“Voici la Roi des Nations, Natus ex sacra Virgine: Ce fils de bénédiction, Ortus de David seminæ; Voici l’Etoile de Jacob, Quam prædixerat Balaam: Ce Dieu qui détruisit Jéricho, In clara terra Chanaam.” DRESS: IN SEASON AND IN REASON. BY A LADY DRESSMAKER. [Illustration: BELOW LAUNSTOWN CASTLE.] The advent of new ideas in clothing has been later this year than usual, and we were well into the middle of November before we recognised many things as novelties in the shops, even though they were well filled with new dress manufactures as usual. Stripes are a great deal worn in all materials, but checked stuffs show signs of being rather more popular, and the fine-lined checks with which we began the autumn have grown into greater squares as the time has gone on. But these new checks are not at all in the direction of Scotch plaids, nor do they show any tendency to such garish colouring. Their hues are singularly well chosen, and even when the plaid is large it is neither ugly nor aggressively visible. They are never produced in more than two shades of colour, and they are mostly made up with velvet of a dark shade, nearly akin to that of the darkest shade of the plaid. These woollen materials are coarse and heavy-looking, and nothing seems more popular than serge and serge grounds to woollens of all kinds. Angola wools, with their long, untidy-looking, hairy surfaces, are also much liked; nor must I forget the new woollens, with stripes of braid in high relief on them. There are great numbers of fancy silk materials to mix with fine woollens, such as chess-board designs in velvet and plush on a satin ground; plain and fancy stripes in plush and velvet; velvet, with crossbar designs in terry; brocaded silks, the brocade being in velvet, terry, or plush; and silks with stripes in imitation of lace. All these may be called trimming materials, and are used for underskirts for woollen materials as well.