be used as a substitute for an archery target by undisciplined younger brothers--small bonnets, worn on the back of the head, and tiny parasols were in vogue in 1853. A certain masculinity of attire was affected by young ladies of sporting tastes--in the way of waistcoats and ties for example--but the fashionable world set its face as a flint against anything in the way of rational dress reform. In 1851 we find one of the earliest instances in _Punch_ of the use of the word "æsthetic" in connexion with costume, where in an imaginary dialogue Miss Runt, a strong-minded female, speaks of "our dress viewed as sanitary, economical, æsthetic."[28] Mayfair had no appreciation of any of these aspects of millinery, and "Bloomerism" never caught on with the fashionable world. [Illustration: WHAT MUST BE THE NEXT FASHION IN BONNETS] [Illustration: PLAIN] [Illustration: RINGLETS] This was the age of flounces and crinolines; it was also the age of ringlets. Bands and braids and hair nets are features of early Victorian _coiffure_, but ringlets were undoubtedly the favourite mode for full dress occasions. The fashion lasted for a good many years. You will find it in the ballroom scene depicted by Leech in 1847, and Leech illustrated Surtees's novel _Plain or Ringlets?_ in 1860. Of the "plain" variety of hairdressing there are several good examples in _Punch_, notably the head given above, with which we couple the ringleted belle illustrated at the foot of the same page. [Footnote 28: "Æsthetical" was noticed as early as 1847 in a dig at _New Curiosities of Literature_, and in 1853 we read of an "æsthetic tea," at which "the atmosphere was one of architecture, painting, stained glass, brasses, heraldry, wood carving, madrigals, chants, motets, mysticism and theology."] [Sidenote: Coiffures in the Fifties] [Illustration: ÆSTHETIC PIONEERS MRS. TURTLEDOVE: "Dearest Alfred! Will you decide now what we shall have for dinner?" MR. TURTLEDOVE: "Let me see, poppet. We had a wafer yesterday--suppose we have a roast butterfly to-day."]