thinking a vast display of forehead beautiful permitted to extinguish the natural difference hair of woman. There is much more individuality in the treatment of gentlemen's hair, simply because most of them leave it more alone, and allow Nature to take her course; nevertheless, the this Review says-and we may be allowed to add, says beautifully-because the pen is now well known to have been held by feminine fingers the hair-the graceful undulations of the shores 'It is the exquisite line along the roots of of the head, thus given to sight, with which we are fascinated. Here the skin is invariably found finer, and the color tenderer, than in any other part of the human face-like the smooth, pure sands, where the tide has just retired.** Again, art can never match even the color of the hair to the complexion and the temperament of the individual. Did any one ever see a man with a head of hair of his own growing that did not suit him? On the other hand, was there ever seen a wig that seemed a part of the man? The infinite variety of Nature in managing the coiffure is unapproachable. One man's hair she tosses up in a sea of curls; another's she smoothes down to the meekness of a maid's; a third's she flames up, like a conflagration; a fourth's she seems to have crystallized, each hair thwarting and crossing its neighbor, like a mass of needles; to a fifth she imparts that lords of the earth, like the ladies, have to a certain extent their prevailing formula, or sweet and graceful flow which F. Grant and rather the hairdressers have, of arranging the all other feeling painters do their best to hair-to wit, one great sprawling wave across copy. In color and texture, again, she is the forehead, with a cauliflower growth on equally excellent; each flesh-tint has its either side. To this pattern the artists would, agreeing shade and character of hair, which if they could, reduce all creation. Their if a man departs from, he disguises himself. opinion upon the graceful flow of the hair What a standing protest is the sandy whisis to be found in that utmost effort of their ker to the glossy black peruke! Again, how science—the wig-we mean the upstart sham contradictory and withered a worn old face so styled. Was there ever such a hideous, looks, whose shaggy white eyebrows are artificial, gentish-looking thing as the George-minds us of a style of drawing in vogue with crowned by chestnut curling locks! It rethe-Fourthian peruke-half in storm, half in calm-patted down over the left temple, like a frothy cup one blows on to cool it ?'Its painfully white net parting, and its painfully tight little curls, haunt us. We scarcely ever see that type now in its full original horror-but bad is the best. It seems, at first thought, very odd that they cannot make a decent imitation of a head of hair. People forge old letters, even to the imitation of the stains of time and the fading of the ink; they copy a flower until it will wellnigh entice a bee; but who ever failed to discover a wig on the instant? Its nasty, hard scalp-line against the forehead gives a positive shock to any person possessing nervous susceptibility. Surely something might be done. Nothing can ever be expected, however, to come quite up to that beautiful setting on of the hair which nature shows us; for, as a writer in a former number of colored haymaker is seen at work in a cold, ladies some years since, in which a brightblacklead pencil landscape. Of the modern beard and whisker we desire to write respectfully. A mutton chop seems to have suggested the form of the substantial British whisker. Out of this simple design countless varieties of form have arisen. How have they arisen? Can any one give an account of his own whiskers from their birth upwards? To our mind there is nothing more mysterious than the far-seeing youth deliberately design his own growth of this manly appendage. Did any whisker? Was there ever known a hobbledehoy who saw a great future' in his silken down, and determined to train it in the way it should go? We think not. British whis * See Essays by the Authoress of Letters from the Baltic, lately collected as Reading for the Rail. induced her to quit her country. Everybody will also be allowed to touch her beard, so as to be convinced that it is perfectly natural.' The beard was certainly a most glorious specimen, and shamed any man's that we have ever seen. The Of the expression of hair-could we press might be well and edifyingly said. for the nonce a quill from Esthonia-much Greeks, with their usual subtlety in reading Nature, and interpreting her in their works of art, have distinguished their gods by the kers, in truth, have grown up like all the Even in Europe, some skins seem to have no power of producing hair at all. Dark, thick-complexioned people are frequently quite destitute of either beard or whisker, and Nature now and then, as if to restore the balance, produces a hairy woman. A charming example was exhibiting a short time since in town. The description she gives of herself in every particular we will not back, but here it is from the printed bill: variations of this excrescence. Thus the hair of the Phidian Jove in the Vatican, which and then falls in wavy curls, is like the mane rises in spouts as it were from the forehead, of the lion, most majestic and imperial in apremind us of the short locks between the pearance. The crisp curls of Hercules again horns of the indomitable bull; whilst the hair of Neptune falls down wet and dank like his own seaweed. The beautiful flowing locks of Apollo, full and free, represent perpetual youth; and the gentle, vagrant, bewitching tresses of Venus denote most clearly her peculiar characteristics and claims as a divinity of Olympus. What gives the loose and wanton air to the portraits in Charles ess and Countess sweep along the canvas II.'s bedchamber at Hampton Court? Duchthem with; but on the disordered curls and with all the dignity that Lely could flatter them with; but on the disordered curls and is plainly written. Even Nell Gwyn, retired the forehead fringed with love-locks Cyprian into the deep shade of the alcove, beckons us with her sweet soft redundance of ringlets. But too well woman knows the power