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In jewellery we have remarked little new, except opals; they are suited to very few complexions, and are, at best, rather a heavy looking article.

Circular fans are now quite exploded from the fair hands of our elegantés; small ones of the customary form, of fine ivory, elegantly painted in the middle with figures or ingenious devices, and the agraffe or rivet made of one single diamond, are now the most approved in this requisite finish to full dress.

Italian slippers of amber satin, sea-green, pearl colour, and white kid, are chiefly worn; while, for the morning, half and quarter boots of various colours, Morocco or kid, and the half boots lined with fur, are universally adopted.

The prevailing colours are amber, ruby, geranium, amaranth, sea-green, pink, and hermit-brown.

The curtains of a room are generally of a very rich silk, in full and numerous folds, or plaits; and 'eing double, so that both sides should be alike, they take a prodigious quantity for a large apartment, where there are several windows: the cornices are according to the Greek or Roman style, with suitable ornaments; a rich finged drapery of the most elegant kind, falls over the top of these expensive curtains, the screws are of the medallion kind, representing subjects from the ancients. The presses and commodes in a lady's wardrobe, should now be of cassia, lined with cedar, while the mirror of Psyche, which shews the form at full length, is now ornamented with the most fantastic and various devices, and is an indispensible article in the dressingroom of the fair votary of fashion.

THE MIRROR OF FASHION. In a series of Letters from a Gentleman of rank and taste, to a Lady of Quality.

LETTER VII.

BEFORE I proceed farther, my dear Coun tess, in the details of the wardrobes of our Anglo-Norman ancestors, I will indulge your

curiosity with the birth, parentage, and educa. tion of the various materials for apparel which rose and fourished from the close of the twelfth to the commencement of the four teenth century. This geneology of our arts, manufactures, and commerce, ought not to be more interesting to the mind of a lady at her toilette, than to that of the statesman scated profoundly in the cabinet of his coun try.

Silk, though used by the Saxon monarchs, was brought into general use in England by the Normaus. The stuffs made of this costly material were of different kinds, and accordingly distinguished by different appellations, some of which were derived from the countries where the various manufactures received their

origin. For instance, sarcenet was so called from the Latin Saracenus, or the work of the Saracens. The same resemblance to the primitive name occurs in France, where they call it Sarasinois. Chaucer speaks of this light silken fabric by the name of cloth of Tars, because it was brought from Tartary into Europe. Our ancestors also write of cloth of Perse, and cloth of Inde, both of which signify cloth of a light blue or sky colour; but this they confined not to silk, they rather meant by it any beautiful slight fabric of those orient colours. Silk is the parent stock of a number of precious materials which I shall describe here

after; and, in some cases, as in human pedigrees, you will find the offspring even fairer than the lovely mother.

Ceudal, or sandal, was a rich silken manufacture of great price; it was generally used for the lining of state-garments; probably in summer, as it was understood to supply the place of sables, ermine, and other fars. The old romance of The Rose, tells us that its colour varied according to the taste of the purchaser, being red, white, yellow, or green.

The cloth of Tars, called in Latin Tartarinus, and in French Tarsien, was a species of silken stuff that was sometimes mixed with gold. Dugdale represents it as having been of the colour of blood, but Du Cange speaks of it as a gayly figured material, sometimes of a fair blue, interwoven with devices. We find it in England in the thirteenth century, ge

nérally wrought into the vestments of the priests, who called it Tarsieus.

Diaper, or dyaprez, as it was called according to the French etymology, and diasprus in Latin, was a figured cloth composed of a variety of rich materials, such as fine linen

Taffata was a transparent silk, worn by the ladies alone, and usually lined their external garments, which were composed of more sub-threads, silk, and threads of gold. It was stantial stuff. The sarcenet was also put to the same use.

Satin, which is one of the thickest manufactures of silk, was of such high price in the thirteenth century, that few beneath the rank of princes ventured to become its purchaser. Velvet (which Mathew Paris calls villosa, villosus) is the most substantial stuff into which silk can be woven; and, like satin, the highest nobility alone presumed to wear it in their dresses. We find mantles of velvet and fur so greatly valued in these ancient days that when an Earl or Countess died, he or she made them particular bequests in their last wills and testaments. Now, on the demise of one of our modern Dowagers, we have her muffs, tippets, fur pelisses, silks, satins, and velvet robes, all made the spoil of waiting. maids, chamber-maids, and old Jews! I must confess that I am ancient Briton enough to declare that I think old England was a much more respectable place when her Lords and Ladies alone wore silks and sables, and the ruddy daughters of our yeomanry contented themselves with linsey-woolsey, lined at best with rabbit skin. But not to digress.

