Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/283

Rh enough, too, were their long coats, with skirts stiffly held out with whalebone. "The skirt of your fashionable coats forms as large a circumference as our petticoats; as these are set out with whalebone, so are those with wire," says the Spectator. Add to this the new cravat or neck-cloth, the cocked hat, the fine holland shirt with ruffles, the silk stockings, the high-heeled shoes with buckles, the gloves, the silk handkerchief for snuff-taking and the indispensable sword, and the gentleman of Queen Anne's time is complete. It is a relief to find that they despised the newly-introduced umbrella, which was growing in popularity with women, in order to shade them from the sun and rain. Up to this time their only screen had been a fan, and in bad weather they had stayed within doors. Heavy, clumsy contrivances were these early umbrellas. They were used to hold over bare-headed clergy at funerals; sometimes it was possible to borrow one at a coffee-house, but it was some time before they became ordinary and indispensable possessions to every one, as they are to-day.

The manners of the early eighteenth century may have improved since the days when Queen Elizabeth thought it no indignity to spit at the