t to their bottle. A slipper and a dressing-gown are
excellent companions, agree well together, and never give their master a
moment's uneasiness; hence their value; similarly, a stout high-low and
a good leathern legging, buttoned well over the ankle beneath, and the
knee above, will carry a man through heather or gorse, on foot or on
horseback, and will prove "marvellous good wear;" they ought to be, as
indeed they commonly are, dear friends to "whoever loves his country."

As for the ladies, truly we have little to say; they have always done
pretty well in the matter of their feet. For them shoes are
indispensably necessary, and, indeed, highly appropriate and
becoming--so, too, are half-boots--and, fixed between these limits, the
fair sex never have gone, nor, perhaps, can go, far astray. The nearer
they keep to the form of nature in the clothing of their feet the
better--it is a rule as true as the day, that a woman can seldom, if
ever, artificially _improve_ her form. But there is one curious
circumstance connected with ladies' shoes, which, it appears, our fair
countrywomen are not competent judges of--at least we appeal to every
man in England not beyond his grand climacteric, and with two eyes in
his head, for the correctness of our views in what we are going to
assert:--a lady's shoe, worn with crossing sandals, gently curving over
the instep and round the ankle, is immeasurably superior to the plain,
quaker-like, old-maid affair, worn with the old-fashioned tie or button.
Did women but know how much these slender lines of riband add to their
appearance, how well the contrast sets off the anatomical beauties of
their feet, they would never put on a shoe without such an appendage. In
the same way, the nicely fitted boot, displaying the exact form of the
arching foot, and deliciously-contrasted in colour with the robe or
stocking, gives a prestige to a lady's foot, which can only be compared
to the effect produced by the Hessian boot upon their lords and masters.
We have nothing to say against the prevailing fashion of ladies'
_chaussures_ worn--even down to the clog and pattern, every thing is
elegant, every thing is proportionably useful.

One hint let us give to all. The secret of a well-fitting shoe, or
rather of a good-looking shoe--and it is upon this principle that all
French shoemakers proceed, but all English cobblers do not--is, that it
should be much longer than the foot itself--at least an inch or an