[Illustration: A Modern Belle going to the Rooms or Balls--1796.] But Feathers were now used on the shafts levelled at the vagaries of Fashion. "At all elegant Assemblies, there is a room set apart for the lady visitants to put their feathers on, as it is impossible to wear them in any carriage with a top to it. The lustres are also removed upon this account, and the doors are carried up to the height of the ceiling. A well-dressed Lady, who nods with dexterity, can give a friend a little tap upon the shoulder across the room, without incommoding the dancers. The Ladies' feathers are now generally carried in the sword-case, at the back of the carriage."--(_Times, Dec. 29, 1795._) * * * * * "A young lady, _only ten feet high_, was overset in one of the late gales of wind, in Portland Place, and the upper mast of her feather blown upon Hampstead Hill." "The _maroon fever_ has been succeeded by a very odd kind of light-headedness, which the physicians call the _ptereo mania_, or feather folly." "The Ladies now wear feathers exactly of their own length, so that a woman of fashion is twice as long upon her feet as in her bed."--(_Times, Dec. 30, 1795._) * * * * * "We saw a feather in Drury Lane Theatre, yesterday evening, that cost _ten_ guineas. We should have thought the _whole goose_ not worth the money."--(_Times, Jan. 6, 1796._) Here is a contrivance by which "A Modern Belle going to the Rooms or Balls" can go fully dressed, with her feathers fixed:-- "There is to be seen in Gt. Queen Street, a Coach upon a new construction. The Ladies set in this well, and see between the spokes of the wheels. With this contrivance the fair proprietor is able to go quite dressed to her visits, her feathers being only a yard and a half high."--(_Times, Jan. 22, 1796._) The freaks of fashion, towards the latter end of 1795, are most curious. "Waggoner's frocks," and the "Petticoat" dress, are singular illustrations of feminine taste. This latter is noticed in a paragraph in the _Times_, 27th Oct. 1795. "The present fashionable dress is the most simple imaginable. The petticoat is pinned to the Cravat, and the arms come out at the pocket holes." "The only new fashions that remain for our modern belles are certainly puzzling and difficult. There can be nothing new, but going either dressed or naked."--(_Times, Jan. 27, 1796._) The following paragraph from the _Times_ refers not only to the general absence of dress, but also to the famous (or infamous) Miss Chudleigh, a maid of Honour to the Queen, afterwards Duchess of Kingston, and tells the story of how the Princess of Wales, wife of Frederick (father of George III.), rebuked her for her nakedness.