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310 patronage materially influenced the House of Commons—for all this, the position and power of the nobility and gentry were almost unconsciously diminishing year by year. And this change was to grow more marked with the inevitable rise of the democracy in the nineteenth century. But the "quality," as heretofore, still led the manners and fashions of the people, and it is to them we must still look for the momentous changes of the eighteenth century. The century divides itself into two parts: the first half coarse, godless, merry and careless; the latter part growing in refinement, delicacy, simplicity, and soberness.

Amid the numerous varieties in women's dress, the most marked characteristics were the hoop and the powdered head-dress. The famous hoop petticoats had been increasing steadily in size and clumsiness since the reign of Queen Anne. Extravagance throughout the reign of George II. afforded ample scope to the satirist of the period; their inconvenience and want of grace have been made well known to us by contemporary writings. We see the poor ladies, martyrs to this deplorable craze, sidling up and down stairs, edging themselves through narrow doors, occupying the whole of the narrow pavements, thereby compelling men