Wee Folk Of The 18th Century

It stuns me to realize how small people were until recently. At almost 6ft tall, I cant imagine being so tiny. This photo of me was taken at the Victoria and Albert museum in London about 5 years ago. The detail in the dress is amazing. I am always so excited to see these garments up close and personal after looking at them in books all my life. You just cannot get the grandness and scale of anything until standing right next to it.

I had the same excitement when I saw the Shinrone gown in Dublin for the first time. You cant get the same scope when looking at a photo or a diagram on a pattern. I saw how the threads were so expertly woven in the cloth. I cried. Maybe it is just an old dress dragged from the bog, but could the woman who had worn that dress even imagine a woman of the 21st century crying at the loveliness of the weave of her simple gown?

I'm sure the guard thought I was silly if he took any notice at all.

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