THE BISHOP'S HAT.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 732, 3 February 1910, Page 6

THE BISHOP'S HAT.

A RESPECTFUL INQUIRY. ■

(Py J-Q.x.)

,'. "For, neither', in .'tailoring nor in ,' legislating does man proceed by mere' Accident," but the band is ever guided / on by : mysterious. operations of the .: J: mind. In all his Modes, and habila- :: ;tory endeavours, an Architectural Idea will be found lurking; his Body and the Cloth are the site and .materials ; whereon and whereby: his beautified '/edifice, of a'Person,-:is to:be-built." .; y" ... '—"Sartor Eesartus." /■: One : question .that puzzles: me about the General Synod of the'Angliwn Church of the Province of New Zealand is:-Why do bishops :wear .flying-buttresses oh their hats?lUmppbse"vl':.daght''')iot''{o call these things flying-buttresses; '. There' must, be a correct name for them, but I do not know, it; . ' "Flying-buttress" indicates fairly well their shape and ; situation, and its associations'- are appropri-ately-ecclesiastical., : But this particular member of a bishop's' hat .does, not, upon further consideration, appear' to be a buttress -at all. :It cannot, be supposed to give support to the high central part of'the,: structure;! byi.itrahsmitting.-a portion -of the weight, to. the lower and outer part. . Rather does it seem to : hold up tie'peripheral member by attaching it ;to the' sfronger,: though loftier,; inner walls, It'is. not in' compression, but in 'tension.' It-is not ; a buttress.biit a brace. : But 'I: could; not; have : said::that, a bishop wears braces.;on his hat. ■) , -..

Let . me . 'call : ,'liimehting; my ignorance of the proper word—"hat-brim-braces.";' The, difficulty: of naming them thus';' scrambled/ over, ; the : question oftheir ■ reason : . clamours municipal library, but in vain. : I found three bealutifully-illustrated histories of costume';; Two ofy them', being produced by;'Mtistic people;_ short' of the-introdnctiqn. of., the ;bell-topper,' chimney-pot, (; stove'-pip'e, :. and ■ all ; y such, hats. • The / third; pictured . many 'hats which ;-were'approximately-"oylindriform, cylindroid, ',or conico-cylinarical, bat none of " them, had-' brim-braces. : -' Somewhere, : probably, there' is'- a jbook which tells all : ,:about;bishops' hats, but one cannot expect-the .-municipal i library to contain everything. •. There' was; indeed a brim-braced hat' in' one Of the pictures, Mt' this, was : a sort,of ''sombrero.-: To .fix in,some such : way.: any wide,.: flexible hatbrimi which would-otherwise flap uncomfortaoly':'in • the- wind,. !l [ , is-..a'. perfectly nataraf:and obvious/action. Incidentally, it makes- the hat more picturesque.- Hence the practice ; has; from time to time ..become a'.fashion. . Military, headgear and: feminine millinery; have exemplified this transition. . •' •

