LETTER FROM A LADY IN LONDON TO HER FRIEND IN THE COUNTRY. 53

bands, brought under the chin; and the provincial bonnet, composed of satin and lace, oruamented with flowers, are all in fashionable request.

habited in their Cossack coats and mantles of varied hues, are the opening blossoms of our sphere; and the rapture awakening melodies of our Catalani, Braham, Dickons, &c. are, in themselves, a grove of There is little variety in the mornchoristers, where the highest pow-ing costume, except that flounces

ers of native harmony are exalted and refined by science and taste.

But avaunt all further recurrence to your last rural treat! and let me basten to the fulfilment of my engagement; a task replete with more than ordinary difficulty, since more than ordinary is the diversity of decoration with which fashion decorates her votaries. Suffice it, then, that I pourtray those habits. which are considered most elegant and select.

of muslin, single, double, and even treble, take precedence of the wrap and plain high robe; and that the small patterned chintz cambric blend most becomingly with the white robe.

The intermediate style admits of little that merits description. The coloured muslin, sarsnet, washing silk, &c. are best adapted for dresses of this order, and are generally trimmed with lace, or plaitings of net, and worn with small lace pelerines or tippets, sitting close to the form.

In full dress, there is more ample scope for taste and invention; we here see white and coloured crape, gossamer net, muslin, and leno, worn over white and coloured satin, trimmed with beads or borders of flowers. Of the former I send an elegant and fashionable specimen*,

Dancing dresses are also frequently trimmed with borders of

To begin with the promenade and carriage costume. Here the Cossack coat and Pomeranian mantle take place of the spencer and French cloak of antedate. The latter is usually composed of satin or sarsnet, or of muslin lined with coloured silk. It is formed with a deep lappel, and trimmed entirely round with a deep lace, put on rather full. The Cossack coat is a sort of loose, short pelisse, with large sleeves, unconfined, and untrimmed at the wrist; a narrow col-coloured feathers and artificial lar of gold or silver, sitting close to the throat; and the waist confined with a sash, à la militaire, tied in irregular lengths on one side, the ends finished with correspond-crape, worn over white sarsnet peting fringe, and epaulettes of the same. No sort of trimming is seen round the skirt of the coat, and the helmet hat and parasol are of the same colour, the former ornamented with an ostrich feather. The skimming-dish hat of straw or chip; the large hamlet poke, with lace

wreaths of spring flowers; amidst the latter, I have distinguished two dresses which struck me as particularly elegant : they were of white

ticoats; the one trimmed with a border of the barberry blossom, and the other with the blue veronica, beautifully painted on white satin. Trains are fast reviving in this order of costume, to which, *See, full-dress figure in last num

ber.

coloured enamel, to represent small natural flowers, are a very beautiful and attractive ornament. Gloves and shoes admit of little remark; the former being very generally of white kid, and the latter of white satin, jean, or kid, in full dress; from which the satin half-boot is now most sensibly exploded, the

indeed, they alone belong; but they can never be admitted in the dancing dress, without infringing on good sense and good taste. The coloured satin bodice is now so very general, that it can no longer be considered as genteel, or select, though we must ever contend for its utility, in offering an easy purchased change. A few Eastern tur-boot being confined almost entirely bans were observed to blend with the small Spanish hat and regent's plume, at a recent assembly given by a celebrated inarchioness; but the hair still dressed in the Grecian style (with a few exceptions of ringlets on the neck), decorated with flowers or gems, is far more general, and infinitely more becoming to the female who has not passed her meridian. In articles of jewellery, diamonds and pearls, variously set, must ever retain their pre-eminence.. Necklaces and bracelets of wrought gold, or of

to the walking or carriage costume. The parasol has of late been supplanted, with a few first-rate fashionables, by the Oriental or Indian fan composed of feathers; but they are as yet too singularly attractive for general adoption.

Farewell, dear friend! the carriage waits, and having done my possibles towards your edification, it is but fair that I seek to amuse myself. Your's, cordially and

faithfully,

MARGARET.

ALLEGORICAL WOOD-CUT, WITH PATTERNS OF BRITISH MANUFACTURE.

No. 1. A primrose floret sarsnet. two handsome figures drawn on a There is great beauty and light-small scale, with faces, necks, and ness in this fabric, and the colour arms painted to each; the shape is chaste. It is necessary in adopt- for dress might be cut out, and the ing a dress, that the wearer should various patterns of silks, muslins, chuse the colour with some atten- &c. might easily be inserted, to fill tion to her complexion. It not up the space, which would afford unfrequently happens, that a dress the means of ascertaining what comay be admired for its becoming lours would be most becoming.— appearance, from the accidental If some eminent portrait - painter circumstance of some fitness in the would write his sentiments upon arrangement of colours between this subject, he would serve the the complexion of the wearer and cause of female fashion. Surely the hue of the dress. .Those who dress, or fashion, might be goare desirous of ascertaining what verned by scientific principles as colours would best suit a Brunetta well as any other matter of taste. or a Phillis, would do well to have This sarsnet is sold by George and