The lighter tone again asserts itself in “Letters of An Old Bachelor, No. 1.”[104], who waxes indignant over French opinion concerning English ladies! He quotes a certain French writer who represents “the dress of the English ladies” as mere imitation of the French, only “all ridicule and exaggeration. 'Does a French lady, for instance, put a flower in her hair--the heads of the English ladies are immediately covered with the whole shop of a bouquetière. Does a French lady put on a feather ... in this country--nothing but feathers is to be seen!’ This, of course”, says the old bachelor in all earnestness, “is all a vile slander”[105],--although he must admit having seen heads covered with flowers, and “ladies wearing _quite as many_ feathers as were becoming.”[106] He resents too that a French priest should accuse English ladies of having bad teeth. “Is he ignorant”, he would know, “that young ladies by applying to Mr. Scott, the dentist, may be supplied with a single tooth for the small sum of two guineas, while dowagers may be accommodated with a complete set of the _most beautiful_ teeth, made from the tusks of the hippopotamus ... for a very trifling consideration? In fact, it is quite astonishing, to see the fine teeth of all our female acquaintances;... And yet this abominable priest has the impudence to talk of bad teeth!”[107] Besides, “what ladies of any nation”, says he, “play so charmingly the pianoforte?”[108] [104] Ibid., V. ii, p. 192 [105] Ibid., V. ii, p. 193 [106] Same [107] Same [108] Ibid., V. ii, p. 194 This little skit is followed by the second installment “On the Cockney School of Poetry”[109],--this time that well known and scandalous handling of Hunt’s “Story of Rimini”,--Lockhart’s again, of course. This was the article whose turbulent discussion of the moral depravity of Leigh Hunt threw Baldwin, Cradock and Joy, then Blackwood’s London agents, into such a state of pious horror. They evidently feared getting mixed up in anything livelier than antiquarian projects, and threatened to withdraw their name. The articles on the Cockney School went merrily on, however; and so did Baldwin and Cradock even until July 1818. No doubt they found it a paying proposition! [109] Same