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    streets of the metropolis . Form , colour ,, convenience , gracefulness of adjustment , and picturesque effect , are recommendations of a very different kind . These are the last things thought of by the savage or the dandy , the man of ostentatious opulence , or the woman of fashionable pretension . These are the only thing 3 , in relation to

    dres 3 , which deserve thought by rational beings . If not entirely , they are yet to a considerable degree independent of expensiveness . The vulgar—and vulgarity abounds in all ranks—the vulgar love of finery will never raise the art of dress to a place amongst the fine arts . An Irishman with a blanket and a skewer approaches nearer to such drapery as a sculptor prefers for a

    statue than do any of the habiliments of the aristocracy . Perhaps there is no great disparity in the inconveniences , though they doubtless are of different kinds . At what a cost of pains , time , and money , do women often array themselves in vestments the fright fulness of which no loveliness of form or face can redeem . The most graceful bonnet we have lately seen was of coarse straw , bought for four shillings , and which , therefore , not

    one lady in four thousand would have courage enough to wear . We say courage ; for there is greater lack of that than of taste . They fear lest they should not be thought able to afford the price of the fashionable , shapeless disfigurement . Nor can hats throw stones at bonnets . The beavers , we suppose , have vested interests , and caps would interfere with chartered rights , the wisdom of our ancestors , and the safety of the Constitution . Yet O'Connell and the wild Irish are allowed to wear them in the

    streets ; and most others adopt them to enhance the enjoy ment of travelling . They like all the good things together , and save them for that purpose , as boys do their plums . Or perhaps the hat is borne on the same principle as a friend of ours , of the true John Bull breed , used to put on a thick flannel waistcoat next the skin in the dog days , in order that he might enjoy the exceeding comfort of taking it off at night . Now , without going further

    into this matter , we must say , that although it is quite hopeless to reverse the proscription which would banish from society either man or woman who should only consult the convenient , the graceful , and the becoming , in their costume , we are nevertheless bound to protest against the doctrine that diligence in earning money for the purchase of ' much handsomer clothes than a soldier ' s , ' can entitle any one to be ' respected and beloved by good

    men . ? " We are now come to the end of the month , and if you look round our garden , you will find many cheerful and lovely flowers in blossom . There is the aconite , the Alpine alyhson , the beautiful anemone , the crocus , and the snow-drop still ; the primrose too , the richly coloured wall-flower , which was known to the Romans , and bore the same name ; the polyanthus , with its various bright colours ; tlie periwinkle , with ha delicate heavenly blue ; the perennial Adonis ; the graceful Persian iris ;

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    144 Adam the Gardeneri

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1834, page 144, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2630/page/60/