When Anne Lister arrived in Paris with her aunt in the spring of 1819, the proprietress of the hotel in which they stayed warned her against the impropriety of her headgear. ‘She said I could not go out in my little round hat & must have a bonnet. The next day Anne bowed to convention by buying a ‘yellow willow bonnet for seven franks & gave a frank for the black strings. On leaving Paris, she soon reverted to her usual small, black, round hat, even though it attracted attention from passers-by. As they neared Fleuri her headgear almost caused an accident. The occupants of a cabriolet were ‘so earnestly looking at me & my petit chapeau, the gentleman forgot to hold up his horses and down he came’. Reaching London, where all the women were wearing ‘large straw gipsy hats (bonnets)’ she once again found her small hat the focus of attention – ‘people stared at my little straw hat’.