colour of clothes, why should they not also be allowed to examine the texture? On the same principle, too, the cleanliness of opera goers ought to be enquired into. No one, whose hair is not properly brushed, should be permitted to enter the stalls, and visitors to the pit should be compelled to show their nails. I will conclude this chapter with an extract from an epistle from a gentleman, who, during Mr. Ebers's management of the King's Theatre, was a victim to the despotic (and, in the main, unnecessary) regulations of which I have been speaking. I cannot say I feel any sympathy for this particular sufferer; but his letter is amusing. "I was dressed," he says, in his protest forwarded to the manager the next morning, "in a _superfine blue coat_, with _gold buttons_, a white waistcoat, fashionable tight drab pantaloons, white silk stockings, and dress shoes; _all worn but once a few days before at a dress concert at the Crown and Anchor Tavern_!" The italics, and mark of admiration, are the property of the gentleman in the superfine blue coat, who next proceeds to express his natural indignation at the idea of the manager presuming to "enact sumptuary laws without the intervention of the legislature," and threatens him with legal proceedings, and an appeal to British jury. "I have mixed," he continues, "too much in genteel society, not to know that black breeches, or pantaloons, with black silk stockings, is a very prevailing full dress; and why is it so? Because it is convenient and economical, _for you can wear a pair of white silk stockings but once without washing, and a pair of black is frequently worn for weeks without ablution_. P. S. I have no objection to submit an inspection of my dress of the evening in question to you, or any competent person you may appoint." [Sidenote: OPERA COSTUME IN 1861.] If this gentleman, instead of being excluded, had been admitted into the theatre, the silent ridicule to which his costume would have exposed him, would have effectually prevented him from making his appearance there in any such guise again. It might also have acted as a terrible warning to others inclined to sin in a similar manner. CHAPTER XVI ROSSINI AND HIS PERIOD. [Sidenote: ROSSINI.]