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Otago Witness, Issue 1899, 13 April 1888, Page 32

GOLDEN-HAIRED BEAUTIES.

Some of the greatest beauties of the world have had hair the colour of which was "brown in the shadow and gold in the sun."

Fair .Rosamond's crisped locks are compared by an old ballad to threads of gold. Joan of Arc, the beautiful enthusiast, had bronze-golden hair, such as artists weave into their dreams of fair women.

Helen of Troy had masses of tawny hair, and so had Sappho, the poetess of Greece.

Cleopatra, Egypt's famous queen, had red hair, and was freckled.

The auburn hair of good Queen Bess is famous, and she delighted to display it for the admiration of her courtiers. It is described as soft, silky, and wavy, of a beautiful golden brown, and shown as though powdered with gold dust.

The two most beautiful women that England ever saw, and who took all London by storm 130 years ago, the beautiful Gunnings, as they were called, were red-headed Irish girls. But theirs were The bright tresses which defied The sun to match them in his noonday pride.

One of them became a duchess and the other a countess.

In Ireland locks of the most fiery hue have long been regarded as an attribute of beauty, even by the peasantry. " She's an illigant lady, good luck to her," gome ragged loiterer will say. " She's a mighty line woman intirely ; only it's a pity that she has not red hah." An old Irish ditty has these lines : — Heigh for the apple and ho for the pear, But give me tho pretty girl with the red hair.

Mary Queen of Scots wore red tresses, and co did those famous beauties of France — Agnes Sorel, Diana of Poitiers, and Gabriello d'Estrees. The ancient Roman ladies dyed fcheir hair red, in order to make themselves

more beautiful and attractive, for they liked what they called honey-coloured and auburn hair. • *

One world-famous woman owes her immortality to her auburn hair. Petrarch's eyes, wandering at church, fell upon Laura, arrayed in a green mantle, over which her hair fell in plaited tresses, and his heart was won for ever.

The snare wa« cet amid those threads of gold To which Love bound me fast. And in one of his sonnets he says :

The gold and topaz of the sun on snow Are shamed by the bright hair above those eyes.