1 66 A NEW AGRICULTURAL POLICY 



however, the old ladies who wore wonderful 

 creations of a Georgian and early Victorian 

 age who sensed the drama of Life with the 

 keenest perceptions. When they brought 

 again to the light of a May morn the dresses 

 stored away in old oak chests, what memories 

 they unfolded ! With what ardency of youth, 

 what sentiments, passionate, regretful, or cling- 

 ingly sentimental had they been folded away ! 

 Grandmothers brought out bridal dresses of 

 taffeta silk as blue as the sky overhead, which 

 their mothers had worn, and now they saw 

 with pride their slim granddaughters decked 

 in all the coloured bravery of a bygone day. 



Those who had seen better days recalled 

 once more the triumphs of their youth. What 

 stories some of these dresses could have told ! 

 There was the family, whose children fluttered 

 out like green and red butterflies, that had come 

 from yeoman stock and are now labourers. 



Yet complete dresses were the exception and 

 not the rule, for most costumes were made up 

 of odds and ends. The rape of many a bed- 

 room had been carried out with ruthlessness. 

 Two yards of calico was all that these villagers 

 purchased, and yet how gay they looked in 

 their greens and pinks, their flaming scarlets, 

 and their orange as brilliant as the setting 

 sun ! 



Nobody came to see them from the towns — 

 no cinema operators, thank Heaven, and but 



