Here you see the cap called the 'fontage,' the black silk apron, the
looped skirt, and the hair on the high frame called a 'commode.']
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of William and Mary}]
[Illustration: Country Folk.]
She is very stiff and tight-laced, and very long in the waist; and at
the waist where the gown opens and at the loopings of it the richer
wear jewelled brooches.
Later in the reign there began a fashion for copying men's clothes,
and ladies wore wide skirted coats with deep-flapped pockets, the
sleeves of the coats down below the elbow and with deep-turned
overcuffs. They wore, like the men, very much puffed and ruffled linen
and lace at the wrists. Also they wore men's waistcoat fashions,
carried sticks and little arm-hats--chapeau-bras. To complete the
dress the hair was done in a bob-wig style, and the cravat was tied
round their necks and pinned. For the winter one of those loose Dutch
jackets lined and edged with fur, having wide sleeves.
The general tendency was to look Dutch, stiff, prim, but very
prosperous; even the country maid in her best is close upon the heel
of fashion with her laced bodice, sleeves with cuffs, apron, and
high-heeled shoes.
QUEEN ANNE
Reigned twelve years: 1702-1714.
Born 1665. Married, 1683, Prince George of Denmark.
THE MEN AND WOMEN
When I turn to the opening of the eighteenth century, and leave Dutch
William and his Hollands and his pipe and his bulb-gardens behind, it
seems to me that there is a great noise, a tumultuous chattering. We
seem to burst upon a date of talkers, of coffee-houses, of snuff and
scandal. All this was going on before, I say to myself--people were
wearing powdered wigs, and were taking snuff, and were talking
scandal, but it did not appeal so forcibly.
We arrive at Sedan-chairs and hoops too big for them; we arrive at
red-heeled shoes. Though both chairs and red heels belong to the
previous reign, still, we arrive at them now--they are very much in
the picture. We seem to see a profusion, a confused mass of bobbins
and bone lace, mourning hatbands, silk garters, amber canes correctly
conducted, country men in red coats, coxcombs, brass and looking-glass
snuff-boxes.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Anne}]
Gentlemen walk past our mental vision with seals curiously fancied and
exquisitely well cut. Ladies are sighing at the toss of a wig or the
tap on a snuff-box, falling sick for a pair of striped garters or a
pair of fringed gloves. Gentlemen are sitting baldheaded in elegant
dressing-gowns, while their wigs are being taken out of roulettes. The
peruquier removes the neat, warm clay tube, gives a last pat to the
fine pipes of the hair, and then gently places the wig on the waiting
gentlemen. If you can look through the walls of London houses you will
next see regiments of gentlemen, their faces pressed into glass cones,
while the peruquier tosses powder over their newly-put-on periwigs.
The bow at the end of the long pigtail on the Ramillies wig is
tied--that is over.
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF QUEEN ANNE (1702-1714)
The coat has become still more full at the sides. The hat has a more
generous brim. Red heels in fashion.]
Running footmen, looking rather like Indians from the outsides of
tobacco shops, speed past. They are dressed in close tunics with a
fringed edge, which flicks them just above the knee. Their legs are
tied up in leather guards, their feet are strongly shod, their wigs
are in small bobs. On their heads are little round caps, with a
feather stuck in them. In one hand they carry a long stick about 5
feet high, in the top knob of which they carry some food or a message.
A message to whom?
[Illustration: A Running Footman.]
The running footman knocks on a certain door, and delivers to the
pretty maid a note for her ladyship from a handsome, well-shaped youth
who frequents the coffee-houses about Charing Cross. There is no
answer to the note: her ladyship is too disturbed with household
affairs. Her Welsh maid has left her under suspicious circumstances,
and has carried off some articles. The lady is even now writing to
Mr. Bickerstaff of the _Tatler_ to implore his aid.
This is the list of the things she has missed--at least, as much of
the list as my mind remembers as it travels back over the years:
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Anne}]
A thick wadded Calico Wrapper.
A Musk-coloured Velvet Mantle lined with Squirrels'
Skins.
Eight night shifts, four pairs of stockings curiously
darned.
Six pairs of laced Shoes, new and old, with the heels of
half 2 inches higher than their fellows.
A quilted Petticoat of the largest size, and one of
Canvas, with whalebone hoops.
Three pairs of Stays boulstered below the left shoulder.
Two pairs of Hips of the newest fashion.
Six Roundabout Aprons, with Pockets, and four strip'd
Muslin night rails very little frayed.
