Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/507

Rh ENGLISH.] ever, which lingered so long and with such tenacity, altogether ceased to exist shortly after the commencement of the era of modern costume. For a considerable time, indeed almost till the middle of the century, costume must be considered to have been modified rather than subjected to decided innovation. Men s dress remained the same in its general character, but became improved from being simplified and from having its decoration toned down. Planch6 says : &quot;Square-cut coats and long-flapped waist coats with pockets in them, the latter meeting the stockings, still drawn up over the knee so high as entirely to conceal the breeches (then made to fit with comparative tightness to the limbs), but gartered below it ; large hanging cuffs and lace ruffles ; the skirts of the coat stiffened out with wire or buckram, from between which peeped the hilt of the sword, deprived of the broad and splendid belt in which it swung in preceding reigns ; blue or scarlet silk stockings with gold or silver clocks ; lace neckcloths ; square-toed short-quartered shoes, with high red heels and small buckles ; very long and formally curled perukes, black riding wigs, bag- wigs, and nightcap wigs ; small three-cornered hats laced with gold or silver galloon, arid sometimes trimmed with feathers, composed the habit of the noblemen and gentlemen during the reigns of Queen Anne and George I.&quot; To this habit, the dress of the commonalty, according to custom, conformed in all characteristic essentials. Mean while, when they did not wear such head-dresses as were very low, the ladies continued to elevate their strange and uncouth head-gear. About 1710, as if resolved that their figures should rival their heads in extravagance, they intro duced the hooped petticoat, at first worn in such a manner as to give to the person of the wearer below her very tightly laced waist a contour resembling the letter V inverted ^. The hooped dresses, thus introduced, about 1740 attained to an enormous expansion ; and, being worn at their full circumference immediately below the waist, they in many ways emulated the most outrageous of the farthingales of the Elizabethan age. Some few years also before the middle of this century the &quot; saque &quot; made its appearance : it was a loose gown, open in front, which was worn hanging from the shoulders quite free of the person of the wearer, and was gathered up over the hoop when not permitted to trail along on the ground ; in this unsightly garment any approach to &quot; fit &quot; was necessarily out of the question. At the same period, the men began to lay aside more of their lace and of the other ornamental accessories of their garments ; their coats became longer, and their waistcoats somewhat shorter ; the cuffs of their collarless coats increased in size until they reached their elbows ; their stockings, when still drawn over their breeches above the knee, were so adjusted as to permit their breeches to be seen, but the breeches began to be made to fasten over the stockings, with buttons and buckles below the knee ; their wigs ceased to curl over their shoulders, and pigtails came into fashion. The costume of this era has been immortalized by Hogarth. During the forty years of this century that George III. was king, the fashions of dress passed through a remarkable variety of changes, each change contributing its own full share to the aggregate of extravagance and absurdity that was surpassed at no earlier period. About 17GO a passion for adorning the dress of both sexes began to revive ; and it soon exercised its influence, reckless of all true taste, with unsparing energy the head-dresses of the ladies, which about 1780 attained to the culminating degree of extravagant unsightliness, being its specially favoured field for operations. Fig. 49, faithfully reproduced from a contemporary engraving, shows under one of its least extravagant and tasteless forms a fashionable head-dress of the period in question. As a matter of course, in the con struction of every variety of head-gear such as this, which 475 in every instance necessarily obliterated all traces of tho true form of the head and destroyed all proportion in tho entire figure, false hair was used in abundance with a pro fusion of objects of a so-called decorative order. Until about 1785 the type of men s dress remained established without any essential change : the coat was made to fall back more than had been the usage a few years earlier, the object being to display more effectively the long-flapped waistcoat with the pockets in its laced flaps ; the stockings always were gathered up below the knee under the breeches, which were fastened by buckles ; the heels of shoes were lowered, and the buckles worn in them were com paratively small ; cocked-hats were worn, with laced ruffles and cravats, and bag-wigs, which generally were powdered ; and a broad black ribbon, called a&quot; soli- FrQ - 49. Head-dress, c. 1780. taire,&quot; was placed about the throat and fastened behind. This costume about 1785 gave way to the dress that in France was developed with the advance of the Eevolution. Men s coats became very long, and sloped off from the waist, where they were buttoned, both upwards and downwards ; their sleeves were moderately tight with small close-fitting cuffs, and their collars either were high and doubled back stiffly, or made to spread upon the shoulders ; the flaps of their pockets were placed at the back and close together ; and all puffing and lace and embroidery were laid aside. The flaps of waistcoats, if retained at all, were short, and the garment itself was made open at the throat, the frill of the shirt appearing from under it. The breeches, fitting very tightly, either were cut short at the knee, or carried a few inches below it and there buttoned and tied with strings, knee-buckles except for court-dresses having gone out of fashion ; the tight breeches also at this same time frequently were prolonged as pantaloons to the middle of the calf of the leg, where they were met by half top-boots. A rather large cravat was tied loosely in bows about the throat ; the hair, worn long generally, was powdered and tied in a queue ; and the hats, round in form, were either of moderate height in the crown, or tall and conical, and their nearly flat round brim was either narrow or moderately broad. The ladies delighted in tight bodices, furbelowed dresses, gorgeous petticoats, worn over hoops varying in size, and saques, which in reality were the mantles of early times revived, without a revival of their grace and ele gance. About 1770, the sleeves of the ladies dresses were tight on the upper arm, where they suddenly became very large, and, drooping at the elbow, they terminated in rich fringes of lace ruffles ; a few years later the sleeves expanded from the shoulder, till they became a succession of constantly enlarging ruffles and lappets ; and again, before 1780, they became tight throughout, with small cuffs and no lace at the elbows, when they were worn with long gloves. Influenced, doubtless, by the great portrait- painters of that time, about 1785 the female head-dresses gradually subsided, and their worst features for the most part disappeared. Hats having an immense expanse of brim grew into favour, and the natural hair was permitted to fall over the shoulders in ringlets. Small hoops were worn in 1788, with a dress open in front and trailing on the ground behind, their sleeves tight and frilled at the elbows. This dress often was worn with a tight and very low bodice, a white kerchief being gathered closely about the throat, and while entirely enveloping the bust, being