Dear Mrs Prior

Tee shirts? Trousers?? What are these correspondents thinking of?!

Your girls should be proud to wear sensible flat brogue-style lace-up shoes with stockings or tights, leading up to a flattering, pleated, just-above-the knee skirt in a heavy woollen material: all these in black, I suggest. Above the waist, a well-cut white shirt and College tie, the latter of your design.

Outer wear: in all weathers, a matt-finish calf-length black rubber trench coat and matching sou'wester; the coat to have traditional adjustable cuff and neck protective buttons/straps, and to be worn fully belted and collar-up. Wellingtons (reaching above the coat hem) to be worn outside the office at all times, even in the absence of coat and hat. Woe betide any miscreants dressing improperly: perhaps others will care to suggest a suitable punishment uniform for them.

Nicole S. Klegg