A silver Cheese toaster with three tongues.
A silver Posnet to butter eggs.
A Bible bound in Shagreen, with guilt Leaves and Clasps,
never opened but once.
Two Leather Forehead Cloathes, three pair of oiled
Dogskin Gloves.
Two brand new Plumpers, three pair of fashionable
Eyebrows.
Adam and Eve in Bugle work, without Fig-leaves, upon
Canvas, curiously wrought with her Ladyship's own hand.
Bracelets of braided Hair, Pomander, and Seed Pearl.
A large old Purple Velvet Purse, embroidered, and
shutting with a spring, containing two Pictures in
Miniature, the Features visible.
A Silver gilt box for Cashu and Carraway Comfits to be
taken at long sermons.
A new Gold Repeating Watch made by a Frenchman.
Together with a Collection of Receipts to make Pastes
for the Hands, Pomatums, Lip Salves, White Pots, and
Water of Talk.
Of these things one strikes the eye most curiously--the canvas
petticoat with whalebone hoops. It dates the last, making me know that
the good woman lost her things in or about the year 1710. We are just
at the beginning of the era of the tremendous hoop skirt.
This gentleman from the country will tell me all about it. I stop him
and remark his clothes; by them I guess he has ridden from the
country. He is wearing a wide-skirted coat of red with deep flap
pockets; his coat has buttons from neck to hem, but only two or
three--at the waist--are buttoned. One hand, with the deep cuff pushed
back from the wrist to show his neat frilled shirt, is thrust into his
unbuttoned breeches pocket, the two pockets being across the top of
his breeches. Round his neck is a black Steenkirk cravat (a black silk
tie knotted and twisted or allowed to hang over loose). His hat is of
black, and the wide brim is turned back from his forehead. His wig is
a short black periwig in bobs--that is, it is gathered into bunches
just on the shoulders, and is twisted in a little bob at the back of
the neck. I have forgotten whether he wore red or blue stockings
rolled above the knee, but either is likely. His shoes are strong,
high-heeled, and have a big tongue showing above the buckle.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of Anne}]
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF QUEEN ANNE (1702-1714)
Notice that the fontage has become much lower, and the hoop of the
skirt has become enormous. The hair is more naturally dressed.]
He tells me that in Norfolk, where he has come from, the hoop has not
come into fashion; that ladies there dress much as they did before
Queen Anne came to the throne. The fontage is lower, perhaps, the
waist may be longer, but skirts are full and have long trains, and are
gathered in loops to show the petticoat of silk with its deep
double row of flounces. Aprons are worn long, and have good pockets.
Cuffs are deep, but are lowered to below the elbow. The bodice of the
gown is cut high in the back and low in front, and is decked with a
deep frill of lace or linen, which allows less bare neck to show than
formerly. A very observant gentleman! 'But you have seen the new
hoop?' I ask him. Yes, he has seen it. As he rode into town he noticed
that the old fashions gave way to new, that every mile brought the
fontage lower and the hair more hidden, until short curls and a little
cap of linen or lace entirely replaced the old high head-dress and the
profusion of curls on the shoulders. The hoop, he noticed, became
larger and larger as he neared the town, and the train grew shorter,
and the patterns on the under-skirt grew larger with the hoop.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Anne}]
I leave my gentleman from the country and I stroll about the streets
to regard the fashions. Here, I see, is a gentleman in one of the new
Ramillies wigs--a wig of white hair drawn back from the forehead and
puffed out full over the ears. At the back the wig is gathered into a
long queue, the plaited or twisted tail of a wig, and is ornamented at
the top and bottom of the queue with a black bow.
[Illustration: {Ramillies wig; Black Steenkirk; a hat for men}]
I notice that this gentleman is dressed in more easy fashion than
some. His coat is not buttoned, the flaps of his waistcoat are not
over big, his breeches are easy, his tie is loose. I know where this
gentleman has stepped from; he has come straight out of a sampler of
mine, by means of which piece of needlework I can get his story
without book. I know that he has a tremendous periwig at home covered
with scented powder; I know that he has an elegant suit with fullness
of the skirts, at his sides gathered up to a button of silver gilt;
there is plenty of lace on this coat, and deep bands of it on the
cuffs. He has also, I am certain, a cane with an amber head very
curiously clouded, and this cane he hangs on to his fifth button by a
blue silk ribbon. This cane is never used except to lift it up at a
coachman, hold it over the head of a drawer, or point out the
circumstances of a story. Also, he has a single eyeglass, or
perspective, which he will advance to his eye to gaze at a toast or an
orange wench.
