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FASHIONS

For JUNE, 1810.

EXPLANATION OF THE PRINTS OF FASHION,

ENGLISH COSTUME.

No. 1.-EVENING DRESS.

A round dress of fine white Iudia muslin, made a walking length, with short full sleeves; made to sit very much off the shoulder, ornamented round the neck, sleeves, and bottom of the dress with yellow chenille; a belt and tassels to correspond; confined in the front with a large brooch of coloured stones. A turbau cap of white satin, ornamented as the dress; ou the hind part of which is worn a bunch of violets and primroses intermixed. The hair in full curls. Earrings, necklace, and braceJets of coloured stones. French shawl of rich shot silk. Gloves and shoes of yellow kid.

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A round dress of plain white India muslin, with long sleeves, made a walking length, and trimmed round the bottom with a broad French lace, made low in the neck, over which is carelessly thrown (as suits the taste of the wearer) a French scarf of pale-yellow silk, with rich border. A bonnet of pale-yellow to correspond with the scarf, with white lace veil. The hair in full curls over the face, divided rather towards the left side. Parasol of light yellow, with white fringe. Gloves and shoes of yellow kid.

A DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL DRESSES WORN
BY LADIES OF RANK AND FASHION.
1. A short dress of the new invented cord-
ed muslin (which we described in our last),
trimmed at a small distance from the bottom
with a broad pale-pink satin ribband; a lace
round tippet, lined, and tied with pale pink; a
bonnet composed of lace and satin, to corre
spond, sitting round, and rather off the face;
with the hair dressed in a full tuft underneath,
or raised by a bunch of apple or almond-
blossom.

2. A pelisse of pale celestial blue, confined to the back, but flowing loose over the shoulders and under the arms; a bonuet of the same material, ornamented with a feather of the like colour; a robe of fine India muslin, finished at the bottom with a fine narrow van

dyke edging. Shoes, gloves, and parasol of pale straw colour.

3. A lilac sarsnet dress, made high in the neck; a rich white French lace cloak, tied with white; a lace veil thrown over the train which is dressed full before, and confined behind with an enamel comb.

4. A fine plain India muslin dress, trimmed at the bottom with a broad straw-coloured satin ribband, and a double flounce of broad French lace; a large shawl of fine, clear, soft muslin bound with yellow, and embroidered in the corners with yellow jessamine, jonquilles, or ranunculus. A light lace veil thrown over the hair.

5. A white satin Austrian tippet, which is simply a pelerine and hood, with a bonnet composed of white satin patted ribband; worn over a fiue India jacconot trimmed at the bottom with ribband, edging, or a double row of lace; if edging it must be put on plain, if lace full.

6. A mountain hat of white chip, ornamented with a full bunch of fancy grass ground ivy, or blue bells: a pelisse of pale green or blue sarsnet scolloped, a walking length, worn over a cambric jacconot dress trimmed with shell edging.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

AND REFLECTIONS ON
FASHION AND DRESS.

We were surprised to learn by a lady just returned from France, that, notwithstanding the difficulty of communication between the two countries, a striking similarity at this moment prevails between the fashions of London and Paris. The chief difference consists in degree rather than substance. The ladies were more exposed about the neck, and their hair was dressed with more fancy; but the form was in almost every thing the same. White robes of the most airy texture were universal; shawls, pelisses, scarfs, and all ornaments were of the softest and most delicate tints; yellow seemed the favourite colour; wild flowers were most esteemed for the hair; no woman of fashion is ever seen in any pub.

lic walk with either bonnet or cap; a veil of black or white lace, thrown negligently over the hair, which is always simply dressed and confined by a gold, pearl, or studded comb behind, supplies the place; a great profusion of ribbands plaited in every possible fanciful form, adorn the dresses which are otherwise very plain; the waists are worn rather longer than with us; but the French manage these things better than we do; the person appears less stiff and confined under its restraints; ease and elegance, with an apparent negligence is the characteristic of their style of dress.

