Page:The Present State and Prospects of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales.djvu/147

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OF PORT PHILLIP.
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considerable degree of cold as well as great heat is to be guarded against, at different times of the year, it is necessary to have a good stock suited to each purpose. All clothes worn in England are fit for the winter months, and shooting-jackets and trowsers made of light tweed are excellent wear for the morning, during the greater part of the year; a few blouses and linen jackets, and a good supply of white trowsers, would be of great service in the heat of summer. For riding, the trowsers are strapped down the inside of the leg with baragon—this is generally done at Melbourne. Boots, known by the initiated as bullfinch boots, are very useful for riding in wet and muddy weather; and something in the shape of a short and loose cloth Taglioni coat, made to reach down to the knee, is indispensable, for carrying strapped to the saddle when travelling. I should recommend a good supply of boots and shoes, as well as the bringing of a man's own lasts, with which his shoemaker can furnish him. Hats and caps suitable to the country can be had at Melbourne, and there is no lack of variety; cloth caps, Panama, Manilla, cabbage-tree, drab Quaker hats, with many others, are in use, for it is in this part of the dress that the colonists chiefly display their taste. I think it is Beranger who says in one of his songs, "J'aime les Anglais quoique leur chapeaux sont si laids," and this applies with tenfold force to the Port Phillippians.

I am rather at a loss how to give advice to ladies on this subject, and they must arrive at their conclusions by a kind of sum in the rule of three. For instance, if they want to ascertain what kind of material is fit