colouring eyelashes and eyebrows and treating the lips with red pomade.
The mirror was in frequent use. Many of the polished metal mirrors of
those days were adorned with precious stones and had handles of
mother-o'-pearl; and silver and gold were common in the fashioning of
the framework. Hair appointments, including combs, were very decorative,
frequently being made of ivory, and many beautiful carved specimens are
to be seen in our museums.

The dressing table as we understand it to-day was of later days, for
many centuries elapsed between the toilet of the ladies just mentioned
and that of English dames whose odds and ends are to be found in most
houses to-day--for few are without family relics of the toilet.

The toilet or dressing table was originally quite small, and made solely
for the purpose named. It opened very much like a small desk or bureau,
and was seldom more than 18 in. or 20 in. in width. The desk-like flap
served the purpose of a table; behind it was a number of tiny drawers in
which the secret mysteries of the toilet were hidden. There, too, were
the lady's trinkets and jewellery, safely housed in the depths of those
curious recesses. Such a table was surmounted by a looking glass of the
type now spoken of in a generic sense as Sheraton. In line with the more
elaborately fitted tables were independent glasses fitted with a small
drawer--a poor substitute, however, for the toilet table and glass,
combined or used in conjunction, in front of which the ladies of the
eighteenth century performed their toilets.

In Fig. 64 is illustrated a very beautiful glass of the Oriental style
of japanned decoration. The slide supports of the desk-like flap are on
the principle adopted in the construction of contemporary bureaux. There
is also a drawer, full of compartments, which draws out and discloses
their covers and some of the instruments and articles of the toilet they
contain.

Combs.

The combs of olden time were much more elaborate affairs than they are
to-day. It would appear that the comb which must so frequently have been
viewed by the fair user was considered the most appropriate toilet
requisite on which to expend care and to lavish costly labour in order
to make it truly a thing of beauty, to be retained and even jealously
guarded.

The precious metals and ivory were used as well as hard woods. Alas!
like the fate of modern combs, the teeth--coarse and fine--snapped one
by one, and oftenti