Samit, or as some French authors term it, samy, was a peculiarly splendid stuff. It was frequently woven with gold or silver, and often embroidered with most costly workmanship. We have a pretty account of its uses in the description of the masque in the romance of The Rose. Mirth, he tells us, was habited "in a vest of samit, bedecked with figures of birds, and embellished with burnished gold; || his garland was made of samit, ornamented with roses." Gladness, in the same delectable old poem, comes forth in "a robe of samit covered with gold." The prevailing colour of this costly stuff was red; but in the old French historians we read of robes de samit noir. The author of the Chronicle of St. Denis assures us that the celebrated Oriflame, or consecrated standard of France, was made of red samit, adorned with tufts of green silk.

often worn by officers in the army over their coats of mail, at which time it was usually embroidered with their respective armorial bearings. The stuff denominated damacius by the Latins, damas by the French, and damask with us (from Damascus the city in which it was first manufactured), differed very little from this ancient diaper; and both were so costly, that in the 14th century four pounds three shillings were given for an ell of either stuff.

Baudkins, or baldekinus as it is called in Latin, was the most precious fabric that any country ever produced. It was composed of thickly interwoven threads of gold with the richest silk, and so interwoven, that even jewels might be mingled in its texture. It derives its name from Baldack, the modern appellation of Babylon, from whose ingenious artists it received its birth.Henry III. it appears, was the first of our monarchs who adopted this superb vesture.

Cyclas was another sumptuous manufacture which travelled to us from the east. It derives its title from the knot of islands in the Egeon sea, which are called Cyclades, where it was first wrought. Its materia s must have been very magnificent as we are told by writers that it was purple and gold. A coronation-robe of this truly regal tissue was worn by the beautiful Princess Judith of Bohemia.

Now whether the vestment of the renowned Cinderella of fairy-tale memory, were in imitation of that of the peerless Judith, made of cycias, or of baudkins, I am not conjuror enough to reveal to your Ladyship. But as we are told, that sweet maid did not completely charm away the heart of her pruce till she ap. peared in this garment of highly wrought gold, I am inclined to conceive that the narrator of the story had a moral concealed beneath this love-creating robe, which has yet to be revealed!-1 will play the oracle, and lifting the mysterious veil, unfold to your listening sex, my fair Urania, that the highly wrought

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MONTHLY MISCELLANY,

INCLUDING VARIETIES, CRITICAL, LITERARY, AND HISTORICAL.

PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS.

COVENT-GARDEN.

MASSINGER'S NEW WAY TO PAY OLD DEBTS.-On Friday, Jan. 17, Mr. Kemble came forward in the character of Sir Giles Overreach, in Massinger's play of A New Way to Pay Old Debts. The comedy itself is a rude effort of genius, not much refined, nor at all conversant with the delicacies and finish of character. It is a kind of wedge, or ingot, wrought out of the mine by a heavy and toil. some operation; the ore is shewn in its native strength, but is at the same time unsifted and unpolished. It is usual to compliment Massinger by calling him a natural writer. He does not, we think, iu an eminent degree, deserve this praise. He is not, indeed, like our modern authors, fantastic and grotesque; but then, on the contrary, he seldom abounds with those characteristics of simplicity and truth which constitute an observer of nature. He is a kind of pure model of that violent and overcharged passion which the German writers have swelled into an unnatural excess and disgusting extravagance. Massinger is not at all comic; he is pleasant in the closet, but is deservedly grown out of fashion on the stage.

Mr. Kemble's Sir Giles Overreach had the merit of being an original unborrowed piece of || acting, both in conception and style. Whether he represented the character as the author meant it should be represented, we cannot venture to say; but he made it very striking and amusing. He copied no single trait from

must always be considered as a master-piece of art and judgment. If any thing were wanted, it was a little more simplicity, and less of that subtle distinction, and elaborate refinement, which are addressed more to the critic than to the people.

