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CHAP. XI] felt, so that in the coldest weather only the one petticoat, if we choose so to call it, need be worn. By the use of this dual garment the back push of the petticoats in walking is also avoided, and the sense of freedom and lightness experienced by the wearers of under-clothing such as I have described is simply delightful. Whether stays are worn or not, the divided skirt may be adopted with equal advantage; it can be buttoned on to the stays just as well as on to the bodice.

The principle of the divided skirt can be carried out in the dress as well as in the petticoat, but this is by no means necessary.

One of the chief battle-grounds of dress reform has for years been the divided dress, or the question of whether each limb should be clothed separately. That it is desirable that the lower limbs should be separately clothed is evident when we consider that by this means an increase of warmth with a decrease of weight is obtained, and we have been advancing towards this end for some time past. On the persons of our great-grandmothers, the petticoat principle, if I may so call it, was carried out to the fullest extent. They did not even wear drawers; but chemises were made long, and the petticoats and skirts clung about the limbs in order to keep them warm.

In the seventeenth century children's frocks were made to reach the ground, and even much later than this trousers were not worn, although in the year 1800 they had already found a place on the persons of one or two "advanced thinkers." About