I'm wondering if "great coat" possibly could have been her nickname or
personal slang between her and her friends for "redingcote"? I've deleted
the original posting, but wasn't the dairy written in 1787? Weren't
redingcotes very stylish then? They two terms sound so similar.
I read a book years ago about Elizabeth Fry, about the same time period,
(maybe a little later?), and she and her sisters had all sorts of family
nicknames that would have meant nothing to an outsider. I nicknamed a dress
of mine my "Red Army" dress - (it was a wool, army green coat dress) and
only my sister would know what that meant. If I had mentioned it in a
letter or diary, two hundred years later a reader might think that it was
fashionable for women in the 1980's to wear dresses from the Soviet Union
military when it was merely an in-joke between friends.
Just thinking.
Sheridan Alder
At 10:14 PM 3/16/2006 -0500, you wrote:
In a message dated 3/16/2006 3:57:54 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
Perhaps it just means the outer most coat, or a long coat....whether it has
multiple capes,or is even heavy wool, or no. Perhaps a long light coat for
fall or spring or riding or traveling. "Great" referring to its length
No, this is definitely what we would call a dress of some kind--one of her
friends is putting one on for dinner. I'm only familiar with the definition
as an overcoat, and that is why I'm so confused.
Ann Wass
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