Women wore the lofty " tower " or " commode" head-dress, which, in the exaggeration that preceded its abolition, usually exceeded in its height the length of the face below it. The Dutch dames did not fall victims to any of the eccentricities of fashion ; but with their close-fitting caps, velvet bodices, short and voluminous skirts -- the muslin petticoats crisp and stiff with starch -- the household keys hanging from their girdles and their capacious pockets filled with scissors, pin-cushion and other domestic tools, made a stubborn fight against the encroachments of the female dandyisms imported from across the Atlantic.

In course of time the homespun linsey became the ordinary wear in the farmers' homes, but up to the opening of the Revolutionary epoch "My Lady of the Manor " luxuriated in costumes that rivaled the extreme modes of European aristocratic circles. She might be a year late in adopting them, but she was not responsible for their delay in reaching her, and there are certain cotemporary records which leave no doubt in the mind that she and her daughters were not backward even in adopting and continuing the ultra decollete gowns which the Stuart Restoration made indispensable to an English fashionable woman. They embraced themselves in the cruel stays that comj)ressed their figures into the wasp-like waist then the object of foolish admiration, and tilted themselves forward on the pinching and high-heeled shoes, which had passed from Louis Quatorze to Charles II., and thence to the colonies. The stalwart and heroic impulses which united the colonies In their revolt against the British monarchy penetrated all classes of society, and as the crisis approached dress became simpler and the great ladies co-operated with their lords to represent in their own persons the economy and plainness which typified the coming era of war and republicanism.