_By one of the year 1750._
Umbrellas, in my youth, were not ordinary things; few but the
macaronis of the day, as the dandies were then called, would venture
to display them. For a long while it was not usual for men to carry
them without incurring the brand of effeminacy, and they were vulgarly
considered as the characteristics of a person whom the mob hugely
disliked, namely, a mincing Frenchman! At first, a single umbrella
seems to have been kept at a coffee-house for some extraordinary
occasion--lent as a coach or chair in a heavy shower--but not commonly
carried by the walkers. The Female Tatler advertises, "the young
gentleman belonging to the custom-house who, in fear of rain, borrowed
_the umbrella from Wilks' Coffee-House_, shall the next time be
welcome to the maid's _pattens_." An umbrella carried by a man was
obviously then considered as extreme effeminacy. 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, he could not with any comfort to himself use it; the people
calling out 'Frenchman! why don't you get a coach?'" The fact was that
the hackney-coachmen and the chairmen, joining with the true _esprit
de corps_, were clamorous against this portentous rival. This footman,
in 1778, gives us further information. "At this time there were no
umbrellas wore 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 a
gentleman, if it rained between the door and their carriage." His
sister was compelled to quit his arm one day from the abuse he drew
down on himself and his umbrella. But he adds, that "he persisted for
three months till they took no further notice of this novelty.
Foreigners began to use theirs, and then the English. Now it is become
a great trade in London." This footman, if he does not arrogate too
much to his own confidence, was the first man distinguished by
carrying and using a silken umbrella. He is the founder of a most
populous school. The state of our population might now in some degree
be ascertained by the number of umbrellas.
_New Monthly Magazine._
* * * * *