Such is a very brief abstract of the rise and progress of cravats; if they are ever destined to lose the place they at present hold in society, we fervently trust that some Gibbon may appear, to furnish us with a narrative of their decline and fall. But though all this knowledge is valuable, it is only preliminary to the great art of tying the cravat. _Hic labor, hoc opus_. The first tie--the parent of all the others, the most important, and by far the most deeply interesting--is the _noeud Gordien_, or Gordian knot. Alexander the Great would have given half his empire to have understood it;--Brummell was a prouder, a happier, and a greater man, when he first accomplished it. The mode of forming this _noeud Gordien_ is the most important problem that can be offered to the student of the cravat. It is no easy task; and we seriously advise those, who are not initiated into the mysteries of this delightful science, to make their first essays on a moderate-sized block. We can confidently assure them, that, with tolerable perseverance, they will be enabled to pursue their studies with pleasure and advantage, and in a more profitable manner--on themselves. All the practice that is necessary, need not occupy more time than a couple of hours a day! After the _noeud Gordien_ come a host of others, all of which ought to be known for the sake of variety, and that the tie may be made to suit the occasion on which it is worn. There is the _cravate à l’Orientale_, when the neckcloth is worn in the shape of a turban, and the ends form a crescent;--the _cravate à l’Américaine_, which is simple, but not much to our taste, and the prevailing colours are detestable, being sea-green, striped blue, or red and white;--the _cravate collier de cheval_, in which, after making the _noeud Gordien_, the ends are carried round and fastened behind; a style much admired by ladies’ maids and milliners, but in our opinion essentially vulgar, unless when used out of doors;--the _cravate sentimentale_, in which a _rosette_ is fastened at the top immediately under the chin, and which ought to be worn only by dapper apprentices, who write “sweet things” on the Sundays, or by Robert Montgomery, the author of “The Omnipresence of the Deity”--a young man much puffed by Mr. William Jerdan;--the _cravate à la Byron_, very free and _dégagée_, but submitted to by the noble poet, only when accommodating himself to the _bien séances_ of society;--the _cravate en cascade_, where the linen is brought down over the breast something like a _jet d’eau_, and is a style in great vogue among valets and butlers;--the _cravate à la Bergami_, and the _cravate de bal_, where there is no knot at all, the ends being brought forward, crossed on the breast, and then fastened to the braces;--the _cravate mathématique_, grave and severe, where the ends descend obliquely, and form two acute angles in crossing;--the _cravatte à l’Irelandoise_,