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266 not be degenerate. Yet in many respects we are "not better than our fathers," and this fact is illustrated when we look through old collections of prints or models showing the dresses of bygone times. Look at the simple, but elegant costume of the reign of Edward I., an ancient picture of which represents a figure clad in a plain under-dress and sleeves of brown, over which is a sleeveless polonaise of grey looped up on one side. True, the fashion is 600 years old, but I see no modern dress to excel or even equal it in its artistic beauty of simplicity or healthfulness of construction. There is a dress of the reign of Richard II., with a pretty tight-fitting jacket and long sleeves over a quite plain skirt, suited to any lady of the present day. Then, again, there is a charming housewife's dress from the reign of Henry VI. How deliciously neat it is with its grey and white materials; and how convenient that arrangement by which the outer sleeves button on just below the shoulder, so that they can be taken off when the wearer is at work; and what an amount of artistic skill is involved in the soft folds of the muslin round the neck, which, after being confined by the laced bodice, flow out from beneath it into an apron. That elegant dress worn by a young lady of the time of Henry VIII. is cut as a princess robe, with a longish skirt fulled into the bodice at the back, and trimmed with black velvet and folds of muslin over the neck and bosom. Models of all these were shown at the Health Exhibition.

Then the men's dress. I am sure all gentlemen