And under his arm place his hat as a charm ; Then let him learn dancing, and to ride horses prancing, Oh! then with what wonder will he fill the beau-monde here." The dress of the commonalty may be inferred from the following description, given in a scarce track, of the disguise of King Charles after the battle of Worcester, 1651: "He had on a white steeple-crowned hat, without any other lining besides grease, both sides of the brim so doubled up with handling that they looked like two water-spouts; a leather doublet, full of holes and almost black with grease about the sleeves, collar, and waist; an old green woodriff coat, (woodreeve or woodman,) thread-bare and patched in most places, with a pair of breeches in the same condition, the slops hanging down to the middle of the leg; hose and shoes of different parishes; the hose were gray stirrups, much darned, and clouted, especially about the knees, under which he had a pair of flannel stockings of his own, the tops of them cut off; his shoes had been cobbled, being pieced both on the soles and seams, and the upper leather so cut and slashed, to fit them to his feet, that they were quite unfit to befriend him either from the water or dirt. This exotic and deformed dress, added to his short hair, cut off by the ears, his face coloured brown with walnut tree leaves, and a rough crooked thorn stick, had so metamorphosed him that it was hard, even for those who had before been acquainted with his person and conversant with him, to have discovered who he was."-Sir Walter Scott. HAIR, WIGS, AND BEARDS. "Those curious locks, so aptly twined, Whose every hair a soul doth bind, CAREW. THIS writer does not seem to be aware that the whiteness of the hair does not altogether depend upon age, for Petrarch's (not to mention many others) hair changed white before he arrived at his twenty-fifth year. The hair seems always to have been an object of embellishment, both with males and females, from the earliest period. It is often alluded to in the Scriptures. Job shaved his head and rent his mantle when he heard of the destruction of his house." All the nations of Gothic origin encouraged the growth of their hair and beards. About Anno. 1100 the fashionable men wore their hair very long, and also false curls; they were called effeminates. A reform was effected during the reign of Henry I., by his hearing a sermon preached against it by Serlo, Archbishop of Seez. The clergy in general preached against it, taking for their text the 14th ver. 11th chap. of 1st Book of Corinthians. "During the height of chivalry one of the ceremonies in dubbing a knight was, cutting a lock of hair. Parting with hair was always regarded in the church as a symbol of servitude to God."† "In St. James's church, Garlick Hithe, London, Richard Lions, a wine merchant and lapidary, who was beheaded in Cheapside by Wat Tyler's rebels in 1381, (reign of Richard II.,) lies buried there. He is represented with his hair rounded at the ears, and curled, and a little forked beard."+ Shaving in some countries was a mark of mourning, as with the Romans; but in some countries it was the contrary. As a matter of taste, much may be said upon this subject: the expressive eye is undoubtedly made more expressive by a full beard; but the mouth, the most expressive feature, loses by one in young persons, while in the old, when lankness begins to take place, it keeps up the fulness of that part of the countenance. The glossy appearance of the hair is a strong indication of health wholesome nourishing food tends to make the hair and beard soft, while a poor miserable diet has the contrary effect. White (on the Regular Gradations) mentions an Italian female whose hair trailed on the ground when she stood upwright. The same observation may be made on the Greek women. A Prussian soldier had it long enough to reach the ground; and on an English lady it was six feet long.* The custom of shaving came into use time of Louis XIII. of France, who ascended the throne clean shaved. Seume, a German author, writes in his journal: "To-day I threw my powder apparatus out of the window; when will come the blessed day that I shall send the shaving apparatus after it?" In the early part of the seventeenth century Brende writes: "They weare long nayles, which they never cut, and long hair, that was never clipped." George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends, when on his *The hair of a mummy has been found in fine preservation and braided in the fashion of the present day, although no doubt 3000 years old.".. Entomological Society. + Mills. Godwin's Churches. § Dr. Good. apostolic tour in 1655, was taken to task about his long hair. He observed: "I take no pride in it, and I did not put it on." It is only important and worth noticing in a separate chapter as being one of the marks by which much persecution and misery was effected. We in these days may say what we will about the overbearing and persecutions of the Catholics; we may "Distort the truth, accumulate the lie, And pile the pyramid of calumny !" "More stress in those days was laid upon wearing the hair or the beard, and the innocent amusements of the day, with other insignificant customs, than upon the most outrageous offences against humanity and the rights of their fellow-creatures." The head-dress and its adornments were conspicuously expressive of the party. In 1572 the ladies had periwigs of all colours. They knew the effect a good head of hair has upon the other sex; they knew "Fair tresses man's imperial race ensnare, And beauty draws us with a lock of hair." HoWELL. "The wealthy curled darlings of the Isle" wore their hair in long curled ringlets dangling upon their brawny shoulders; and, as a compliment to Queen Elizabeth, whose hair was red, this was with them the fashionable tint; if not naturally of that colour, it was dyed till it was so. It continued that colour through the early part of the reigns of the Stuarts, the Scotch having their hair mostly of that colour.