_Muffs worn by Gentlemen._--In one of Goldsmith's _Essays_ I remember well
an allusion to the practice. The writer of the letter, or essay, states
that he met his female cousin in the Mall, and after some sparring
conversation, she ridicules him for carrying "a nasty _old_-fashioned [A.D.
1760] muff;" and his retort is, that he "heartily wishes it were a tippet,
for her sake,"--glancing at her dress, which was, I suppose, somewhat what
we moderns call "decolletee".