Time has changed, and we've often rewound the clock since the Puritans got the shock

When they landed on Flemouth Rock

If today

Any shock they should try to stand

Instead of landing on Flemouth Rock, Flemouth Rock would land on them

In olden day.

A glimpse of shocking wasn't of daughter, something shocking, but now God knows

anything God.

Well, as Cole Porter immortalized in his classic 1934 song, Anything Goes,

it does seem that in olden days the slightest glimpse of an ankle or wrist peeking out from layers of Victorian lace

could provoke apoplexy among some staid buttoned-up sensibilities.

Styles and attitudes that frowned upon any display of neck, chest, back, or arms during the day

could give way to elegant ball gowns with sloping decoultage for the upper body and bustled skirts, complete with trains

that fell to the floor for an evening at Delmonicos.

All of this does make one consider whether one was a straight-laced Victorian or not.

Just what was going on under there in terms of undergarments?

Well, what did Mrs. Astor wear under there?

In this episode, I am joined once again at the Gilded Gentleman Table by listener-favorite

author and fashion historian Dr. Elizabeth Block for a look not only beneath the glitter

and the gold, but a look beneath the satin and the lace to see just what was really going on.

Music Hello, I'm Carl Raymond, the host of the Gilded Gentleman History podcast,

where every two weeks we journey into corners light and dark

...