The prevalence of the cold easterly winds daring the last month, cannot more sensibly have affected the vegetable than the fashionable world, for to this cause we suppose we must ascribe the little novelty we have observ. ed in our gay promenades; the atmosphere has been so unsettled, that no dependance could be placed in the weather for two hours together; our climate is a terrible enemy to that airy elegant style of dress so well adapted to the light nymph-like figure of our fair country women.

As Kensington Gardens is generally suppos ed to be the most fashionable place of resort at this season of the year, we have drawn our samples of fashion, for the most part from this

source.

colour or nankeen ground, speckled in green in a small bird's eye pattern; it was in a pelisse which was made short and trimmed with a deep black French lace. Black and white lace cloaks are again revived, and are as yet confined to the fashionable world, where we think they might have some chance of remaining, if our ladies would only condescend to wear lace, and not submit to any vile imitations, and remember that all apologies are despicable; thus they might appropriate at all times the quality though not the form of their fashions, and so keep presumptuous imitators at a distance. Shawls in black and white lace we

have likewise seen a few of, and think their numbers will increase. In full promenade dress, when the weather is remarkably fine, the hair should be dressed with merely a light lace veil, raised by a gold or pearl comb, or bunch of flowers thrown over it. The bonnet should correspond in quality, as well as colour, with the pelisse; and unless worn much on one side and ornamented with a white ostrich feather drooping on one side of the face, should be much interspersed with lace, the front wholly composed of it, and raised from the face with a bunch of wild roses mixed with geranium. Lace handkerchiefs, worn on the head with a flower in front, or a cap with lappets,may with propriety be worn on a pubparade.

Mantles we observed are entirely laid aside,lic and are prettily supplied by the Austrian tippet in white satin, but as names generally convey but little idea, we must mention that this tippet is made round, in the pelerine form, with a small hood composed of lace and satin; white satin caps or bonnets, are worn with this dress, ornamented with white ostrich feathers. We observed that among ladies of the first rank a visible preference was given to pelisses in plain or figured sarsnet; they were made in the back of an easy graceful length, confined in, but loosely flowing over the shoul ders, and falling back so as to display the dress, which was necessarily made high in the neck, with a profusion of lace let in, and trimraed round the bottom with a double flounce of lace.

In Morning dress we have seen nothing new; they are either laced in the back, wrapped over the bosom, or made in the French coat form, over a petticoat and body of the same; the coat, sleeves, collar, and bottom of the dress is then usually trimmed with Vandyke ribband, or edged with fine iace edging. The waists are worn rather long, but by no means in the extreme. It is almost needless to observe, that nothing but white cau be worn in -For Dinner, or afternoon the morning.dresses, sarsenets are the most appropriate, made just above the rise of the bosom, ornamented with worked muslin or lace, in the form of a small handkerchief or tippet; the sleeves are universally worn long. The trains are not increased in length; a band clasped with coloured gems, remains the most prevail

In Evening, or fuil dress, the gowns are made considerably lower in the bosom, but with long sleeves, and still in the frock style behind, with a moderate train, the bottom trimmed with a double flounce of lace, or a

Pelisses were mostly of a walking length, scolloped round the bottom, with elastic col-ing ornament for the waist. lars, that either stand up or fall back. Spensers are now confined to the morning, except those which are now made of white sarsenet, trimmed with broad lace; these rank high in the first class of dress. Lace tippets, lined with Persian, and white satin edged with Van-plain narrow edging. A profusion of ribband dyke edging, were very generally seen on persons of taste and fashion. A silk we saw which struck us to be perfectly now, was of a flesh

in trimmings is worn, intermix d with crape, lace, figured gauses or plain muslins. In Dancing dresses, a variety of trimmings in

artificial flowers are worn, but here again the sleeves are worn long, to conceal the effect of the quick circulation of blood in the armis. On the head of a very interesting girl we noticed a simple wreath of butter-cups, which, laying very flat on the hair, was very becoming.