WORKS IN THE PRESS.

The Rev. Owen Manning, late Vicar of Godalming, has left for publication some Sermons on various important suhjects, which will shortly appear in two octavo volumes.

Mr. John Mawe, author of a Treatise on the Mineralogy of Derbyshire, will shortly publish a Narrative of his Voyage to the Rio de la Plata, and of his Travels in Brazil, from 1804 to 1910. The principal part of this Work relates to the interior of Brazil, where no Englishman was ever before permitted to travel, and particularly to the gold and diamond districts, which he investigated by order of the Prince Regent of Portugal.

Mr. John Galt has in the Press Voyages and Travels in 1109-10-11; containing Observations on Gibraltar, Sardinia, &c. in a quarto volume, with three engravings.

Dr. John Barclay will shortly publish a Description of the Arteries, in an octavo volume.

Mr. Charles Ganith's Inquiry into the various Systems of Political Economy is translating by Mr. D. Boileau, with additional Notes.

Mons. C. T. Tombe's Voyage to the East Cooke, and, though upon the whole we pre-Indies, during the years 1802 to 1806, includfer Cooke's performance, Kemble's exhibitioning an account of the Cape, the Isles of Mau

ritius, Bourbon, Java, Banca, and the city of Batavia, with Notes by M. Sonnini, is printing in English, from a translation by Mr. Blagdon, in two octavo volumes, with numerous plates.

Mr. Blagdon has in the Press, in two duodecimo volumes, about Four Thousand Quo- | tations, principally from ancient authors, with appropriate translatious in English.

The Rev. James Plumptre has made considerable progress in printing his English Drama Purified, and it will appear early in the spring.

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Mr. Geo. Dyer has nearly ready for publication, a History of the University of Cambride, including the lives of the Founders, with illustrative engravings. It will be in two volumes, in quarto and in octavo, to match with Chalmers' History of Oxford.

The Rev. Thomas Wintle, author of a Commentary on Daniel, has in the Press Christian Ethics, consisting of Discourses on the Beatitudes, &c. in two octavo volumes.

The Rev. C. Powlett will shortly publish the Father's Reasons for being a Christian.

Mr. John Rippingham, of Westminster School, will shortly publish, Rules for Eng lish Composition, and particularly for Themes, in a duodecimo volume. He has also in the Press, a Translation from Longinus, with critical and explanatory Notes, in an octavo volume.

Mr. Thomas Clarke has nearly ready for publication, a Treatise on Arithmetic, with Strictures on the nature of the Elementary Instruction contained in English Works on that Science.

The Rev. J. Nightingale, author of a Portraiture of Methodism, is engaged on a Portraiture of the Roman Catholic Religion; with an Appendix, containing a Summary of the Laws against Papists, and a Review of the Catholic Question of Emancipation.

A Description of the Island of Java, from Anjeric Bay in the Strait of Sunda, to Batavia, containing its Natural History, Mineralogy, &c. is in the Press.

The Sonnets and other Poetical Works of Alfieri, are preparing for publication under the superintendance of Mr. Totte.

Mr. Thomas Haynes, of Oundle, will soon

publish a Treatise on the improved Culture of the Strawberry, Raspberry, and Gooseberry,

SINGULAR SUICIDE.-A most extraordinary suicide was lately committed in France by an eminent literary character. By a manuscript found after the act, it was discovered that he had no motive for raising his arm against his life, but one which originated in his vanity. He was educated in a celebrated academy, where he was remarkable for his sentimental performances, and for the spirit of republicanism, which he contributed, in the most disastrous times of France, to diffuse through the nation. In his youthful days he entered into a literary contest with the members of the academy to which he belonged.The subject was one upon which there could not, between two rational men, be two opinions. Nevertheless he, for the purpose of displaying his genius, took the side which presented nothing but obscurity and impossibility. His talents, however, gained him not only the highest approbation, but numerous converts to those opinions himself considered as absurd. From this period he dated his misery. So blown up was he with the praise of the multitude, that he made an attack upon all established principles. Habit and association conspired to dupe him through the medium of his love of the applause bestowed upon him by the undistinguished crowd. He began to place faith in his own paradoxes. The world became in his mind a kind of wild blemish in the creation, and the human inhabitants of it so full of nonsensical conceits, that they could never be expected to enter upon a stage where they could either be || happier or better. Under impressions of such a nature, his thoughts were burthensome to him. He laboured for some time under this influence, and finding that a departure would be preferable to a stay in this world, resolved to leave it. He accordingly collected all his own compositions and burnt them; upon the flames raised by them be heated some water, and having cut his feet with a razor in several parts very deeply, placed. them in the water. He was discovered in a short time in a sitting posture, having bled to death.

