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terations and embellishments as you think necessary for "getting up" the whole in a manner calculated to excite the attention of the public.-The TRIADES, &c. which are given by Sir Phillip Richards (for we know him by no other name in this neighbourhood) as novelties in his superannuated Magazine, were printed and published in a collected form twenty-five years ago. I am, &c. Caerlleon. CAMBRO-BRITTANICUS.

SABINA;

Lady. (Continued.)

ledged (I mean the late Dr. FORDYCE) asserting gravely from the pulpit, that Jesus Christ, considering his education, was very much of a gentleman.” Yours, &c.

Widcombe Crescent, Bath, Dec. 5th, 1818.

LAICUS.

CORRECTION OF AN ERROR RESPECTING THE MAYOR OF CHESTER.

MR. EDITOR,

THERE is an error in your correspondent's, THOMAS AP RICHARDS, letter, in the Magazine for last month. The name of the mayor of Chester, hung by Reinallt, was Brown, and not Byrne: in other respects the story is correct; but I fear there is not plot enough for a single duodecimo, unless the tale be extended by the addition of more incident. It is well known, that, for centuries, Chester was the scene of continual bloodshed: the Welshmen attended the great fairs in multitudes; and quarrels and death were the general consequences. The Welsh towns on the borders exhibited the same scenes. But it must not be supposed that Brown the mayor attended Mold fair in his civic capacity: he was there, no doubt, for purposes connected with his business as a draper; and entering into a party squabble with some of his fellow-citizens who accompanied him, fell a victim to the fury of a man, who could be considered as little better than Rob Roy, or any other predatory partisan. There are certainly many tales connected with the Welsh border feuds, which, were they thrown into a tangible shape," would prove highly interesting. Perhaps I may be enabled to collect a few for you, leaving it to your discretion to make such al

SUPPLEMENT TO THE SECOND SCENE.

Different kinds of head-dresses and hair

pins worn by the Roman Ladies.

IN the early and ruder ages of Rome, before the introduction of luxury, the simplest, and probably the most general, head-dress was formed by twisting up the hair, after separating it on the forehead, and making a kind of roll round the head. This roll was confined by a narrow band, (tæ ia, fascia,) such as may still be seen on many antique female heads. This head-dress was very convenient for fixing on the crowns which the Roman ladies wore during sacrifices and festivals. The crown was placed upon the roll of hair; and from antique monuments it would appear, that a similar kind of head-dress was common among the Grecian women, who never failed to combine grace with simplicity. The hair thus twisted up, was formed into a bow either on the back or front of the head. The vestals were the models which the Roman matrons imitated; and as the former wore a veil descending from the crown of the head over the shoulders, and concealing the hair, the married women adopted the same dress, with this difference, that they allowed a few artfully arranged curls to play over the forehead. Fashion, however, soon added a new ornament to this costume: it was borrowed from the Greeks, and consisted of a kind of semi-circle, or bandeau, placed on the forehead, and so ingeniously surrounded with hair, that only the most prominent part of the semi-circle projected from among the hair to form the diadem. Luxury, taste, and extravagance continued to increase; and when Rome became the rallying point for the people of every

nation laying claim to polished manners and refined taste, the head-dresses of the Roman ladies assumed an endless variety of forms. The custom of intermingling pearls with the hair, which was introduced during the latter periods of the republic, came from the East. When the ladies visited the temples of the Egyptian gods, they usually wore on their heads, during the mysteries, feathers, lotos, flowers, and other emblems of fertility and nature. The famous Isis table presents abundant proofs of this custom. From the age of Sylla to the close of the seventh century after the building of Rome, the worship of Isis and Serapis became general through out Italy. Having thus constantly before their eyes the deformed statues of the Egyptian gods, the Roman women gradually became accustomed to their monstrous head-dresses; and they at length admired all that was most ridiculously preposterous. Every new conquest, every triumphal procession, taught these women, so eager for novelty, some new method of tyeing, plaiting, or curliug their hair. But nothing produced so great and singular a change in the fashion of head-dresses, as the conquests of the German tribes of Belgium and the banks of the Rhine. The taste for the fair and reddish hair, common among the inhabitants of the banks of the Rhine, the Scheldt, and the Meuse, was so general, that it became a perfect maThe Roman ladies, not satisfied with importing from these barbarous regions all kinds of pomatums and soaps, for transforming their hair to the admired yellow colour, but they robbed the fair-haired Cattian and Secambrian women of their natural tresses; and shops were established at Rome for selling plaits and bows of German hair, which the Roman ladies fixed on their heads with all the art imaginable. Not very long back this rage for fair hair prevailed in France; it was merely a revival of the fashionable folly of the Romans. Enormous sums of money were squandered away to change black hair into yellow and red; and when the taste for extravagance had reached the very utmost degree, the use of gold hairpowder was introduced.

nia.