There is another figure on the sampler--a lady in one of those wide
hoops; she has a fan in her hand. I know her as well as the gentleman,
and know that she can use her fan as becomes a prude or a coquette. I
know she takes her chocolate in bed at nine in the morning, at eleven
she drinks a dish of bohea, tries a new head at her twelve o'clock
toilette, and at two cheapens fans at the Change.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Anne}]
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Anne}]
I have seen her at her mantua-makers; I have watched her embroider a
corner of her flower handkerchief, and give it up to sit before her
glass to determine a patch. She is a good coachwoman, and puts her
dainty laced shoe against the opposite seat to balance herself against
the many jolts; meanwhile she takes her mask off for a look at the
passing world. If only I could ride in the coach with her! If only I
could I should see the fruit wenches in sprigged petticoats and flat,
broad-brimmed hats; the ballad-sellers in tattered long-skirted coats;
the country women in black hoods and cloaks, and the men in frieze
coats. The ladies would pass by in pearl necklaces, flowered
stomachers, artificial nosegays, and shaded furbelows: one is noted by
her muff, one by her tippet, one by her fan. Here a gentleman bows to
our coach, and my lady's heart beats to see his open waistcoat, his
red heels, his suit of flowered satin. I should not fail to notice the
monstrous petticoats worn by ladies in chairs or in coaches, these
hoops stuffed out with cordage and stiffened with whalebone, and,
according to Mr. Bickerstaff, making the women look like
extinguishers--'with a little knob at the upper end, and widening
downward till it ends in a basis of a most enormous circumference.'
To finish. I quite agree with Mr. Bickerstaff, when he mentions the
great shoe-shop at the St. James's end of Pall Mall, that the shoes
there displayed, notably the slippers with green lace and blue heels,
do create irregular thoughts in the youth of this nation.
GEORGE THE FIRST
Reigned thirteen years: 1714-1727.
Born 1660. Married, 1682, Sophia of Brunswick.
THE MEN AND WOMEN
[Illustration: {1720: A woman of the time of George I.; a shoe}]
We cannot do better than open Thackeray, and put a finger on this
passage:
'There is the Lion's Head, down whose jaws the
Spectator's own letters were passed; and over a great
banker's in Fleet Street the effigy of the wallet, which
the founder of the firm bore when he came into London a
country boy. People this street, so ornamented with
crowds of swinging chairmen, with servants bawling to
clear the way, with Mr. Dean in his cassock, his lacquey
marching before him; or Mrs. Dinah in her sack,
tripping to chapel, her footboy carrying her ladyship's
great prayer-book; with itinerant tradesmen, singing
their hundred cries (I remember forty years ago, as a
boy in London city, a score of cheery, familiar cries
that are silent now).
'Fancy the beaux thronging to the chocolate-houses,
tapping their snuff-boxes as they issue thence, their
periwig appearing over the red curtains. Fancy
Saccharissa beckoning and smiling from the upper
windows, and a crowd of soldiers bawling and bustling at
the door--gentlemen of the Life Guards, clad in scarlet
with blue facings, and laced with gold at the seams;
gentlemen of the Horse Grenadiers, in their caps of
sky-blue cloth, with the garter embroidered on the front
in gold and silver; men of the Halberdiers, in their
long red coats, as bluff Harry left them, with their
ruffs and velvet flat-caps. Perhaps the King's Majesty
himself is going to St. James's as we pass.'
_The Four Georges._
[Illustration: {A man of the time of George I.}]
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of George I.}]
We find ourselves, very willingly, discussing the shoes of the King of
France with a crowd of powdered beaux; those shoes the dandyism of
which has never been surpassed, the heels, if you please, painted by
Vandermeulen with scenes from Rhenish victories! Or we go to the
toy-shops in Fleet Street, where we may make assignations or buy us a
mask, where loaded dice are slyly handed over the counter.
Everywhere--the beau. He rides the world like a cock-horse, or like Og
the giant rode the Ark of Noah, steering it with his feet, getting his
washing for nothing, and his meals passed up to him out by the
chimney. Here is the old soldier begging in his tattered coat of red;
here is a suspicious-looking character with a black patch over his
eye; here the whalebone hoop of a petticoat takes up the way, and
above the monstrous hoop is the tight bodice, and out of that comes
the shoulders supporting the radiant Molly--patches, powder, paint,
and smiles. Here a woman passes in a Nithsdale hood, covering her from
head to foot--this great cloak with a piquant history of
prison-breaking; here, with a clatter of high red heels, the beau, the
everlasting beau, in gold lace, wide cuffs, full skirts, swinging
cane. A scene of flashing colours. The coats embroidered with flowers
and butterflies, the cuffs a mass of fine sewing, the three-cornered
hats cocked at a jaunty angle, the stockings rolled above the knee.
