Pot-pourri from a Surrey garden

dress artistically and peculiarly, and who look well in whatever they put on ; but these are the exception, and their imitators — as is usual with imitators — are apt to adopt their faults rather than their merits. Exceptional dress, independently of the wearer, is rarely, I think, attractive. Women who have dropped out of the fashion themselves are apt to be a little tried, when their daughters grow up, by the dress of the day, and to think it rather exaggerated and ridiculous, just as the daughter would feel her mother's wedding-gown to be impossible and out-of-date. A mother can only give her daughter general training, and then leave her to dress as she likes, merely offering her the kindly criticism that would be given her by a friend or a sister; for every woman looks best in that which she herself has chosen, and which is an indication of her own individuality. By this I do not deny that many a mother would dress her daughter much better than the girl would dress herself ; but the note of character would be wanting, which, in my opinion, makes dress in the long run the most becoming. Even when they are children, little girls often surprise their parents by saying something unexpectedly different from what they have been taught. I know a father who, when walking with his small daughter in the streets of London, stopped before the window of a smart milliner's shop. When they had looked and admired for a little time, the father, perhaps rather priggishly, remarked : ' After all, my dear, I like simplicity best.' The child answered : ' That's not at all like me, father ; I like splendour best.' Deny it as we will, the real object of dress is to attract ; and for a woman to dress herself in crimson and purple, when she knows quite well that her husband or father prefers quiet colours, or even black, shows a neglect of the amenities of life that is stupid, if it is nothing worse. 342 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN From a higher point of view, there is nothing so im- portant in dress as the accentuation of what are our physical characteristics. A fat girl in tight tailor-made clothes looks ridiculous. A girl with a tall slight figure, like a boy, looks well tight and neat, ready for the active exercise she is fit for. The womanly woman looks best in soft laces and ruffles and chiffons, be she fat or thin. Let middle-aged and old women, except when they are widows, dress in the fashion slightly modified. They are then neither conspicuous nor ridiculous. Is there not wisdom in dressing rather in advance of your years than behind it ? Many a dress lasts three or four years ; so we ought, at turning-points in our lives, to remember that this makes a difference. It has been said that the lamp of life is not to be measured by the age of the vessel, but by the supply of the light. Prettily expressed, I admit, and there is something in it, but it is only a half- truth, and the Baptismal Eegister is the best guide for us personally. Nothing displeases the young so much as to see the generation before them dressed too youthfully, and nothing so accentuates the years that have passed over a woman as the outward display of her having for- gotten them herself. I remember once remarking to a friend how well a tall, slight woman dressed, and how it suited and improved her.