When Ovid wrote his Art of Love, the ladies had invented so many dif ferent modes of twisting, curling, and plaiting their hair, that he says he might as well attempt to count the acorns on a large oak, as to enumerate all their ephemeral fashions. What excellent

[Jan. 1,

advice that tasteful connoisseur gives to the fair sex: she who has a long countenance should wear her hair flat on the forehead, letting it fall in large curls over the ears; but a round face on the contrary, requires that the hair should be collected on the forehead in a bow, with the ears uncovered. Those expert females, who contrive to adapt every new fashion to the natural form of their countenance, and make it augment the advantages with which nature has adorned them, will be astonished to find, that the old master in the Art of Love has betrayed their secret. The most elegant head-dress is always that which gives the most agreeable oval form to the countenance. All the infinite va riety of head-dresses worn by the Roman ladies, may, however, be divided into two principal classes. The natural hair, curled with hot irons, was encircled by a bandeau of gold or precious stones, separating it from the artificial hair, which was combed smooth: this headdress was so extremely elegant, that we are tempted to recommend it to the ladies of the present day. Another way was, to divide the hair into several braids, which were first twisted round the head, then collected on the crown, and confined by a long pin. A single glance of one of these head-dresses will prove that they could not have been formed without the addition of false hair. A third fashion consisted in having curls on the forehead, and braids on the back of the head. This form is mentioned by Ovid, Propertius, Juvenal, and Martial. The inventive genius of the Roman ladies and their slaves soon, however, introduced a thousand varieties of this fashion. The wives of the Emperors and their favourites seem to have enjoyed the privilege of rendering prevalent the fashions which they themselves prefer red; and the amateurs of medals, by the form of the head-dress, readily distin guish a Poppaa from a Plotina, and Matidia, or a Faustina, from a Sæmia, &c.

What simplicity, and yet what art and ingenuity, were displayed in the little instruments which the slaves of the Roman ladies employed in arranging these edifices of curls and plaits on their mistresses heads! My readers are of course aware that they used combs of polished box-wood, or ivory, frequently ornámented with carved work, and that their curling-irons consisted of a single round piece of iron, provided with a handle. But the Roman ladies knew nothing of

powder-bags and puffs, and what we call pomatums, for confining and smoothing the hair: powder, made of starch, and pots of pomatum, were things never seen in the dressing-room of a Roman lady. The soaps and gold-dust which they used for giving the hair a yellow tinge, were of a very different kind, and belonged to the class of cosmetics. Our modern hair-powder owes its origin to a disgusting cutaneous disorder, and was introduced along with the establishment of lazarettos, and the custom of wearing linen next the skin, in Europe. The ladies of the court of Louis XIV. were the first who wore hair-powder, and they were soon imitated by the courtezans, A learned antiquary asserts, that the custom of wearing hair-powder is an imitation of the mourning of certain oriental nations, who strew ashes on their heads. It is highly probable, that those who first put flour in their hair had more than one reason for covering themselves with ashes in expiation of their sins. The Roman ladies had no knowledge of these filthy customs; but they were the more lavish of their precious essences, which were poured on the hair before it was combed and arranged.—But how did they contrive to support this edifice, which was the fruit of so much labour?-With the help of a single pin, skilfully run through the bow. This pin is worthy of attentive examination, as it affords a fresh proof of the ingenuity of the ancients, who, even in the merest trifles, never neglected to combine utility with the most exquisite taste.

The pins, the use of which was to confine on the crown of the head or forehead, the hair, strings of pearls, and other ornaments, were necessarily of tolerable length. Those which still exist are about seven or eight inches long, so that some notion may be formed of the quantity of hair used in making a head-dress. Some are extremely simple, having merely an eye or opening at the thickest extremity, through which, probably, the bandeau or string passed, which separated the back hair from the curls on the forehead. The thickest end of these pins is usually surmounted by an ornament of elegant workmanship, like those in the museum of Portici. "Among the silver pins," says Winklemann, in his Essay on the Discoveries at Herculaneum, "four are remarkable for beauty and exquisite workmanship. The largest, which is eight inches long, instead of a head is terminated by a CoNEW MONTHLY MAG.—No. 60.

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rinthian capital, on which appears a figure of Venus holding her hair confined in both her hands; Cupid, who stands beside her, presents her with a circular mirror. On another of these pins, which is likewise surmounted by a Corinthian capital, are two small figures, representing Cupid embracing Psyche. A third is ornamented with two busts, the smallest of which is Venus leaning on the pedestal of a little figure of Priapus; with her right hand she touches her foot, which is elevated." Count Caylus, in course of an excavation on Mount Pincio, at Rome, obtained an ivory pin, three inches long, surmounted by a well executed female bust.-There is likewise preserved a bronze pin, four inches long, which, instead of a head, has a little statue of the Goddess of Plenty. holding a cornucopia, with her other hand resting on a dolphin. Her head-dress is quite in the Egyptian taste, from whence we may infer, that the the lady to whom this little trinket belonged was a zealous devotee of the goddess Isis. It is impossible to see these pins without admiring the taste by which the ancients were guided in the most trifling particulars. How, indeed, could more ingenuity be displayed in ornamenting so small an object as the head of a pin? Can there be a more charming idea, than to make the God of Love perform for his mother the same service which slaves and lovers rendered to their mistresses. The wreaths and aigrettes of diamonds worn by the ladies of modern times, may be costly-the hand of the jeweller may render them splendid and valuable; they may excite astonishment; - but they will never give rise to the charming ideas which the elegant taste of the ancients must have inspired.

