From 1903 onwards large bag-shaped muffs came prominently into view, and _Punch_ ungallantly emphasizes their value as a means of hiding large hands. The outstanding feature of this and the next year is the influence of motoring on dress. Here, according to _Punch_, decoration was entirely sacrificed to comfort: the motorist swathed in furs is compared to the bear, the mountain goat, the chimpanzee and the Skye terrier. In 1904 he notes the universal adoption of the motor-cap, even by those who never owned or rode in a motor-car. For the rest, the "clinging style" of dress, with long skirts and long hanging sleeves, was generally in vogue. Mrs. Roundabout fears that it would make her look "so dreadfully emaciated," but rotundity of figure had ceased to be the rule even with the middle-aged. Fashionable women, apart from their motor costumes, continued to display their wonderful disregard for the rigours of the climate, a trait which is faithfully dealt with in _Punch's_ verses on the "Pneumonia Blouse." [Sidenote: _Revival of the Directoire Style_] By 1904 skirts were beginning to be appreciably shortened, but, as a set-off, fashionable women indemnified themselves by the length and expansiveness of their sleeves:-- Her sleeves are made in open bags Like trousers in the Navy; No more she sweeps the streets, but drags Her sleeves across the gravy. Elaborate bathing dresses, exhibiting a gradual tendency to reduce the amount of material, are henceforth a frequent subject of illustration. In 1905 _Punch's_ fair bathers remain on the shore and never enter the water as it would absolutely spoil their dresses. We hear less of the matinée hat, but the enormous _coiffures_ depicted in 1907 proved hardly less objectionable to those who sat behind them; and as for hats, the more grotesque and absurd they were the stronger was their appeal. The new hats in 1907, with the brim large at the back, have a sort of sou'-wester effect; and the towering monstrosities depicted at the close of the year make "busbys" look small: Mars is eclipsed by Venus. In 1908 _Punch_ chronicles the advent of the latest importation from France, the revived "Directoire" costume as worn at Longchamps:-- Long languid lines unbroken by a frill, Superfluous festoons reduced to nil, A figure like a seal reared up on end And poking forward with a studied bend; A shortish neck imprisoned in a ruff, Skin-fitting sleeves that show a stint of stuff, A waist promoted halfway up the back, And not a shred that's comfortably slack; A multitude of buttons, row on row, Not there for business--merely made for show; A skirt whose meagre gores necessitate The waddle of a Chinese lady's gait; A "busby" toque extinguishing the hair, As if a giant hand had crushed it there-- Behold the latest mode! and write beneath, "A winter blossom bursting from its 'sheath.'" [Illustration: A DECADE'S PROGRESS