“Dresses which were extolled in summer and autumn were never wholly banished in winter and spring. Our grandmothers were like the daffodils, they appeared in all their bright attire before the swallow dared to come, and ‘took the winds of March with beauty.’ How many of them suffered for what they did, we may guess at, but can never know. How much stronger we ourselves might have been had they thought and acted differently, it is also vain to conjecture, but we can clothe ourselves and our children in obedience to the laws of health and strenuously resist all attempts to induce us to do the contrary. [Illustration: PL. VII.—FASHIONS OF 1807 From “Our Grandmothers’ Gowns” ] “Still we find ‘a round gown jaconet muslin prescribed’ in December, 1812. We read: ‘Notwithstanding the severity of the season, morning dresses continue to be made in white muslin, which is more fashionable than anything else.’ It continued to be so for many a year after this. It was supposed to be indelicate to wear anything else. ‘The dress of women,’ we are told, ‘should differ in every point from that of men. This difference ought even to extend to the choice of stuffs; for a woman habited in cloth is less feminine than if she were clothed in transparent gauze, in light muslin or in soft and shining silk.’ * * * * * “A lady and her child attired in the most elegant fashions of the season, September, 1807: “LADY’S DRESS—A round gown with short train, ornamented at the feet in flutings of muslin or needlework; a long sleeve ruched, with full top; frock back and lapel, bosom cut low, and trimmed with scalloped lace, a _chapeau a la bocage_ of imperial chip or sarsnet, or ornamented with a wreath of ivy or jonquil.... A shawl of Chinese silk thrown negligently over the shoulders.... “CHILD’S DRESS—A frock and trousers of fine cambric, bordered at the bottom in rich fancy Vandyke; French back and bosom cut very low, and ornamented with the same; Circassian sleeve very short.... “This is a lady’s outdoor equipment for October! The child’s arms and neck are bare, and its feet are covered with nothing stouter than yellow kid. Did the doctors of those days make larger fortunes than they do now? They can never have been without work.” While these passages are from an English standpoint, the following quotations go to prove that the ocean was no barrier to apparel of much the same nature; and while there was so much less communication between the small New England towns and Europe, we know that there were even then direct importations of fashion plates. Plate VIII is from one dated July 1, 1799, which was brought from London soon afterwards by Mr. Julius Deming for his daughters.[22] [_From the Evening Post of 1802._] _Wednesday, February 3._ FASHIONABLE NEWS.