As far as the hair is concerned, the Mercury tells us ‘the hair is now cropped short enough to leave the ear in a state of perfect nudity’. The shape and size of bonnets continued to reduce, the latest trend in female dress being that of ‘littleness – little beads, little handkerchiefs, little aprons, little caps and little hats …’, possibly striking fear into the fainthearted with a report that, as bonnets were no longer as deep as previously worn, ‘the eye brow is scarcely arched over, so that the poor female nose is of course left to the rigid mercy of the March winds’.
