_Swords used in Dress_ (Vol. i. 415.; vol. ii. 110. 213. 388.).--Might it
not have happened that swords went out of fashion after the middle of the
last century, and were revived towards its close? In old prints from 1700
to 1720, they appear to have been universally worn; later they are not so
general. In 1776-90, they appear again. My grandmother (born in 1760) well
remembers her brother, of nearly her own age, wearing a sword, say about
1780. Some of Fielding's heroes wore "hangers."