Shoes are worn, for walking, to correspond with the dress, but where the colours will admit of a contrast, the white Morocco for the promenade seems to be preferred; sandals are in much esteem, the toes of the shoes are also somewhat more taper; spring heels are coming in; a little rise in the heels sets off a pretty instep and ancle to great advantage, and by

advancing the body gives an easy gait to the carriage.

In respect to Jewellery, this is not the season of ornament, speaking generally, all nature is so gay that we require little embellish ment from art. Necklaces in pearl, diamonds, and amathysts seem most in esteem, with drop earrings, ornaments for the waist and hair to correspond, in the fancy of flowers, flies, harlequius; peacocks, coronets, stars, fishes, &c. -The prevailing colours for the season are pale blue, lilac, and lilac shot with pink, pale yellow, pink, straw, lavender bloom, amber shot with white, and apple-green.

MONTHLY MISCELLANY.

INCLUDING

VARIETIES, CRITICAL, LITERARY, AND HISTORICAL.

PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS.

COVENT-GARDEN-Shakespeare's King John was performed at this Theatre on Thursday, May 17, and it was gotten up with the taste which such a drama so well merits. Shakes. peare himself may not owe much to Mr. Kemble, because Shakespeare can never be exhibited to the same advantage with which he is read.

But the audience are much indebted to Mr. Kemble, for, without his management and professional skill, Shakespeare would be nearly lost to the stage, though he might still live in the closet.

King John is one of those plays in which Shakespeare displays his genius in working on the materials of nature. He conceives the character of King John such as historians have represented him in his acts, and he fills up the outline su as to give us the perfect man.

What writer for example, so forcibly brings Henry VIII. and Cardinal Wolsey before our eyes. The merit of the actor is not to spoil, not to diminish, the excellence of the Poet to become a worthy voice, mind, and organ to his meaning-such is that of Mr. Kemble.

It is difficult to separate the praise of Mrs. Siddons from that of her brother, and to express their similar excellence in different terms. Mrs. Siddons was the same equal representative of Constance that Kemble was of King John. Every thing was natural, and the sympathy of the house bore evidence to the excellence of the acting. General feeling is never called forth but by what is natural, and in the imitative arts nature is excellence.

WORKS IN THE PRESS.

Cowper's Translation of the Iliad and Odys. sey of Homer, illustrated by fifty engravings, from the paintings and designs of Fuseli, Howard, Smirke, Stothard, Westall, &c. will be speedily published.

Mr. E. A. Kendall has in the press Travels in the northern parts of the United States in 1807, 1808, 1809, and 1810. The country described in this work comprises an important portion of the American States, and one with which we are at present comparatively unacquainted; it will contain many historical notices, and be embellished with several plates.

An edition of Lord Valentia's Travels, in octavo, is preparing for the press, with many corrections and some abridgments of the less important parts of the narrative.

Sketches of Life and Manners, with Delineation of Scenery in England, Scotland, and Ireland, interspersed with Moral Tales and

Anecdotes, in original letters by a Lady, will speedily make their appearance.

An interesting volume, entitled Travels and Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories, between 1760 and 1766, by A. Henry, Esq. may shortly be expected.

The Rev. W. Phelps has in the press a Botanical Calendar, exhibiting at one view the generic and specific name, the class, order, and habital of all the British Plants, arranged according to the time of their flowering under each month of the year.

Mr. G. Colman is preparing for publication

a translation of the works of Terence, in familiar blank verse.

Mr. Dallas is preparing for the press a new edition of his novels, entitled Percival, Aubrey, and the Morlands, to be printed in a uniform manner in six volumes. To those he proposes to add a seventh, containing Poems, Dramas, and Moral Essays.

The Rev. David Saville, of Edinburgh, is printing a Series of Discourses on the peculiar Doctrines of Revelation, in an octavo volume. The amateurs of the fine arts will learn with pleasure that it is intended to publish by subscription a fac simile of Wilson's Sketch Book, being Studies and Designs made by that great artist in Italy and Rome, in 1752. It will consist of fifty plates, the size of the original, and form a demy quarto volume.

