"English Children's Costume"

I have been reading about the progression of children's clothing from the start of the 19th century and until the start of the 20th. I was interested to read that children's clothing used to, in the 1700s, be fashioned exactly on those of the adults of the time and not until the 19th century did children have their own, more practical, fashion.
This in itself of course still see-sawed between relatively practical and ridiculous, especially in the case of the hats and the dress skirts which fluctuated massively in size and style. It was these impracticalities, however, that i suppose to be the reason why these objects are so recognisable even from silhouette or stylised image.

 

Interestingly, young boys were said to have been wearing long trousers for many (about 40) years before the adult men took on the fashion.

(Brooke, I; English Children's Costume since 1775, 1935; A & C. Black, Ltd; London