His clouded mail the tortoise shall resign, * The peeping fan in modern times shall rise, The fan of these times, when made of paper, was from a foot to eighteen inches in length: it would be cumbrous, indeed, at the present day, when the small pierced ivory pocket fan, usually brought from India, is the form of this elegant article of fashion. In northern countries, the use of the fan may be restricted by custom to females; but, in warmer climates, its employment by men is not a caprice of luxury. Throughout the East, personages appoint slaves to fan them; and, in the burning clime of Africa, the suite of every petty prince has its fan-bearers. The late Richard Lander tells us that among the few luxuries which he enjoyed during his perilous journey, was the use of the fan: when fatigued, his attendant would bathe his temples with lime-juice, and after washing his feet, either sing or fan him to sleep. Walking-sticks, or tuck sticks, with blades in them, were used by the Anglo-Saxons. They were sometimes made of ash, and were tipped by a cross piece of horn or amber, seemingly imitated from the crutched sticks of the friars, (whence Crutched Friars, London,) and by them borrowed from St. Anthony. In the eleventh century, the French ladies had a light cane, the head of which commonly represented a bird. In later times, British ladies walked with gold mounted canes nearly as tall as themselves; a custom which disappeared with the last century. As walking-sticks were the distinctive attributes of the philosophers of Greece and Rome, so we also find them borne by learned men of our own country. A tall cane, said to have belonged to the poet Chaucer, is preserved to this day; Wickliffe, the Reformer, is painted with a similar walking-stick; and, in an accredited portrait of an English witch, she is made to walk with a staff reaching to her chin. The physician's cane will be remembered by many readers: it was, in the last century, his emblem of gravity, which men often mistake for wisdom; although, Shaftesbury thought gravity "the very essence of imposture." The canes of several celebrated physicians are preserved in the college at Pall Mall East; and one of the latest who bore a golden-headed cane was the late Dr. Baillie, a learned man and an ornament to his profession. In these days of universal education, such an appurtenance would be regarded more as a sign of the folly of the bearer than a symbol of his wisdom: the carrying of the cane is a relic of olden times, which has been sensibly discontinued; for men have now learned that wisdom is neither in the wig, nor in the cane; nor does it require any external trappings to ensure respect. The cane of the footman is almost the only trace of this custom; for the short walking-stick is altogether another fashion. Umbrellas are of great antiquity; although they have scarcely been used in England sixty years. Among the Greeks, the umbrella was a mark of elevated rank, and one is seen on the Hamilton vases, in the hands of a princess. We find it figured upon the ruins of Persepolis, the age of which is lost in antiquity. The Romans used it, especially at the theatre, to keep off the sun; for their playhouses had no roofs, and the performances were in the daytime. Notwithstanding this antiquity, Coryate, the old traveller, describes the umbrellas of Italy as rarities" made of leather, something answerable to the form of a little canopy, and hooped in the inside with divers little wooden hoops, that extend the umbrella in a pretty large compass. They are used especially by horsemen, who carry them in their hands when they ride, fastening the end of the handle upon their thighs." These and other umbrellas are only described for keeping off the sun, a circumstance which may be explained by the comparative scarcity of rain in the countries wherein they were used. It might, however, have been expected that the frequency of rain in our island would have rendered the umbrella a very acceptable introduc tion from the Continent. The reverse happened; and, a century and a half subsequent to Coryate's time, or about 1768, when umbrellas were first used in England, they were violently ridiculed by the vulgar; the first man who carried an umbrella in the streets of London was hooted for his folly; and few but the macaronis of the day, as the dandies were then called, would venture to display an umbrella, which was universally considered as a mark of effeminacy. About the same time coffee-houses were first established in the metropolis; and one of their earliest accommodations was to keep a single umbrella, to be lent, as a coach or chair, in a heavy shower. 66 The Female Tatler advertises-" The young gentlemen belonging to the Custom House, who, in fear of rain, borrowed the umbrella from Wilks's coffee-house, shall the next time be welcome to the maid's pattens." As late as in 1778, one John Macdonald, a footman, who has written his own life, informs us that, when he used a fine silk umbrella which he had brought from Spain, the people called out, Frenchman! why don't you get a coach? At this time, there were no umbrellas worn in London, except in noblemen's and gentlemen's houses, where there was a large one hung in the hall, to hold over a lady or gentleman, if it rained between the door and their carriage." Much of this clamour was raised by the hackney-coachmen and chairmen, who profited by an ill wind and rain, and who feared the umbrella would supersede the coach or chair; but the coachmen had been similarly assailed by the watermen, upon the introduction of hackney-coaches; so manifold are the obstacles of self-interest to every step of public convenience. This footman, however, according to his own report, was a sensible man; for, he adds that he persisted in carrying his umbrella for three months, till the people took no further notice of the novelty. Foreigners began to use their umbrellas then the English; and the making of umbrellas soon became a great trade in London. Their use has much increased of late years, and materially benefited our silk market; and, we doubt whether a Frenchman carries his parapluie with greater regularity than an Englishman does his umbrella. The improved manufacture of umbrellas has had some share in this change; for those of the last century were short, unsightly things, and did not combine the advantages of shelter and a walking-stick. Here and there a hater of umbrellas may be met; and, we chance to know a veteran stickler*, who would rather get wet in a heavy shower, than carry an umbrella, or ride in a hackney-coach; though the reader may say he has not gathered wisdom with years. *Born before either umbrellas or hackney-coaches became common in England. |