Note 44 — CLOTHES.

“Narrow sleeves are a very great check on the muscular exercise of the Arms—the Waistcoat, in its present fashionable form, may be very properly termed a strait one. The Waistcoat should be long enough to cover the breeches two or three inches all round. The wrists and knees, but more particularly the latter, are braced with ligatures, or tight buttoning; and the Legs, which require the utmost freedom of motion, are secured into leathern cases or Boots—though the wearer perhaps is never mounted on Horseback.

“To complete the whole, as the Head is confined by a tight Hat, but rarely suited to its natural shape, so in regard to shoes the shape of the foot and the easy expansion of the Toes are never consulted—but the shape regulated by the fashion of the Day, however tight and uncomfortable.”—Sinclair’s Code of Health, 4th Edit. p. 357.