SCENE III.

Glykerion, the Dealer in Flowers and Garlands-The Chaplet of Isis-Garland of Parsley for the Head-Garlands of Roses of Pæstum for the Neck-Wax Fruits.

CLIO, the chambermaid and confidante of Sabina, now hastily enters and informs her mistress, that Glykerion, the well-known Alexandrian dealer in garlands and flowers, desires to be admitted to her. "She is attended," continues Clio, " by two young slaves, carrying, in handsome baskets, the newest and most tasteful flowers, partly natural and partly artificial. She has been told that you have no time now to spare, and that she had better return in the afternoon VOL. X. 3 T

fram three times in a circle from right to left. We shall stand in need, to-day, of the protecting care of the goddess who nourishes all beings."

"And now, dear Glykerion," continues she, "what novelties of the kingdom of Flora have been imported from Alexandria in the fleet of merchantmen that the day before yesterday arrived at Ostia? For what kind of chaplets have you had the greatest demand since the last Apollinarian games? You know how stedfastly all eyes are fixed upon me. My husband gives a great entertainment to-day, and it is necessary that I should appear in the newest style of fashion."

"Domina," replies the artful Glykerion, with a smile scarcely half suppressel, and yet with a respectful inclination, the silk fancy flowers, after Indian patterns, are still universally in fashion, for chaplets for the hair. Here," continued she, taking the basket from the head of one of the boys, and shewing a fragrant garland, in which the flowers of the lotus, intermingled with the leaves of the Indian spikenard, were as naturally imitated in silk as if they had been plucked only the same day from among the banians on the shores of the Indus or Ganges, "you see the newest that the flower Idealers of Alexandria have sent me. They are sprinkled with essence of roses and cinnamon, but just invented and brought by the last fleet from India to Egypt. As to garlands for the neck and bosom, even the all-fructifying Nile cannot dispense, from his boundless stores, any thing more beautiful and be coming than these leaves and roses of

The primitive use of the sistrum was, undoubtedly, to accompany, in some measure, the lamentations made for Osiris. In process of time the real motive of this cus tom was lost; and it appears, that the Roman females shook the sistrum just as in modern times there are persons who mechanically repeat prayers with beads.

+ Garlands for the Neck.-At entertainments the guests usually wore two wreaths; one on the head; and it was even pretend

ed that this custom was beneficial to the health, a fact which the physicians, Mnesitheus and Callimachus have attempted to prove in their writings. The other wreath was worn round the neck. because, as it was judiciously remarked, the perfume of the wreath on the head was lost to the person who wore it, Flowers were, therefore, worn on the neck and bosom, that the sense of smelling might be gratified as well as the other senses. wonen. a ....

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Pæstum fixed, in the most modern taste, to soft bandeaus of linden-bark. You know we have discovered the secret of keeping them fresh for several days. And were it even for infusion in beverage, nothing could surpass these roses of Pæstum."*

"I shall trust entirely to you, my dear Glykerion," replied Sabina, with unusual condescension." Give me one of those chaplets. But what treasures are contained in that basket, in which I perceive nothing but green plants? Have you transformed yourself from the Egyptian queen of flowers into the mother of Euripides, the tragedian, and taken up the trade of selling chervil and anis?"

Sabina laughed. The whole circle of her surrounding attendants did the same, and pointed contemptuously to the basket of green chervil. Glykerion was so far from being disconcerted, that she appeared to be the only person in the company who was in the right. I beg pardon, Domina," said she," for not shewing you, at first, this new and wonderful production of a most skilful gardener on the Tusculan hill (Frascati); but you prevented me by your questions concerning the novelties of my native country. Know then, that these are garlands of water-parsley (apium), which my friend, the gardener, of Tusculum, has such a method of rearing, that in delicacy and beauty of appearance it is not surpassed by the hair of Queen Berenice; which, as you know, now shines a star in the firmament of heaven. How admirably would a garland of this parsley decorate, this evening, your charming locks, which the hand of nature herself has formed into such elegant curls and ringlets. Our ancestors, it is true, likewise wore garlands of this kind of parsley but they knew not, in those days, how to improve it by art. People tell many curious things concerning its secret virtues and ancient origin, and give it the mystical appellation of blood of the Corybantes. But I ought

from the chaplets, to infuse them in wine It was customary to pluck the leaves and to drink them with it. Pliny, who relates a curious anecdote of Cleopatra's cur ing Anthony of his distrust of her, by means of an impoisoned chaplet, calls it, to drink chaplets-coronas bibere.

Aristophanes, in his comedies, often indulges in sarcastic allusions to Euripides, on account of his mother, who is said to have sold chervil and other culinary veget. ables.