Venus has endowed her with in this silken lasso : 'Fair tresses man's imperial race ensnare, And beauty draws us with a single hair.' In the rougher sex the temper and dispo hair than in woman, because, as already observed, they allow it to follow more the arrangement of nature. Curly hair bespeaks the sanguine temperament, lank hair the phlegmatic. Poets for the most part, we believe, have had curly hair-though our own age has exhibited some notable exceptions to the rule. Physiology has not yet decided upon what the curl is dependent, but we feel satisfied it arises from a flattening of one side of the hair more than the other. The public is most respectfully informed that Mad. FORTUNE, one of the most curious phenom-sition are more apparent from the set of the enons which ever appeared in Europe, has arrived in London, in the person of a young woman, 21 years of age, whose face, which is of an extraordinary whiteness, is surrounded by a beard as black as jet, about four inches in length. The beard is as thick and bushy as that of any man. The young lady is a native of Geneva, in Switzerland, and has received a most brilliant education. She speaks French fluently, and will answer all the questions that may be addressed to her. Her beard, which reaches from one eye to the other, perfectly encircles the face, forming the most surprising contrast, but without impairing its beauty. Her bust is most finely formed, and leaves not the least doubt as to her sex. She will approach all the persons who may honor her with their presence, and give an account of her origin and birth, and explain the motives which So well do people understand the character as expressed by the hair and its management, that it is used as a kind of index. Commercial ideas are very exact respecting through their turn, the mode will be passée, and some change, "still lovelier than the last," have taken its place. Meanwhile the artistic world of fashion has had time to pause, and nurse its strength for fresh efforts. The committee of six coiffeurs, who were called together to sit in judgment as to who was to have the arrangement of the head-dress of the empress on the wedding-day, and who finally adjudged that transcendent honor to Monsieur Felix, happy and strange;" on the same principle, we presume, that naturalists value a black swan, or connoisseurs a picture of Wouverman's without a white horse in it. But: lest it might be deemed disrespectful, as ill-man !-alike in his name and his fortunes,— omened to the 66 'Spanish Ladye," and the can now meditate upon fresh cranial conEmperor Napoleon, not the Great, who have structions. Monsieur Lemounier may re-arso lately plighted their faith and joined their range, in his dreams, the precious black fortunes at the altar; particularly as the ac- pearls with which he was entrusted for the tual crown that surmounted the nuptial car-parure of the empress, as something rich riage was, by a strange want of calculation, knocked off, and literally laid in the dust, in passing under the temporary porch at the entrance of Notre Dame. Yes the satin couleur de rose selected for the civil marriage has blushed its brightest-the white velours épingle, for the religious solemnization, to say nothing of the white doe-skins of the emperor, has lost somewhat of the snowy purity only equalled by the pallor of the bride as she walked up the consecrated aisle; of the fifty-four robes, confectionnés by the rival geniuses of a Vignon and a Palmyre, robes a corsage drapés, à basques, and à basques à tailles; trains à demi-queue, à demi-queue arrondi, and a queue entière, with all their varied trimmings of flowers and feathers, and gold guipure, and bees, and crowned eagles, of all these splendors two-thirds have already had their day of exhibition, and by the time that the remainder have gone "Let Euclid rest, and Archimedes pause;' we will plunge no deeper into the mysteries of the modern toilette, or the modern marriage, but content ourselves with a glance at royal nuptials as managed two or three centuries ago. We will begin with Spain, in compliment to our neighboring empress, as a native of that country, and introduce the heir to the throne thereof, on his arrival in England, to become the husband of our Queen Mary, who has been distinguished in history by an epithet which we will not repeat polite;" particularly as certain good-natured historians of later date have labored to show that she was by no means of the sanguinary 66 to ears disposition that epithet would imply. At | ceremonies, tedious enough - subsequent feasting, dancing, and so on. The day after the ceremony, the king, being then no doubt on his best behavior, thanked his bride for her condescension in selecting him as her husband, and for presenting him with so fine a kingdom, which he most likely thought much the best part of the bargain. The queen, in return, replied that she was herself the obliged party, since his majesty had taken a wife that was both old and ugly "vecchia è brutta," as our chronicler very plainly expresses it. In this exceedingly humble appreciation of herself, by her majesty, her royal spouse too soon fully coincided, and evinced his conviction of its truth by taking leave of her at the earliest opportunity, and making his succeeding visits like those of angels, 66 Few and far between." "On Wednesday," proceeds our author, "which was the 17th of August, 1554, at about five or six o'clock in the afternoon, both their majesties left the royal palace at Richmond, seven miles distant from London, and proceeded in a barge by the river Thames (on the banks of which river the said palace is situated), towards London; and having arrived at a place called Paris Garden, that is to say, the Garden of Paris, an enormous bear was thrown into the water, with several huge mastiff dogs after him at which diverting spectacle the barge was delayed some might enjoy the sight of this famous sport, which considerable time, in order that the royal pair was indeed very delectable to behold."" We pass over the troubles and the perils Then comes an account of the wedding On leaving this pastime, they proceeded to the palace of the Bishop of Winchester, in the suburbs of the