the arms of New England women bared to an immodest
degree, but their necks also, calling forth many a 'just and seasonable
reprehension of naked breasts.' Though gowns thus cut in the pink of the
English mode proved too scanty to suit Puritan ministers, the fair
wearers wore them as long as they were in vogue.

"It is curious to note in the oldest gowns I have seen, that the method
of cutting and shaping the waist or body is precisely the same as at the
present day. The outlines of the shoulder and back-seams, of the bust
forms, are the same, though not so gracefully curved: and the number of
pieces is usually the same. Very good examples to study are the gorgeous
brocaded gowns of Peter Faneuil's sister, perfectly preserved and now
exhibited in the Boston Art Museum."

That the record made in this quotation may be complete, it must be
supplemented by a few words devoted to another aspect of fashion among
the early Puritans. This was in the matter of hair-dressing, that
fashion which went to such enormous lengths in England during the
eighteenth century. A curious fact is that the Puritan women seem
generally to have worn "bangs"; and this fact is more of a certificate
to their simplicity than to their taste. However, there was a large
leaven of fashion in the towns of the Puritans; for in 1683 Increase
Mather thus spoke of the mode of his day: "Will not the haughty
daughters of Zion refrain their pride in apparell? Will they lay ou