SOUTH AMERICA. 281 



in my own mind, that many a determined and FOURTH 



' J JOURNEY. 



unsuspecting bachelor, has been shot down by this 

 sudden manoeuvre, before he was aware that he 

 was within reach of the battery. 



The American ladies seem to have an abhor- 

 rence (and a very just one too) of wearing caps. 

 When one considers for a moment, that women 

 wear the hair long, which nature has given them 

 both for an ornament and to keep the head warm, 

 one is apt to wonder, by what perversion of good 

 taste, they can be induced to enclose it in a cap. 

 A mob cap, a lace cap, a low cap, a high cap, a 

 flat cap, a cap with ribands dangling loose, a cap 

 with ribands tied under the chin, a peak cap, an 

 angular cap, a round cap, and a pyramid cap! 

 How would Canova's Venus look in a mob cap ? 

 If there be any ornament to the head in wearing 

 a cap, it must surely be a false ornament. The 

 American ladies are persuaded that the head can 

 be ornamented without a cap. A rose-bud or 

 two, a woodbine, or a sprig of eglantine, look 

 well in the braided hair; and if there be raven 

 locks, a lily or a snowdrop may be interwoven 

 with effect. 



Now that the packets are so safe, and make 

 such quick passages to the United States, it would 

 be. as well if some of our head milliners would 

 go on board of them, in lieu of getting into the 

 Diligence for Paris. They would bring back 

 more taste, and less caricature. And if they could 



