564 
CHIGNONS. 
BOUT twe hundred and ninety-three years before 
the date of the Christian era, there flourished a 
Greek comic poet, called Menander who describes a cer- 
tainly non-uxorious husband proceeding to the length of © 
turming his wife out of doors, for the grave (in his opinion, 
though venial in that of most of mankind) offence of making 
her hair yellow : 
“Nov & pm am’ olkwy TaVSe Thy yuvaika yap 
Thy sodpov’ od 5& Tas Tpixas Cav0as more.” 
Imitation :— 
“ Begone, begone, no wife my home shall share, 
Who dares with saffron dyes to stain her hair!” 
We do not believe that all the fair maids or young 
matrons of Old England, in these days—that is to say, quite 
all of them—have taken to dye their hair, after the memor- 
able example set by Tittlebat Titmouse. If, however, we 
are to credit advertisements freely circulated in various 
newspapers, there is a superfluity of Rachels of the ringlets, 
as well as of Rachels of “enamel celebrity.” 
However future antiquarians may settle this interesting 
and national question, it is a fact, that the importation of 
the “CHIGNON ” into the sumptuary hemisphere of Bel- 
gravia and Mayfair, has already elevated the hairdressers 
into the seventh Heaven of delight ; for the most gushingly 
comely of our bridesmaids, and the younger moiety of our 
quaintly nicknamed “ better halves,” have taken, con amore, 
to wear this queer embellishment. 
It may be observed, for what it is worth, in favour of 
this mysterious device that it levels all hirsute distinc- 
tions: for instance, whether Maud has had her head 
shaved after the measles, or whether Blanche rejoices in 
as long and as natural tresses as the fair-haired, ox-eyed 
Juno, of Homeric inspiration, this Chignon enables its 
votaries and wearers to start from the same platform. 
None but the abigail and may-be the husband, when the 
back-hair is down, knows how much is the genuine 
appanage of Dame Nature, and how much is to be referred 
to the modern coiffeur’s art. 
Portentous “ cushions” are not only manufactured in the 
present day for chairs, sofas, and—billiard-tables ; they are 
