Chronicles of fashion : from the time of Elizabeth to the early part of the nineteenth century, in manners, amusements, banquets, costume, etc. . mired by persons in lower cir-cles of life with whom she was at times thrown intocommunication; and this was in great measure owingto her exquisite tact in suiting her conversation toher company. She was by no means scrupulous inher remarks : many of her sayings are on record ofwhich the keen wit is unquestionable and—also theindelicacy. Loved and honoured by her large family, forwhose welfare her exertions had been unceasing, theDuchess of Gordon, i
Chronicles of fashion : from the time of Elizabeth to the early part of the nineteenth century, in manners, amusements, banquets, costume, etc. . mired by persons in lower cir-cles of life with whom she was at times thrown intocommunication; and this was in great measure owingto her exquisite tact in suiting her conversation toher company. She was by no means scrupulous inher remarks : many of her sayings are on record ofwhich the keen wit is unquestionable and—also theindelicacy. Loved and honoured by her large family, forwhose welfare her exertions had been unceasing, theDuchess of Gordon, in composure and peace, and,surrounded by all her children, breathed her last inApril, 1812. Co-existent, however, with all this stir and ex-citement in action, seems to have been an affecta-tion of the most extreme lassitude of manner insome young women, and in the men—the exqui-sites—the maccaronies, as they were then called,an effeminacy of manners and appearance perfectlycontemptible.* Miss Burney has depicted this * Walpole tells us of a set of fashionable young men who,dining at a tavern in 1771, thought the noise of the coaches. SirK/osfyiuz,Jt0naLds .pi- oM^^i^^ MANNERS. 85 class well in Lovel, in her novel of Evelina, andalso in her novel of Cecelia. General Burgoyne, in The Heiress, and Lady Wallace in The Ton,have both exposed this folly of fashion. GeneralBurgoyne thus satirizes the mawkish affectations ofthe time :— Lady Em.^-My dear Miss Alscrip, what are you doing ?I must correct you as I love you. Sure you must have ob-served the drop of the under lip is exploded since LadySimpermode broke a tooth—{sets her mouth affectedly).—I ampreparing the cast of the lips for the ensuing winter—thus.—It is to be called the Paphian mimp. Miss Alscrip, {imitating).—I swear I think it pretty.—I musttry to get it. Lady Em.—Nothing so easy. It is done by one cabalisticalword, like a metamorphosis in the fairy tales. You have only,when before your glass, to k
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