* The republican party, to make a distinction, cared nothing about the colour; but they had their hair cropped, and thus acquired the name of Roundheads. The mustache and peaked or dagger beards were common to both as military appendages.† The beards of judges and justices were called the formal cut. The rough and bushy was the shape of the clowns. "Their tawny beards, uncomb'd and sweeping long, All down their knees in shaggy ringlets hung." MICKLE. In 1628 the Puritan Prynne wrote against love-locks and * Flaxen hair was much admired by the ancients, for this colour Homer commends Helena and Virgil Dido. The fashionable tint of the present day being black, that may be produced by using a paste composed of three ounces of litharge and one ounce of quick lime mixed with a little water, and applied to it all night; the lime should be previously slacked in the open air, to lessen its causticity. f See engraving, p. 138 long womanish hair; and their pulpits resounded with their anathemas. The ladies added jewels and roses, tied to their hair with ribands. In 1664 the periwig or peruke was reintroduced from the court of Louis XIV., no natural head of hair being considered sufficiently luxuriant. "It is a rule with courtiers of all countries to ape their king or ruler; thus full-bottomed wigs were introduced, to conceal the Duke of Burgandy's hump back."* "To poise this equally, he bore A paunch of the same bulk before, To keep well crammed with thrifty fare." HUDIBras. It might be an amusing piece of history (if worth the while) to chronicle these conceits. As a few occur to my memory which I have met with in my readings, I will introduce them. Alexander the Great was wry-necked; this turned the heads of all his courtiers. One of the Dukes of Saxony was potbellied; all his courtiers, to keep him in countenance, strutted about with well-stuffed clothes, like so many Falstaffs. Queen Isabella, fair and frail, displayed her neck and shoulders, which, I am sorry to say, was too soon adopted by the rest of her sex. O, tempora! O, mores! "But I must historifie, and not divine." After this digression, it will be right to notice that the tying of the hair is attributed to the "all-accomplished Bolingbroke." About this time came forth, among all this cranium decoration, hair powder, which was at once one of the filthiest and one of the most troublesome fashions ever introduced, because every man was really for hours in the morning tributary to the dilatoriness or negligence of his hair-dresser coming to dress him. If this was to revive again, which it may do, half the men of business will be ruined, unless the hair-dressers, like the couriers of old, are put under martial law. I have read that the origin of powdering the hair commenced with the German gipsy girls, to give them a grotesque appearance when dancing. Its discontinuance in England was occasioned by William Pitt, who imposed a tax of one guinea per year (about $5) upon those who used it, at the commencement of the French republican wars, which was the only good act that war-loving minister ever caused to be passed. About 1700 there came in fashion the campaign wig, from * Ensor. curled eighteen inches in There were also ridingSome of these were very France. They were made very full, length to the front, with deep locks. wigs, bag-wigs, and night-cap wigs. high priced: one cost £50; it was all white, naturally to save powdering. They were called "silver fleeces." Hair was very scarce, and much was imported; but, in consequence of this scarcity, much horse-hair was used. "Perukes now stuck so firm and steadfast, As tho' they were riveted to head fast." COTTON. The following is a copy of a London barber and perukemaker's sign: "Witness my shop, where now the splendid showe Of waxe and plaistere, rosy rede, Proves how a wig maye grace an emptie heade." The French, who excel in every specie of refinement, had, before the revolution, three hundred different methods of dressing, curling, powdering, and ornamenting the hair. No wonder, therefore, if these embellishments excited the fancy of the poets. Two jeu-d'esprits I will introduce, not being aware of their having been printed. SONNET TO AN OLD WIG. "Hail thou who lies so snug in this old box! Like my poor aunt, thou hast seen better days; Oft hast thou heard e'en Madame Mara sing, Alas, what art thou now! a mere old mop, Then slyly hides thee in this lumber-room. Such is the fate of wigs and mortals too; |