A Mr. R. W. L. wrote to the Editor from Peterborough enclosing this poem, about simplicity which he believed was “not inapplicable to the times”.
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PRIMITIVE SIMPLICITY
'An old Maiden Aunt, whose locks, white as snow,
Proclaim'd she was young some half cent'ry ago,
With significant nods and remarks very shrewd,
Thus accosted her niece, a gay, volatile nude:
"How degenerate the times - I remember the days
"When ladies wore handkerchiefs, aprons, and stays,
"And nobody dreamt of your muslins and lace;
"The virtue received an indelible speck
"If a female display'd but the top of her neck;
"But, now, you all show what was meant to be hid -
"Pray why can't you dress as your grandmothers did?"
"Dear Aunt, so I do; why don't you perceive
"We follow the fashion of grandmother Eve?
"If your argument's good, we can never be blam'd,
"Like her we go naked -
(Aunt) . . . . . . . . . . . ."And are not asham'd!"'
Stamford Mercury, 16th August, 1816.