The Garden-Party Season has been widened out by the introduction of "Evening Garden-Parties" into the list of country festivities, and this form of entertainment has found great favour with all.

Invitations are issued on the usual "at home" cards, the hours from 9 to 12 p.m. Occasionally "dancing" is printed on the cards, but not often, as it is not usual to combine an evening garden-party with a dance, except when only young girls and young men are invited.

Some little perplexity is felt by the recipients of evening garden-party invitations as to the style of dress that should be worn. Should ladies wear morning dress or evening dress? Men are equally in doubt on this point. Ought they to wear evening dress or not? Although this is not stated on the invitation cards, yet it is tacitly understood that ladies are expected to appear in the usual garden-party attire—smart, pretty dresses and hats or bonnets, and small fashionable wraps carried in place of sunshades in the event of the evening air proving somewhat chilly. Evening dress, when worn at one of these "at homes," looks particularly out of place. The thin evening shoes, which must of necessity be worn with this style of dress, suit neither dewy grass nor stony gravel; and although at the evening concerts at the Botanic Gardens many ladies wear "evening dress" with smart evening cloaks, this is beside the question. They go for a short half-hour or so, not for a three hours' stay. Anyhow, at evening garden-parties, the rule is not to wear evening dress as far as ladies are concerned. Men, on the other hand, one and all, are expected to do so, morning dress being looked upon as out of place on these occasions. A light overcoat is inseparable from evening dress, therefore it is not considered risky wear for men even on the chilliest of summer evenings.

As to the arrangements for one of these evening garden-parties. It is usual to have tea and coffee, and light refreshments during the whole of the evening, from arrival to departure, and to give a light supper a little before twelve o'clock. The gardens and grounds are illuminated with coloured lamps and lanterns, extensively or moderately, as the case may be. A band is considered indispensable, but a good one does not seem to be equally imperative, to judge from the indifferent performances of various bands heard on these summer evenings. However, country audiences are not too critical, knowing that to engage a good band from a distance entails considerable expense, and that evening garden-parties would be singularly few if superior music was insisted upon. Thus the local band is encouraged to do its best, and to allow long intervals to elapse between each selection.

In the case of an evening turning out decidedly wet, guests invited from a distance seldom put in an appearance, while the nearer neighbours do so, and the evening garden-party becomes an evening reception within doors, shorn of its numbers, it is true, but a pleasant gathering, nevertheless, especially with those who know how to make the best of a contretemps caused by unpropitious weather.