In spite, however, of their terror, these gala days were very much enjoyed by both. A carriage was hired for the whole day, and their best gowns and bonnets were put on. This hired carriage my aunts always called a glass coach, because in olden times all carriages were made with only wooden or canvas blinds, and when the improvement of glass windows was introduced they were only used for private conveyances and not for hackney coaches. Therefore my aunts from habit always spoke of their " glass coach," to show that they were not going about in a vulgar hackney conveyance. As to their dress on these occasions, I do not feel that I can do it justice if I attempt a description. It was so complicated and intricate and composed of so many odds and ends that you wondered how the wearers ever got into the different portions of their attire.
The skirts of their dresses were very narrow, and short enough to clearly display prunella shoes and white stockings, the former having wide black sandals. On their shoulders my aunts always wore a kind of pelerine or tippet, and a net ruff round the throat. But their heads — adorned with heavy bunches of hair collected over the forehead and eyes, and surmounted by huge net helmets with massive bows placed exactly in front, looking like a large bird preparing to fly — how are these to be imagined? They were a sight to fill the childish mind with awe and wonder. These caps were brought with them in a basket when they came to spend the day, and worn at dinner, but no one was permitted to touch them, or to be present at the process of adorning. That was done with closed doors in secret! The fact was, that both aunts wore rouge, which had been the fashion universally in their day, and which they never discontinued, so that I fancy a slight touch was added at the evening toilette, which process, if a child had been allowed to witness, they would have silently wondered at, and would have afterwards loudly announced the fact in the course of the evening. My aunts' bonnets, which the caps replaced, were made according to their own peculiar fashion, and were of one standing pattern, only differing in material according to the season. In winter it would be black velvet and in summer white satin. But everything they wore was of the largest type and size, so that you could have made half a dozen articles out of the one. Aunt Mary's muff looked like the skin of a whole bear, and on the outside she used to pin a large white bow, so that she might distinguish one side from the other and always be able to place the same next her. Their parasols were as large as a family umbrella. They were made of green taffeta and were armed with long brass ferules to prevent the silk and whalebone from touching the ground. The veils which they almost always wore would have made a good-sized apron, and so on with everything. One dress that Aunt Mary appeared in on a certain summer's day can never be forgotten while memory lasts. It was hot weather, and we were then living in a house a few miles out of town, which my father had taken for the sake of the large garden and grounds where the children could run about and enjoy fresh air and liberty. Aunt Mary came from Kensington to spend the day, and as she considered Hammersmith quite the country, she had to adapt her dress accordingly, for of course the fashion that suited Kensington High Street would not do for the wilds of Hammersmith. Her attire therefore consisted of a white cambric petticoat, made conveniently short for climbing stiles or walking through long grass, which also gave you a good view of stout prunella shoes with wide sandals and high heels. The upper part of her figure was clothed in a bright green spencer confined round the waist by a broad band, and on her head she wore a straw chimney-pot hat, to which was attached an enormous green veil that floated in the air like a banner. My aunt was constantly waving this veil back with a graceful gesture of her hand, because the brim of the man's hat being very narrow it was constantly falling over her face and interrupting her sight. The parasol with the brass ferule completed the whole costume, and the effect was certainly very funny. But in spite of all their peculiarities and oddities, to say nothing of their very uncertain tempers, they had some warm and staunch friends.