1890-91.] NINTH MEETING. 17 



A letter from the Secretary of the Royal Society of Canada respect- 

 ing the meeting of the Society in Montreal on the 27th May, 1891, was 

 read and referred to the Council. 



A paper by H. R. Wood, M.A. was read entitled " Crystal Studies, 

 No. I." 



Mr. W. A. Sherwood, read a paper on " Colour in Nature in Relation 

 to Drapery." He said that there was no element in the whole range of 

 Nature's phenomena more universal than that of colour. Her forests, 

 mountains, rivers, the plumage of birds, the blossoms of trees, and the 

 whole of the flowery kingdom display the splendour of Nature's adorn- 

 ment. From this source of exhaustless materials the colors of our 

 drapery should be chosen. Nature and not the fashion plate should 

 alone guide us in the choice of colour. Costumes should have a distinct 

 range of colour suiting the conditions of complexion and in harmony 

 with our surroundings. For evening wear in our homes all that would 

 suggest brightness, varying in every range of tint and tone, from the 

 pink and pretty pale green tones of the costumes of children to the 

 rich, deep moss green cloak fringed with gold lace and silvery-hued 

 borders for those of riper years, should be worn. Deep crimson with 

 warm brown tones, might happily replace the cold grey and black 

 suitings of to-day. 



Mr. Sherwood then referred to the different epochs of British history. 

 Beginning with the Danish invasion, he said the first use of black began 

 with these warriors of the North, their crest being the raven. Its 

 presence, however, did not long hold in Britain. The Normans wore 

 different colours. Edward HI. declared for a distinct arrangement of 

 colour and material for all of his subjects from the royal household down 

 to the peasant, imposing heavy fines for the violation of his decree. In 

 the Tudor period a great revival was effected in the colour of costumes. 

 Velvets of warm purple, fringed with gold lace, and indeed all the 

 primary colours were worn. The masterly dramas of Shakespeare were 

 penned in such society. " Rare Ben Jonson," Sir Walter Raleigh, and 

 Lord Bacon each selected for himself from the draper's shelf. Fairholt, 

 in his " British Art," pays the highest tribute to the court of Charles I. 

 for elegance and grace and picturesqueness of costume, denouncing at 

 the same time the plainness of the Puritanic dress. This plainness, he 

 asserts, was but the vulgar affectation of modesty. Dark drab, grey, and 

 black became the prevailing colours from the ascendancy of Cromwell 

 to the present time ; with but short intervals this arrangement has been 

 firmly fixed. By the harsh enactments of Cromwell the loose mantle of 

 the Irish was torn off, but happily the heather hills, with their sturdy 

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