The backboard certainly helped to produce an erect and dignified carriage, and was assisted by the quick, graceful motions used in wool-spinning. The daughter of the Revolutionary patriot General Nathanael Greene stated to her grandchildren that in her girlhood she sat every day with her feet in stocks, strapped to a backboard. She was until the end of her long life a straight-backed elegant dame. Many of the portraits given in this book plainly show the reign of the backboard. The portrait of Elizabeth Storer, facing page 98, is perhaps the best example. It is authenticated as having been painted by Smibert when the subject was but twelve years old, but she is certainly a most mature-faced child. Another straight-backed portrait, opposite page 108, is the famous one immortalized in rhyme by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, that of "Dorothy Q.," the daughter of Judge Edmund Quincy. The poet's lines are more simply descriptive than any prose. "Grandmother's mother: her age, I guess Thirteen summers or something less, Girlish bust, but womanly air; Smooth square forehead with uprolled hair. Lips that lover has never kissed, Taper fingers and slender wrist. Hanging sleeves of stiff brocade, So they painted the little maid." "Who the painter was none may tell, One whose best was not over well; Hard and dry it must be confessed, Flat as a rose that has long been pressed. Yet in her cheek the hues are bright, Dainty colors of red and white; And in her slender shape are seen Hint and promise of stately mien." It would be no effort of the imagination to stretch the poet's "thirteen summers or less" to thirty summers. [Illustration: "Dorothy Q." "Thirteen Summers," 1720 _circa_] Of associate interest is the portrait of Elizabeth Quincy, her sister, facing page 112. The faces, hair, and dress are similar, but the parrot is replaced by an impossible little dog. Elizabeth is somewhat fairer to look upon. Dorothy is certainly "nothing handsome." On the back of the portrait is written this inscription: "It pleased God to take Out of Life my Honor'd and dearly Belov'd Mother, M^rs Elizabeth Wendell, daughter to Honble Edmund Quincy, Esq^r. March, 1746, aged 39 Years." Her brother Edmund Quincy married her husband's sister Elizabeth (thus the two Elizabeths exchanged surnames), and Dorothy Q. married Edward Jackson. The desire of girls and women to be ethereal and slender, delicate and shrinking, began over a century ago, but reached a climax in the early years of this century. To effect this, severe measures were taken in girls' schools. Dr. Holmes wrote in jest, but in truth too:--