he has undergone a
total metamorphosis. At his first arrival he finds it necessary to send
for the taylor, perruquier, hatter, shoemaker, and every other
tradesman concerned in the equipment of the human body. He must even
change his buckles, and the form of his ruffles; and, though at the
risque of his life, suit his cloaths to the mode of the season. For
example, though the weather should be never so cold, he must wear his
habit d'ete, or demi-saison. Without presuming to put on a warm dress
before the day which fashion has fixed for that purpose; and neither
old age nor infirmity will excuse a man for wearing his hat upon his
head, either at home or abroad. Females are (if possible) still more
subject to the caprices of fashion; and as the articles of their dress
are more manifold, it is enough to make a man's heart ake to see his
wife surrounded by a multitude of cotturieres, milliners, and
tire-women. All her sacks and negligees must be altered and new
trimmed. She must have new caps, new laces, new shoes, and her hair new
cut. She must have her taffaties for the summer, her flowered silks for
the spring and autumn, her sattins and damasks for winter. The good
man, who used to wear the beau drop d'Angleterre, quite plain all the
year round, with a long bob, or tye perriwig, must here provide himself
with a camblet suit trimmed with silver for spring and autumn, with
silk cloaths for summer, and cloth laced with gold, or velvet for
winter; and he must wear his bag-wig a la pigeon. This variety of dress
is absolutely indispensible for all those who pretend to any rank above
the meer bourgeois. On his return to his own country, all this frippery
is useless. He cannot appear in London until he has undergone another
thorough metamorphosis; so that he will have some reason to think, that
the tradesmen of Paris and London have combined to lay him under
contribution: and they, no doubt, are the directors who regulate the
fashions in both capitals; the English, however, in a subordinate
capacity: for the puppets of their making will not pass at Paris, nor
indeed in any other part of Europe; whereas a French petit maitre is
reckoned a complete figure every where, London not excepted. Since it
is so much the humour of the English at present to run abroad, I wish
they had anti-gallican spirit enough to produce themselves in their own
genuine English dress, and treat the French modes with the same
philosophical contempt, which w