150 WINTER SUNSHINE 



ing the whims of that famous courtesan, have the 

 most fickle and destructive climate to contend with. 



English women all have good-sized feet, and 

 Englishmen, too, and wear large, comfortable shoes. 

 This was a noticeable feature at once; coarse, loose- 

 fitting clothes of both sexes, and large boots and 

 shoes with low heels. They evidently knew the 

 use of their feet, and had none of the French, or 

 American, or Chinese fastidiousness about this part 

 of their anatomy. I notice that, when a family be- 

 gins to run out, it turns out its toes, drops off at 

 the heel, shortens its jaw, and dotes on small feet 

 and hands. 



Another promoter of health in England is woolen 

 clothes, which are worn the year round, the summer 

 driving people into no such extremities as here. 

 And the good, honest woolen stuff's of one kind and 

 another that fill the shops attest the need and the 

 taste that prevails. They had a garment when I was 

 in London called the Ulster overcoat, — a coarse, 

 shaggy, bungling coat, with a skirt nearly reaching 

 to the feet, very ugly, tried by the fashion plates, 

 but very comfortable, and quite the fashion. This 

 very sensible garment has since become well known 

 in America. 



The Americans in London were put out with the 

 tailors, and could rarely get suited, on account of 

 the loose cutting and the want of "style." But 

 "style" is the hiatus that threatens to swallow us 

 all one of these days. About the only monstrosity 

 I saw in the British man's dress was the stove-pipe 



