54 ORIGIN OF BALLOON SLEEVES. 



Worcester's saucepan, and that gas lighting originated 

 in the accidental combustion of a natural jet of carbu- 

 retted hydrogen : but these are unimportant compared 

 with the origin of sleeves en gigot. One of your cor- 

 respondents, Mr. Editor, facetiously insinuates that 

 they are derived from the rotundity of a Dutchman's 

 breeches, but he is indubitably wrong, for Dutchmen's 

 breeches have been of passing magnitude time out of 

 mind and if our beautiful countrywomen had ever inten- 

 ded or condescended to profit by such a model as the 

 netherward part of a Hollander's gentility, gigot sleeves 

 would have been promulgated at an earlier period than 

 that of their first appearance : I shall however prove 

 that they were not modelled after any masculine habi- 

 liment whatever, but were borrowed from part of the 

 dress of a northern maiden. 



The truth is, sir, that these sleeves were suggested 

 by the boots of a female Esquimaux. Do not stare, 

 sir, it is an absolute fact. The Fury and Hecla return- 

 ed from a northern expedition in the end of 1823, and 

 amongst the curiosities brought from the polar regions 

 were some models of the Esquimaux dresses, one of 

 these found its way into the hands of a Parisian milli- 

 ner who was enraptured at the novel cut of the lower 

 integuments, and blessed her stars that the^e was still 

 something new under the sun. She thought, within 

 herself, "the ladies would laugh to scorn the preposte- 

 rous size of these boots and the ignorance of the savage 

 who could wear such monstrous appendages : now let 

 me only transfer the size from these boots to the sleeves 



of Lady 's new dresses, and, in spite of all their 



monstrosity, the new fashion will carry ail before it." 

 These philosophical ideas were put into practice ; gigot 

 sleeves first appeared in Paris in 1824, and have been 

 duly patronised by the fair sex ever since. The fore- 

 sight of the Parisian milliner was therefore peculiarly 

 correct. 



For a little account of the boots themselves I am 

 indebted to the Literary Gazette of Nov. 1, 1823. 

 "The oddest portions of her equipment are the boots, 



