About the same time we read: "As our families of rank are fast migrating either to their country seats or some fashionable watering-place, and as the Metropolis at this season offers little of novel elegance save an occasional display at Vauxhall, we shall follow the varying goddess to all her favourite haunts, and contemplate her fair votaries as they ramble on the sea-shore, saunter on the lawns, or lounge at the libraries, as they grace the _déjeuné_, animate the social party, or illume the theatre and ballroom." Of our next illustration (1810) we may glean a notion from the following extract from a contemporary fashion letter:-- "Mantles and coats of green vigonia or merino cloth of various shades, from the sober hue of the Spanish fly to the more lively pea-green, have succeeded to the purple, which, though a colour most pleasing in itself, is now become too general to find a place in a select wardrobe. Scarlet cloaks are no longer seen on genteel women, except as wraps for the theatres; the satiated eye turns, overpowered by their universal glare, to rest on more chaste and more refreshing shades. Mantles and pelisses are now considered more elegant when trimmed with gold or silver lace, or binding; or with black velvet, bound or laid flat, and which is sometimes finished at its terminations with a narrow gold edging of flat braid. Some are decorated with borders of coloured chenille." [Illustration: BALLOON SLEEVES, 1811.] Albeit every year sees the attire growing less scanty--even the fashions for 1811 display more generous draperies; besides which the latter are flanked and reinforced by huge muffs now coming into vogue and recently made familiar to us in Mr. Barrie's play of "Quality Street." Accompanied, as they occasionally were, by huge beaver hats, these Gargantuan muffs--which must surely have required the pelts of more than one fox to produce, if not of an entire bear--demanded all the attention from their fair wearers, as well as from the gallants of the day. The next illustration shows a carriage dress, conveniently short, for 1811. [Illustration: GIGANTIC MUFFS À LA MODE, 1811.] [Illustration: A SIMPLE CARRIAGE DRESS, 1811.] [Illustration: VARIEGATED STYLES OF COIFFURE, 1816.] Coal-scuttle bonnets are likewise growing in favour, as may be seen by the picture at the top of this page. Still more interesting is the style of coiffure of the period. Nothing more fantastic, we venture to say, ever came out of the brain of the most imaginative coiffeur. We especially call the attention of those readers who inveigh against the over-elaboration of twentieth-century head-dressing to the rear view of the bottom right-hand elegant cranium. It resembles nothing more closely than a bouquet of turnips, carrots, and other homely vegetables. [Illustration: A CHARMING BACK VIEW, 1820.]