Lol on your image of ladies covered in a netlike stringknitted attire.

I can't wait to get back home and see what this cloth is called in Swedish.And when you explained the stomacher's purpose I heard Mind the gap! in my inner ear. ;-) Lovely pictures.

That last line about her crimson silk dress can be understood two ways. The vicar thinks his wife remembers how he once expressed his admiration for her dress. At first I thought that very sweet and saw her preference for it as proof of her devotion to her husband.
Now I wonder if perhaps it is simply her finest dress and the rest is only in Charles Primrose's mind. sigh...