THE PANIER.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1995, 27 May 1875, Page 3

THE PANIER.

£ .This lately.'revived -article of female costume flourished'in the time of Louis XV., arid consisted of a petticoat made of basket work. They were even made of wood with bars Of iron, and were first introduced from Spain by Anna of Austria, mother of Louis XIII., s For nearly a century they disappeared, and it was not until the time of Louis XV. that they once more became the mode. Barbier, in his "interesting diary, published more than a; century ago in Paris, tells us that -'th^ Cardinal de Eleuryhas had his legs nmbh cut by .the paniersbt a certain lady with whom he was recently returning from a religious service. You know Vtb at these great pahiers are so . monstrous, that two persona cannot well occupy the samVchair on account of their size. His eminence insisted 'upon returning 'home in the carriage of Madame ——7&nd, as he is a stout man^ he somehow or other brelce her panier,' and the wopdea bars' wounded his }egs so, much that he had to be carried out of the chair, with the blood trickling down his calves. The lady, laughed fit to kill herself at this spectacle, and it has made all Paris roar. " o,n .he says :—" These pliers aye 50 big, thVt when' 1 the queen is .staged' in her reception rbpni with 1 inqsdames the sisters of the ling: on either side of her, their petticoats hide her Majesty so completely that the king as issued- an order to the effect that there shall always ■be two vacant chairs on either side of her Majesty."