Umbrellas and Their History (Esprios Classics)

Can it be possibly believed by the present eminently practical generation that a busy people like the English whose diversified occupations so continually expose them to the chances and changes of a proverbially fickle sky had ever been ignorant of the blessings bestowed on them by that dearest and truest friend in need and in deed the UMBRELLA? Can you gentle reader for instance realise to yourself the idea of a man not possessing such a convenience for rainy weather?