I.

The following is an extract from “Fashions Then and Now,” by Lord William Pitt Lennox:--“From caps we descend ‘_au pied_.’ We have seen dancing-shoes four inches in height at the heel, shoes of no measure, some as broad as a tea-cup’s brim, some as narrow as the china circle the cup stands upon. While upon the subject of shoes, I may remark that some sixty years ago fashionable ladies turned ‘cordonniers,’ and having purchased a wooden last, tools, leather, soles, silk, satin, and prunella, furnished their evening ‘chaussures.’ So long as the wearers remained in-doors, or drove out in a carriage, all went well; but when these articles, ‘warranted’ (as the cheap bootmakers announce) to be made at home, were put to the test in the promenade or ball-room, the chances were ten to one they would not stand the wear, and that a heel or ball of the foot would obtrude.”

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