DELVING INTO HISTORY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1517, 13 August 1912, Page 3

DELVING INTO HISTORY.

What is the origin of the "summer sales." A diligent search in. the archives has revealed the answer to tho riddle. It seems that the first organised drapery sale took place so long ago as 1581. ' At that time Queen Elizabeth was negotiating a marriage with the Due d'Alencon. The visit of the French Prince made it desirable that the Court should be redressed. But funds had run short, and Queen Be°s always ftrove to be economical. That the ladies of her Court and herself might make a brave show without over-much expense, she devised the following scheme:—An Order-in-Couucil was issued that shopkeepers were to sell their cloth of gold, velvet, silks, and other sucli stuffs at a reduction of one quarter from the price per yard, the Queen adding that she wishes the merchants "to do her this service in order that the ladies and gentlemen may bo the better able to bedizen themselves." Elizabeth received tho Due d'Alencon and his followers, five hundred in .number, in a gown of cloth of gold, covered with diamonds and rubies. Whether she really desired a match with tho unimpressive princeling cannot now be known. At any rate, if the Duke proposed, Elizabeth did not accept. The first summer sale failed to achieve its main end. Tho wedding did not take place. Doubtless the sales of tho twentieth century are utilised for similar purposes. An effective frock will not ensnare every man; perhaps it will not catch the best men. But, as Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler once said: "If you only want a sweetheart for youth, a husband for middle age, and a widower to plant forget-me-nots on your grave, you need 1 not trouble, to be either great or clever. It will be quite enough if you do your hair nicely and wear your best clothes when there's an ofl'-chance of seeing him." .