growth of the wig and the decline of the hoop--I
trust with ease. You may see those towers of hair of which there are
so many stories. Those masses of meal and stuffing, powder and
pomatum, the dressing of which took many hours. Those piles of
decorated, perfumed, reeking mess, by which a lady could show her
fancy for the navy by balancing a straw ship on her head, for sport by
showing a coach, for gardening by a regular bed of flowers. Heads
which were only dressed, perhaps, once in three weeks, and were then
rescented because it was necessary. Monstrous germ-gatherers of
horse-hair, hemp-wool, and powder, laid on in a paste, the cleaning
of which is too awful to give in full detail. 'Three weeks,' says my
lady's hairdresser, 'is as long as a head can go well in the summer
without being opened.'

[Illustration: {1772: A woman of the time of George III.; two types
of hat; 1775: A woman of the time of George III.; 1794: A woman
of the time of George III.}]

[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF GEORGE III. (1760-1820)

This shows the last of the pannier dresses, which gave way in 1794
or 1795 to Empire dresses. A change came over all dress after the
Revolution.]

Then we go on to the absurd idea which came over womankind that it was
most becoming to look like a pouter pigeon. She took to a buffon,
a gauze or fine linen kerchief, which stuck out pigeon-like in front,
giving an exaggerated bosom to those who wore it. With this fashion of
1786 came the broad-brimmed hat.

Travel a little further and you have the mob cap.

All of a sudden out go hoops, full skirts, high hair, powder, buffons,
broad-brimmed hats, patches, high-heeled shoes, and in come willowy
figures and thin, nearly transparent dresses, turbans, low shoes,
straight fringes.

I am going to give a chapter from a fashion book, to show you how
impossible it is to deal with the vagaries of fashion in the next
reign, and if I chose to occupy the space, I could give a similar
chapter to make the confusion of this reign more confounded.

DRAWINGS TO ILLUSTRATE THE COSTUME OF THE REIGN OF GEORGE THE THIRD

THE FIRST FORTY-EIGHT DRAWINGS BY THE AUTHOR, AND THE REMAINING TWELVE
BY THE DIGHTONS, FATHER AND SON

[Illustration: {Four men}]

[Illustration: {Five men}]

[Illustration: {Four men}]

[Illustration: {Four men}]

[Illustration: {Four men and a boy}]

[Illustration: {A man and three women}]

[Illustrat