Lady Lieutenant after the minuets at eleven o'clock went to her
basset table, while her pages attended behind her chair, and when on
ball nights the ladies scrambled for sweetmeats on the dancing-
floor. As to their probable toilets, one could not give purer
pleasure than by quoting Mrs. Delany's description of one of them:-

'The Duchess's dress was of white satin embroidered, the bottom of
the petticoat brown hills covered with all sorts of weeds, and every
breadth had an old stump of a tree, that ran up almost to the top of
the petticoat, broken and ragged, and worked with brown chenille,
round which twined nasturtiums, ivy, honeysuckles, periwinkles, and
all sorts of running flowers, which spread and covered the
petticoat. . . . The robings and facings were little green banks
covered with all sorts of weeds, and the sleeves and the rest of the
gown loose twining branches of the same sort as those on the
petticoat. Many of the leaves were finished with gold, and part of
the stumps of the trees looked like the gilding of the sun. I never
saw a piece of work so prettily fancied.'

She adds a few other details for the instruction of her sister
Anne:-

'Heads are variously adorned; pompons with some accompaniment of
feathers, ribbons, or flowers; lappets in all sorts of curli-murlis;
long hoods are worn close under the chin; the ear-rings go round the
neck(!), and tie with bows and ends behind. Night-gowns are worn
without hoops.'