city; where arriving, the queen, "on hospitable thoughts intent," forthwith "addressed herself to a servant, inquiring in what manner they had prepared breakfast." After which repast they proceeded to the palace of the Duke of Suffolk, in the borough, in front of London Bridge." The following day the royal pair went on to Westminster in grand style : "First went the king's equipage, which consisted of about a hundred mules, their richlyornamented trappings being worked with the royal arms; each pair was led by a page in the royal livery. Then followed the great officers of the court, English and Spanish together; then the nobility in appropriate dresses, with all fitting pomp and solemnity. The king and queen rode side by side, she on the right hand, robed in a black velvet sack, richly embroidered with silver, with ornaments on her head in the French fashion, covered with gold and precious stones. The king wore a short vest of crimson velvet, richly worked with silver thread; his frock, doublet, and stock 15 66 ings, were of white silk, also worked with silver; | riage of Philip and Mary, the imperial Inround his throat he wore a small chain glittering fanta, Donna Maria of Austria, set out from with jewels; the garter, the sign of the Order of Vienna on her journey to Spain, of which St. George, adorned his left leg. His cap was of she was destined to become queen, by her white velvet, spotted with gold, and surmounted with a white plume. The palfreys of the king marriage with King Philip the Second, her and queen wore exceedingly" white housings, own uncle, who had an absolution considerelaborately worked, and richly ornamented. The ately granted him by the Pope for the occaEarl of Richmond carried the sword of state be- sion. fore the king, and the Earl of Westmoreland before the queen. The queen's guards were dressed in scarlet, and the king's in yellow, both of them being English; between them rode the noble ladies of the court." So on they went to the roar of three hundred cannon that saluted them with three times three under divers arches flanked with giants, and dragons, and allegorical figures, displaying long Latin inscriptions. "At the school of St. Paul's, a public and celebrated school, one of the scholars recited some complimentary verses, after which he presented to the king a small book, which his highness received with marked satisfaction. On arriving at that part of the church of St. Paul, which faces the pyramid, a Spaniard was seen to descend from the tower upon a rope; he was furnished with wings like a bird, but, in the middle of his descent, through deficiency either of skill or courage, he twisted the cord about his legs, and came to the ground, but not without razing the flesh to the very bones." The clumsy attempt of this grave Spaniard to perform the part of Icarus, must have appeared an excellent joke to their majesties, who had so shortly before found the pastime of the bear and the mastiffs fighting in the water so "very delectable" to behold. Indeed, the festivities of those days, as well at marriages as at other occasions of rejoicing, were often of a barbarous and even savage description. The tilts and tournaments, wherein the most grievous personal injuries were frequently inflicted upon each other by the knightly combatants, and sometimes even life itself sacrificed, accustomed the fair sex to consider "breaking ribs as sport for ladies." At the marriage of Mary's mother, the gentle and benevolent Katherine of Arragon, one of the pastimes in her honor consisted in turning deer and dogs into a miniature park, railed in for the occasion, before Westminster Palace; the frightened deer overleaped the fences, and sought refuge from their pursuers in the palace, whither they were closely followed by the huntsmen, who quickly despatched them, and presented the slaughtered animals, whilst yet warm and palpitating, to the Royal Bride! Nearly a century after the ill-starred mar Passing through the usual triumphal arches, and exchanging the usual courtly ceremonials on her way, she finally arrived in the kingdom, the throne of which she was called to share; and the nuptial knot being tied at Navalcarna, four leagues from Madrid, she entered the city as queen. The wonderstricken chronicler of her splendors, an Englishman, then sojourning at Madrid, who is styled in the title-page "a person of quality," though he contents himself with the modest initials of T. B., thus describes the spectacle: "The royal bride was accompanied with a gallant retinue and attendants, glittering with gold and silver, all on horseback, with a select guard of young noblemen bachelors, all along, till she arrived at court; all the ancient grandees coming in the rear, in a solemn, stately equipage, surrounded with laquays and pages, clad in shining liveries: they wore massive chains, and gold hatbands, being mounted, some upon Cordova ginets, others upon Neapolitan coursers, who curvetted all the way, being, as it were, sensible of joy. scriptions, wearing new sorts of mandillions, The queen herself had forty laquays of all decovered all over with gold lace, so that the velvet watchet underneath could hardly be seen. Her common guard went in vestments of cloth of tissue, with rare embroideries, so that the sun could not behold a more glorious spectacle. For leading to the palace, and all the balconies, were two miles the windows on both sides of the streets hung with tapestry, taffetas, and satins, which waved up and down, to the pleasure of the spectator." One of the streets, aptly enough named Plate-street, presented, as our narrator tells us, such a dazzling display of "works of argentry," vessels of massive gold, and crosses and crucifixes of precious stones, that every shop appeared a constellation; insomuch that the Turkish ambassador, who seems to have been, after the royal bride, the most important person present, was thrown into an ecstasy of amazement and admiration at the sight. At the corners of the streets stood eight pyramids, supported on triumphal arches, four of them representing the four quarters of the world, in each of which "the King of Spain," says the "person of quality," hath some territories, which no monarch 66 |