Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/630

616 heads reappeared with fresh extravagance in their skirts. The monstrous hoop, which has reappeared in our time in the rear of crinoline, made its appearance at the suggestion of a fashionable mantua-maker named Selby. This was an old fashion, however, revived.

The ladies in their riding habits affected the costume of the gentlemen. The "Spectator," No. 104, describes a lady in a coat and waistcoat of blue camlet, trimmed and embroidered with silver, with a petticoat of the same stuff, by which alone her sex was recognised, as she wore a smartly-cocked beaver hat edged with silver, and rendered more sprightly by a feather; and her hair, curled and powdered, hung to a considerable length down her shoulders, tied, like that of a rakish young gentleman's, with a long streaming scarlet ribbon. They also assumed the male periwig on these occasions in addition to the coat, hat, and feather. The blaze of colours worn by both ladies and gentleman was dazzling, and by the ladies really gorgeous.



In George I.'s reign the fashions were much the same. The battle of Ramilies introduced the Ramilies cock of the hat and the Ramilies wig, which had a long plaited tail gradually diminishing, with a great bow at the top and a little bow at the bottom. The Ramilies wig continued to be worn till the reign of George III.

The ladies still continued their hooped petticoats, scarlet cloaks with hoods—called "cardinals"—the cloaks often edged with lace, the loose gowns—called "sacques"—the small frilled or puffed caps, and masks when walking. Black and white beaver hats were advertised in 1719, faced with coloured silks, and trimmed with gold or silver lace. The paintings of Watteau and of Lancret give a good idea of the dresses of this time.

In the reign of George II. we have the paintings of Hogarth as our instructors in the fashions. The general character of the dress continued the same; but the tie-wig and bob-wig were added to the other wigs; the bob sometimes worn without powder. The Ramilies tail was followed by the pig-tail, which appears in the prints of this reign as early as 1745. Young men wearing them wore their own hair powdered profusely. Grey and white hair were still most esteemed for perukes, probably as doing with little or no powder.

The gentlemen at court wore chiefly brown flowered velvet coats, or dark cloth coats, laced with gold and silver; lord Castlemaine appeared in a rich gold stuff coat; and waistcoats of gold stuff, or rich flowered silks of a large pattern, with a white ground, were prevailing. Instead of swords at the court end, many young men carried huge oak sticks, with great heads and ugly faces carved on them. The fashions of the ladies varied very much during George II.'s reign; once the huge hoop was nearly discarded, but reappeared as monstrously as ever. The ladies still wore flowered silks of a large pattern, but mostly with a white ground, with wide, short sleeves, and short petticoats. Some had gold or silver knots on their petticoats, and to their facings and robings; and others gold and silver knots on their gown-sleeves, like flounces. In some cases their gowns were flounced from top to bottom of the skirt. They had fine scolloped lace hoods; some curled their hair down the sides; others pinned it close up quite short; but nearly all powdered profusely. Diamond buckles were much worn in the shoes of both ladies and gentlemen. In 1745 gipsy straw hats appeared, and little bonnets tied under the chin, almost of modern shape. Long aprons were worn in 1744, then short ones, then long ones again; and instead of the hood, a covering called a "capuchin." Patching was in high vogue. The riding-habit of the duchess of Bedford, in 1748, gave rise to the naval uniform of England; for, until then, the navy had had no uniform distinct from the army; but George II., meeting the duchess in a riding-habit of blue, faced with white, was so struck with it, he immediately ordered that this should henceforth be the general dress of the royal navy. The sailors wore huge pigtails and cocked hats. At the close of this period they had their hat-brims uniformly tacked down to the crown, so that they looked as if they carried a triangular apple-pasty upon their heads. The uniform of the army dates from the abandonment of armour. During the reign of queen Anne, the pike ceased to be carried, the socket-bayonet superseding it. The bandolin gave way to the cartouch-box, and every species of body armour was discarded, the gorget dwindling into the ornamental trifle now known by that name. The red and white feather was worn in the reign of queen Anne; the black cockade appeared about the time of George II., being probably used in opposition to the white cockade of the Jacobite party. The Prussian sugar-loaf cap was adopted with the Prussian tactics, and the uniform of the grenadiers of 1745 has been handed down to posterity by Hogarth in his "March to Finchley." That such grenadiers' caps, however, were worn in the reign of queen Anne, is proved by one of that date being preserved at Goodrich Court. They were exchanged for the present preposterous bear-skin muff by George III.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.

It is impossible to note all the frivolities of fashion as it existed in the dress of both sexes of the wealthy, without perceiving that those who spent so much of their lives and substance in such show must be an empty, unintellectual, and far from a moral race; and the whole character of the society of the period bears us out in the inference. A more low, vulgar, and revolting, tone never ran