Mr. G. Cumberland, of Bristol, has in the He is press two volumes of Original Tales. likewise preparing for publication a work with sixty engravings, on the Principles of the Composition of the Ancients.

The figure of Christ in this composition, is, perhaps, without a single exception, the happiest which has ever been produced by Mr. West. Our Lord is teaching humility, aud the lesson is finely impressed in the character, and the corresponding movements of the figure; with his right baud he gently holds the child, and with his left he points to a ray of light which breaks in from the upper part of the picture, and explains the lesson which he was addressing to his disciples. The whole deportment of the figure of Christ is that of a diguiñed humility; perfectly simple; without art, without ostentation. There is a fine expression in the child, yielding with complacency to the will of the Saviour, but shewing, at the same time, a timidity and reluctance at leaving the sister.

In the subordinate parts of this picture there is no departure from the simplicity of the subject. The back ground is quiet and unadorned; the drapery of the Saviour is expressive of that dignity and simplicity which belong to the externals of such a Being; the

Dr. Jonathan Scott is preparing a new edition of his Persian Tales, entitled Bahar Da-child is nearly naked, to denote its purity, and nush, or Garden of Knowledge. Some of the most eminent Orientalists who have collated the translation with the original, have spoken in the highest terms of the utility of this work to those who study the Eastern style of composition, and particularly to such persons as wish to acquire a knowledge of the manners and customs of Hindoostan.

FINE ARTS.

the dress of the sister has the character of youth, both in colour and quantity. The colour scems arranged in that order which is every way appropriate to the subject, and the complexions of the three characters have that precision and nicety of distinction which serve to denote, in each, its peculiar age and quality; and, as far as colour can express, to maintain the just attributes of character, without any sacrifice of the higher excellences of

art.

No. 3. Hercules, to deliver Theseus, assails and wounds Pluto.-H. Fuseli, R. A.—This is a subject which might have been left, with pro

etry, without any envy of the sister art.

ROYAL ACADEMY.-The first Picture which strikes us in the present Exhibition, is one from the venerable President, Mr. West; the subject is, Christ teaches to be Humble. The composition consists of three figures-priety, undisturbed amongst the stores of PoChrist, a little child, and a youthful sister. Mr. Fuseli, as an excellent critic, must Our Saviour is here represented by the painter know that there are degrees of truth in fiction, in that distinctive part of his character, as a Preacher of Righteousness, enlarging the and of probability in falsehood, and that the bounds of moral duty by the great command-poetic world has its prodigies and monsters; ment of Charity, and the practical lesson of Humility. He is, therefore, with great propriety, represented as addressing himself to maukind, and enforcing his commandments by the most familiar and intelligible examples.

It was necessary in forming this subject upon the canvass, that the child should not be brought forward solitary and unconnected: Mr. West, therefore, has made choice of a youthful sister to accompany the child; a connection which maintains the innocency of the groupe, and produces that purity which any other figure, more advanced in life, might in some degree kave impaired.

its "airy tongues which syllable men's names;" its chattering brooks, and bleeding rocks, which are peculiar to its own creation and fancy, and to which the painter can have no claim from the affinity of his art, and has certainly no inducement to employ from any analogy in the pleasure they convey.

It must be confessed that this picture contains that peculiar energy which is seen in the works of Mr. Fuseli. The movement of the Hercules as he delivers the shaft from his bow and the emotion of is very finely conceived; Pluto, and the alarm of his attendants, at the assault made upon the Monarch of the shades,

are represented with surprising sublimity and force. The figure of Theseus is very finely grouped with the Hercules, and the action of each is appropriate and well managed.

life, he will give to his country works of great celebrity. The only fault we have to find with the present work, is, that it abounds too much with that overcharged nature, and ostentatious appendages, which are peculiar to the stage.

