ECCENTRIC ILLUSTRATIONS OF DRESS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1835, 9 January 1880, Page 4

ECCENTRIC ILLUSTRATIONS OF DRESS.

["From the “ Queen.”J The subject which I am aboui to consider may form a natural sequence to that entitled “A Quaint Fashion of the Olden Times, inasmuch as it deals with that of devices There was a time, extending over a veiy long period, when our streets were for the mos: part nameless; and sign-boards were hung out, by order of Government, to indicate to the traveller the asylum prepared for him—a plan adopted by tradesmen also to draw attention to their workshops and warehouses. Articles of wearing apparel were very frequently selected as designs for these boards, equally so by “mine boat ” the “ Boniface,’’ as by their respective manufacturers; and it is apropos of the sundry garments which have afforded subjects for them that I now offer a few observations. Commencing with our head-gear, we find many changes rung upon the s'ltnc notes : * «< The Hat,’’ “ Hat and Beaver,’’ 11 Hat and Feathers,” " Hat and Star,” ” Leghorn Hat,” and “Three Hats besides “The Periwig,” and “ Alue Peruke Star.” M. Bickerstaff’s comedy of “The Hypocrite,” the oftenquoted “Mawworm” alludes to one of the inns above designated : “ I used to go every Sunday evening to the ‘Three Hats’ at Islington; it’s a publichouse—mayhap your lordship may know it." , t , And, indeed, it seems to have been a noted place, on account of its equestrian exhibitions, not beneath the patronage of a royal duke (the Duke of York, 1758), nor of the redoubtable Dr Johnson himself. Of the “Hat and Feathers” but one example appears to be extant, possibly because the iron hael of the Puritans trod the fashion under foot. More than one of their writers designated these decorations in such unmeasured terms as “ Ensignes of varieties fluttering sailes, and feathered flagges of defiaunce to virtue.” An old tin hat, minus the obnoxious plumes, may still be seen in Whitechapel, the “ cocked hat ” worn in the latter part of the eighteenth century. The introduction of beaver hats is commemorated in a sign at Leicester. They were introduced as early as in the reign of Edward 111., but their manufacture in England dates from that of Henry VIII. In the following reign French and Flemish Protestant refugees brought over the craft from their own lauds, to establish it at Norwich and the adjacent market towns; but at this period the upper classes of society alone were permitted to wear them. “ Statute caps "of thick woven wool were prescribed exclusively to the rest of the community, in the time of Queen Elizabeth, under pain of a fine of three shillings and fourpence for every day’s trangression of this law. Voltaire used to reside at the “ White Peruke,” in Maiden lane, when he visited London, as may be found recorded in certain letters of his to Dean Swift. White periwigs were only worn by persons who affected a very fashionable appearance, should have been exclusively adopted by the wealthy, for handsome ones were very costly, amounting, in the reign of Charles 11., to even as much as £SO. Bo valuable were they, that they were objects of desire to highwaymen, and common thieves have been known to cut a hole through the leather back of a carriage, and, inserting a hand, abstract the prize from the head of the “ exquisite ” within, and be off before the carriage could be stopped. If the hats and caps of the Middle Ages were as extensive in their several varieties as those worn in the sixteenth century, the shops and hostelries distinguished by either of them might have sported gay and astounding femblems, one in no way resembling its next neighbour. In the eighteenth century Le Qros, a Parisian barber and artist in head-gear of all kinds, published a series of plates, with their descriptions, consisting of no less than a hundred varieties. Perhaps the hats so-called worn by men in the fourteenth century were less deserving the name than any worn before or since. Judging from the engraving in Strutt’s “ English Costume,” they were most fantastic, and capable of being changed in form by every blast of wind; but towards the close of the eighteenth century the headdresses of women surpassed any that were ever worn by men in their frightful eccentricity. The “Hood and Scarf ” represented a milliner's establishment which was situated in Cornhill (1673). The hood was a style of covering usually adopted in the Middle Ages. Examples of some just like those in present use on our ulsters and ordinary waterproof cloaks are represented in a fourteenthcentury missal in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge. As a sign, it must have produced but a poor effect. Another milliner’s device was “The Blue Bodice,” whose shop was in the Long Walk in Queen Anne's time. But this trade was not monopolised by women in these days, and, unless some change take place for the better in the cutting and fitting by female hands in the dressmaking department, there will be a lapse of the work into masculine hands before many years have passed by. “The Shirt” was the “flag of distress" hung out by a despairing alehouse-keeper, bearing the inscription, “This is my last shift ” —a play on the word—as he had been unsuccessful in previous ventures ; and this quaint device procured him the custom he desired. It must be remembered that in Saxon times there was no distinction between the shirt and the shift—or the sherte or camise, from whence the French word chemise, which we have adopted. This article of dress was at certain periods in our history very handsome and costly, as worn by the nobility; and that represented on the tomb of Coeur de Lion at Fontevrault has a border of gold and raised studs. “ The Glove ” has also been adopted for a sign-painting. It has also been employed as a token, expressive in a variety of ways. It denoted a knightly challenge; a eastern still obtaining at our coronation ceremonies; it was worn in the cap or helmet as a pledge of faith to the ladye-love who gave it. A pair of white ones ate still presented to the county judge when no cases are brought for trial; and in certain localities they are hung on the church pew of a peasant family on the death, in early youth, of an unmarried lad or lass.

" The Garter," like the glove, has been a favourite emblem, and equally utilised in a way foreign to its natural purpose. As an order of distinction I need not to speak of it; as a sign, it is immortalised in “The Merry Wives of Windsor.” The scenes of Falstaff’s exploits was a really existing inn, and gave the site to the present Star and and Garter. Two more historical taverns were distinguished by these emblems—that in Pall Mall, in which Lord Byron’s grandfather killed Mr Chaworth in a duel, and that at the end of Burton street, where equestrian exhibitions used to take place. Insignificant as articles of apparel in modern times, they afforded ample scope to the painter in the olden days for the introduction of bold contrasts of colour, and sweeping “lines of beauty and grace; ” for garters in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were large and handsome scarves, tied in hhndsome bows, fringed with lacs or gold, and sometimes enriched with “ silver roses.” Ben Johnson speaks of wearing—- “ Scarlet, gold lace, and cut work—your fine gartering— With your blown roses.” Stockings, if not so popular nor so dignified as the garter, were commonly seen on trade tokens of the seventeenth century, and are suspended as signs, cut out in wood, to this day. In the time of Gay, the poet says : “On hosier’s poles depending stockings ty’d, Flag, with the slackened gale, from side to side.”—“The Trivia,”

They have some historic interest attached to them, dating from the year 1400, when the first mixed club of men and women was instituted at Venice. Their badge consisted of the blue stockings, which they wore ; and the idea was adopted in England in the eighteenth century, when first the badge was worn by Mrs Montagu. The last of its patrons was the Countess of Cork (nee Monckton), who died in 1840. As a mere soubriquet, intended to disparage, the term “blue stocking ” is still applied to women ; but the very high standard to which their education has now so extensively attained has necessarily change tout ccla. The stocking has an old traditional interest for children on New Year’s Day, having been selected as the purse of the « good fairies," and hangs heavy with treasure at the foot of the child’s bed on that most happy of mornings. As an article of dress it dates back at least to the twelfth century, and the name is derived from the knitting needles used in their manufacture, at first called “ sticking pins,” from, the Saxon, to stick, corrupted to stok, whence “sleeken ” or stocking.