neck. Do not be alarmed, we only want to
_catch_ your attention; we will not extend the word to any thing else.
Here, too, ladies are exemplified by their especial privilege from our
impudent scrutiny; their necks when unadorned are adorned the most; if
they are cold, let them put on their boas, or a _fichu_, or muffle up
with their shawls; let them eschew all false collars, let them delight
in good lace, and the matter is settled. But for a man with a bad tie!
we could take him by the throat and throttle him! Here it is our duty
freely to declare our candid opinion, that Beau Brummell and George IV.
were not benefactors to the human race by introducing stiff cravattes
and endless swathes of linen round the region of jugular veins and
carotid arteries; if a man wishes to be comfortable any where, it is
surely in his neck; let old gentlemen with scrofulous chins muffle
themselves up to suffocation if they please, but why should we, who have
nothing the matter with us, and wish to turn our heads _ad libitum_, be
thus girt about and half stifled? Our climate, no doubt, requires some
protection for the neck, and while beards are not worn, a cravat of some
kind or other may be said to be necessary; but if comfort and use can be
combined with elegance and good taste, and yet the old starched thing
got rid of, so much the better. Let us remark, therefore, that we have
done wrong in quitting the fashion of the seventeenth century as to
cravats; we have adopted a stiff and a common material, and we have lost
all opportunity of enjoyment, as well as of ornament. If you ever
indulge in a white choker, good reader, only reflect for a minute on
what you have round your neck--a yard and a half of stuff, the intrinsic
value of which may be a couple of shillings, _plus_ a pennyworth of
starch, _plus_ a neck as thick as an elephant's leg, and as stiff as a
door-post, _minus_ all grace, _minus_ all comfort. But go and look at
the Second Charles at Hampton Court--see how the merry monarch managed
his neck on gala-days. You will observe that he had half a yard of the
finest cambric, as soft as a zephyr, and as warm as swan's-down, tied
once round; and ending before in long deep borders of the most precious
Mechlin lace, worth a guinea or two a-yard, falling gracefully on his
breast, or placed for convenience into a fold of his coat. How much more
sensible, how much more ornamental, how much more noble, such a scarf or
cravat as this, which