ABSTRACT
Gladstone-Lingham responded to the disparagement in a letter to the editor that, in turn, was countered by Allen confirming his original criticisms. The Misses Garrett recommended floral designs as suggestive of “sweet smell”; Mrs. Orrinsmith advocates patterns which “wisely combine the slender boughs of the willow with the amber branches and dark-green of the gadding-vine;” and Mrs. Haweis calls upon young ladies to go about in Gainsborough hats, because, from a certain point of view, they present an agreeable contrast to the complexion. Grandiloquent phraseology, metaphysical disquisition, the enunciation of mere opinions, and the perpetual appeal to “authority”—these are not the means by which the Science of Taste will be brought within the reach of the popular comprehension. Depend upon it our best authority will be Common Sense, and that principles are the only guide the peoples can trust to.