We are disposed to give Mr. Fuseli every praise for undertaking a subject of such magnitude and difficulty, and which necessarily made such calls upon his imagination; but we lament his choice of one of the most harsh and unmeaning fictions of poetry. Every subject of the poetic kind in painting to correct, and not to adopt. ing should have one of these two characteristics: it should either be a portraiture of something strong and determinate in character, or should appeal to the eye by what is forcible in figure, Ike the beauty of the Antinous, or the muscular lines of the Gladiator.

Theatrical nature, from the necessity of the fiction of the scene, is raised above the sobrie ty of truth and reality; but this deception, which the stage requires in order to effect certain ends, it should be the province of paiut

In Pluto there is nothing of this kind: we can know nothing of Pluto but through the heathen poets, and none of them has given us a personal or a poetic representation, which assigns him any character for painting; he is a mere heathen god of soot and darkness, a strong-backed coal-porter, a worthy pot com panion of his own boatman Charon.

How any painter with the genius of Fuseli could so wholly mistake in his choice of sub ject, we are at a loss to comprehend-he had the Iliad open before him.

Mr. Fuseli seems to have chosen this subject, not with any view to composition or po etic character, but with the sole purpose of shewing the energetic action of the human figure, and the violence of muscular move.

ment.

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The character of Ulysses is somewhat defctive; it has too much of the familiar cast of portrait, and that obvious character which is repugnant to the ideal grandeur of an Epic Hero. No. 190. A subject from Ossian. —S. Drummond, A.-This picture abounds with those points which convey to our feelings the spirit and genius peculiar to the subject. There is a fancy that shines out in the grouping of the figures which does great honour to Mr. Drummond, and maintains that character which has distinguished many of his pictures. It is with pleasure that we see this meritorious artist bringing yearly into the Exhibition works of a very high class in imagination.

No. 99. Titania.-H. Howard, R. A.—The subject of this picture is from that pleasing dramatic romance, the "Midsummer Night's Dream" of Shakespeare; and it must be confessed that the painter has well sustained the genius of the Poet, and shewn a power of fancy which reflects no less praise upon his invention than credit upon his executive powers. The composition consists of four figures ; a little Puck, who is one of them, being thrown in the back ground The figure of Titania is at once grand and beautiful; she reposes under flowers with grace and elegance, and the surrounding landscape is full of ame

There was no distinction more marked between Raphael and Michael Angelo, than that the former always sought to paint mind, and the latter, to shew the powers of his pencil, by delineating motion. Raphael, in his action of the human figure, gave both body and mind.nity and picturesque nature. The style of head Michael Angelo little more than muscles and motion. If Mr. Fuseli had wished to shew his powers in the same way, why not have taken Hercules wrestling with Antæus, or tearing up trees by the roots, and tossing them in the air in bis madness? Here he would have had an union of passion and force-tension of muscle, and a bold and difficult outline; as it is he has given us mere naked mythology.

which the Painter has given to Titania is extremely grand, and the softness of feminine beauty is preserved without any loss of dignity-a kind of negative colour-a deep purple tint is shed around her, which gives a very happy effect to the general hue of the picture: the contrivance of the group, and the action of every figure, are well imagined, and the drapery is light and gay without being flimsy and unmeaning. The figures are well drawn, full of classic art and poetical invention; but if there be any thing which we could wish

No. 4. Andromache imploring Ulysses to spare the life of her Son.-G. Dawe, A.-It gives us pleasure to observe in this picture the principles of just thinking in relation to the sub-otherwise, it is, that the figure of Titania ject, united with those points of art which are necessary to express and enforce it. From the advance in art which Mr. Dawe has conspicuously made in this picture, we have reason to believe that, at a mature period of his No. F. Vol. I.-N. S

is rather too corporeal; her form is too bulky, perhaps somewhat too familiar, for the exam, ples of ideal beauty-Upon the whole, how ever, this is the very best work which Mr Howard has hitherto produced.

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