HISTORICAL FRAGMENTS.-Among the numerous instances of human misery, the ef fects of the ignorance and fauaticism of the dark ages of Europe, may be reckoned the me lancholy fate of Henry IV. Emperor of Germany, who was also styled Henry the Elder and Henry the Great. The long reign of this prince, in the 11th century, was marked with misfortunes, which are principally ascribed to bis quarrel with the clergy, and the animosities they had excited gainst him for having reclaimed the possessions which had been lavished upon them by his predecessors. Terrified at the anathema of the Pope, he was compelled to remain three days and three nights, in the depth of winter, in the courtyard of the Pope's palace, at Carrosa, barefooled, and imploring absolution. He was afterwards det roued by his sou Henry, de tained some time in prison, and reduced to the most abject poverty. In his prosperity, he had given the city of Kensenach, as a present to his supposed friend Erchard, Bishop of Syire; and in his subsequent distress, he ap plied to this very prelate, the sycophant of his prosperity, who then lived at Kensenach in luxurious ease. Mair, a German historian, relates this circumstance in the following manner. "The unfortunate Emperor came to the castle in a wretched state, as when he waited at the palace of Carrosa, stripped to his shirt and barefooted. He had the attitude, voice, and humiliated aspect of a common beggar. He looked up with a timid eye to that Bishop who had been his most intimate friend in the days of his prosperity, and to whom he had been so lavish of his bounties, in hopes to receive consolation and support in the countenance of his former dependant. He then glanced his eye on the stately dome which he himself had built, and seemed to say, < behold my claim to commiseration!' while the tear trickled down his grief-worn cheek to the wounds which his rebellious son had inflicted. He now ventures to exclaim with a Buttering accent, I have lost empire and hope! for the love of God throw me a morsel of bread upon the ground I have given you.' The supercilious and inhuman priest (claiming his ecclesiastical independence of all temporal power), pretended that he could dispose of

nothing without the consent of the Chapter, and finally dismissed him with an oath,-- By he mother of Jesus I will not assist you."

SKETCH OF THE IRISH LADIES“ In ge neral they are fair and well looking. They are not unsuccessful copyists of English fashions, and have a good deal the appearance of English women. If there is a shade of difference, it is that their features are harsher, and their persons rather more masculine. They are very fond of dancing, in which they dis play more vivacity and rapidity of movement than elegance or grace. This, perhaps, may be no evil. Young women who are taught the steps of opera dancers, are often apt to learn their tricks. They are more acute and know. ing than Englishmen. They have not, I think, by any means, so much sensibility; their passions are not so easily inflamed. They can play about a flame, therefore, which would singe and consume an English woman. They have probably more vanity, and they have certainly more pride. In an Irish country town, there are four or five different degrees in female rank, and each class looks down with sovereign contempt on the one below it. The consequence of this, I fear, is, that Irish women are not so agreeable acquaintances as English women :-they have many virtues, but pride is the rind that conceals them. A man accustomed to English manners will seldom take the trouble to break it. Yet so strange a thing is human nature-so admirably are disadvantages balanced by corresponding advantages, that I have doubts whether the negative qualities of this very vice of pride, does not do as much good as any positive virtue;➡at least, if female chastity is the essential virtue that people are disposed to think it. Irish pride gives chastity to the females, in a degree, that hardly any country this day in Europe can boast of. Adultery, or an intrigue even, is unknown among females in the middle class. A married woman may be violent, may be a termagant-an unmarried one may be pert, may be ignorant, may be a flippant-but they

are

"Chaste as the icicle

"That hangs on Dian's temple." Climate no doubt has some influence in this ;religion has some; but pride, pride is the

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