THE COCKADE
=Cockades are worn= by servants in livery of officers in the army and
navy, and all those who hold His Majesty's commission; also of
lords-lieutenants and deputy-lieutenants.
Retainers of the Crown are entitled to the use of the cockade as a badge
of the reigning dynasty.
The fact that cockades are now so frequently worn by men-servants may be
accounted for thus:
Deputy-lieutenants are far more numerous now than was formerly the case;
almost every country gentleman is a deputy-lieutenant, and consequently
his servants are entitled to the use of the cockade. The privilege of
appearing in uniform at levees instead of in Court dress has been and is
an incentive to many to seek for and obtain the appointment of
deputy-lieutenant. Again, all justices of the peace claim the use of the
cockade as being "Civil retainers of the Crown"; and although there is
no clearly defined rule on this head, according to the late Sir Albert
Woods, Garter-King-at-Arms, it has long been tacitly conceded to them.
The custom of livery servants wearing cockades dates from the
commencement of the eighteenth century, and was at first purely a
military distinction.
The cockade worn by the servants of the members of the Royal Family, and
by all who claim to be of Royal descent, is slightly different in shape
from that known as the badge of the reigning dynasty, _i.e._ the
Hanoverian badge, and is round in shape and without a fan. The military
cockade is of an oval shape, terminating in a fan. The civil cockade is
of an oval shape also, but without the fan. The naval cockade is
identical with the civil cockade.
The white cockade is the badge of the House of Stuart. The black cockade
that of the House of Hanover. The servants of foreign ambassadors wear
cockades in colour according to their nationalities. Black and white for
Germany; black and yellow for Austria; the tricolour for France; scarlet
for Spain; blue and white for Portugal; and black and yellow for
Belgium.
The word cockade, according to a well-known authority, was borrowed from
the French _cocarde_, having originally been applied to the plumes of
cock's feathers worn by Croatian soldiers serving in the French army.
Some such plume, or in its place a bunch of ribbons, came to be used in
pinning up the flaps of the hat into a cocked position, and thus
gradually the word passed for the name of the "cocked" hat itself.