- "Some' such'''evolutionary -process' doubtless- awaits elucidation ;iii the \case of -the bishop's 'hat-brim-braces,:''' These, also ; must .have/originate, on Jiats, where .they were'of., practical use.; They'were for-, merly structural, and, are now omamental., ''Skeuomorph''<islthe scientific term'. Ornaments whose - derived from the human body or parts of :it are "anthropomorphs"; those from'- the forms, of animals; zoomorphs*'; from- plant, forms,; "phyUomorphs"'; ,j and/these- three classes are all; comprehended in' the single term "biomorphs. Very: many of.. the familiar garnishings ,of .the.- plastic,' .Active; textile and' constructional arts are easily recognised as bioinoiphs. Probably most of the.others , originated ',: as skeuomorphs. •j."'-- 1 =' ; " ;A certain aboriginal ' tribe used: vege-. able 'fibres, to '..tie their stone, axe-heads to the wooden• hafts. : Later,' when.they: cat bladei and * handle, out of a' single . stone they,: carved, the • about ! the . angle in limitation .'of the,'th'en needless'.- bandages.' That : patch : :bf camng'was'a skeuo-' morph. So, too,' some early pottery is patterned irith skouomorphic impressions of earlier-:,basketwork.- In ' architecture, the columns,: arches, find corbels'.that- support'nothing, but are merely .stuck on .to 'the' -front, of'.'-a. building, to,, make';' it' .100k 1 ' There' are many :'6thers; ;our : streets'-tire- lined with In' furhiture, the: gable-like'finish, at'the' top of: ii',bookcase or cabinet is:in 'like manner an'ornamental feature copied from': aVstructural: device.., .So, ' too, our neckties, , and:' th'e -buttons •on '- our coatsleeve's' are obviously skeuomorphic. -i. •But 'all: this -does '-not completely account for th 6 Bishop's , hat-braces. . .It is a plausible explanation of their origin,but it ' leaves /the' problem of their-sur-vival very :dimly illuminated, and. does not touch the , question '.why ,- they are . exclusively reserved: for. the headgear of ~the; higher. • clergy. v, What /'mysterious operations of the mind" guided those hands which - selected ;these 'particular forms and materials to help build the "beautified edifice .-of the person" of ,a Bishop? • A-/ 1 ■ j."'- .' In'"'things'/ecclesiastical'.there, is apt to bo I -am / but. meagrely instructed.There .may - be, in addition', to the evolutionary -explanation which . I : have r. given,' another "and. far different',: one, >wliMoby ~.these flying-but- . tresses (the term washed .clean.. .of _. all whimsicality), are . seen to typify wingy essences and strong auxiliaries! of truth. I' Tennyson:: plucked' a .-flower out of 'a crannied wall; and saidj^r

-• "If I could understand What you are, ;root and all, and all in all, I. should'know what God: and man is.". find the more. I contemplate! the . Bishop's hat-briin-braces;: the 'more-: do -I. believo 'that, if. I -knew an'd understood .all" that they ■ have meant in the. ." past and all , .they mean to-day—how; -the' aspirations of. saints, ! the ideals,:of -statesmen, the .'skill .of .craftsmen," , "the'; fah'ci'es ''of 1 humorists along • the dim ■ past,- '-.-have, visited them, with shaping touches, what in. the Vminds of each of .the/three orders of : ,the 1 Church preserve them in new lands and a flew century— I should know, more completely' than by. any. direct instruction, (even of the whole 'Bench ' of- Bishops) . - what;, . history .' and 'creation', mean' to ; -the/Anglican Church of- the -Province-' of. New - Zealand, and itsChufch of I 'England.' 1 ; And when the hat, -with its buttresses . and all other features,- had-yielded to: the study; .of a .life-timo.': its full harvest of wisdom,, there would be the apron and the gaiters—material for >two. more lives. Teufelsdrockh .did but glance casually at his' - stupendous and . endlessly-' ramified subject. 1 quote - his reference to. the episcopal apron' only, .to/ dissent from the iniplication.. asks, "consists: the usefulness of sthis/ 7 Apron?, The "Overseer (Episcopus); of Souls, . I notice, :has. : tuck'ed-in 'the ;conier v 6.f' it,' as if his lily's work:were --done;:; .what does -he shadow, forth: .thereby.?"' 'X have .not ob's'erved 1 ' thisytucking-intpf 'the; corner; nor do. -1> believethat—among:'-New ' Zealand bishops at any rate—there! is/any need to fear what, Teufelsdrockh; - evidently supposed it' to shadow/forth. /Concerning the gaiter 6,': a ■ lady who has lived '.at Christchurch declares that a sort of prophetic - vision of. a bishop,' on a .bicycle must have been the chief influence in their ovoliition. .To the -. episcopal .gaiters,' : apron, : and hat, I-give a 'share of '!the love. 'which I.'have for everything that connects -New. Zealand . .with' history: . and ': mth Home. If those' bisiiops who. feel.that their titles soparate* them too 'mnch : from other men ■ should:'.develop a similar -.quarrel .with their costume; I should be' ready to :admit that they knew their own-business best, but -I-.conldi hardly.,witness the: total' disappearance' of black apron, .'cloth gaiters, and- brim-braced hat. without inquiring .whether there j is' not -' for " -the- souls 'of things, as. of; men, somewhere, a heaven.