Wigs in three divisions of loops at the back pass by, wigs in long
queues, wigs in back and side bobs. Lacquer-hilted swords, paste
buckles, gold and silver snuff-boxes flashing in the sun, which
struggles through the mass of swinging signs.
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF GEORGE I. (1714-1727)
The buckles on the shoes are now much larger; the stockings are
loosely rolled above the knee. The great periwig is going out, and
the looped and curled wig, very white with powder, is in fashion.]
[Illustration: {A hat; coat tails; a wig}]
There is a curious sameness about the clean-shaven faces surmounted by
white wigs; there is--if we believe the pictures--a tendency to fat
due to the tight waist of the breeches or the buckling of the belts.
The ladies wear little lace and linen caps, their hair escaping in a
ringlet or so at the side, and flowing down behind, or gathered close
up to a small knob on the head. The gentlemen's coats fall in full
folds on either side; the back, at present, has not begun to stick out
so heavily with buckram. Aprons for ladies are still worn. Silks and
satins, brocades and fine cloths, white wigs powdering velvet
shoulders, crowds of cut-throats, elegant gentlemen, patched Aspasias,
tavern swindlers, foreign adventurers, thieves, a highwayman, a
footpad, a poor poet--and narrow streets and mud.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of George I.}]
Everywhere we see the skirted coat, the big flapped waistcoat; even
beggar boys, little pot-high urchins, are wearing some old laced
waistcoat tied with string about their middles--a pair of
heel-trodden, buckleless shoes on their feet, more likely bare-footed.
Here is a man snatched from the tripe-shop in Hanging Sword Alley by
the King's men--a pickpocket, a highwayman, a cut-throat in hiding. He
will repent his jokes on Jack Ketch's kitchen when he feels the lash
of the whip on his naked shoulders as he screams behind the cart-tail;
ladies in flowered hoops will stop to look at him, beaux will lift
their quizzing glasses, a young girl will whisper behind a fan,
painted with the loves of Jove, to a gorgeous young fop in a
light-buttoned coat of sky-blue.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of George I.}]
There is a sadder sight to come, a cart on the way to Tyburn, a poor
fellow standing by his coffin with a nosegay in his breast; he is full
of Dutch courage, for, as becomes a notorious highwayman, he must show
game before the crowd, so he is full of stum and Yorkshire stingo.
Maybe we stop to see a pirate hanging in chains by the river, and we
are jostled by horse officers and watermen, revenue men and jerkers,
and, as usual, the curious beau, his glass to his eye. Never was such
a time for curiosity: a man is preaching mystic religion; there is a
new flavour to the Rainbow Tavern furmity; there is a fellow who can
sew with his toes; a man is in the pillory for publishing Jacobite
ballads--and always there is the beau looking on.
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of George I.}]
Country ladies, still in small hoops, even in full dresses innocent
of whalebone, are bewildered by the noise; country gentlemen, in
plain-coloured coats and stout shoes, have come to London on South Sea
Bubble business. They will go to the Fair to see the Harlequin and
Scaramouch dance, they will buy a new perfume at The Civet Cat, and
they will go home--the lady's head full of the new hoop fashion, and
she will cut away the sleeve of her old dress and put in fresh lace;
the gentleman full of curses on tavern bills and the outrageous price
of South Sea shares.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of George I.}]
'And what,' says country dame to country dame lately from town--'what
is the mode in gentlemen's hair?' Her own goodman has an old periwig,
very full, and a small bob for ordinary wear.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of George I.}]
'The very full periwig is going out,' our lady assures her; 'a tied
wig is quite the mode, a wig in three queues tied in round bobs, or in
hair loops, and the long single queue wig is coming in rapidly, and
will soon be all the wear.' So, with talk of flowered tabbies and
fine lutestring, are the fashions passed on.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF GEORGE I. (1714-1727)
You will see that the fontage has given way to a small lace cap. The
hair is drawn off the forehead. The hoop of the skirt is still
large.]
[Illustration: {A woman of the time of George I.}]
Just as Sir Roger de Coverley nearly called a young lady in
riding-dress 'sir,' because of the upper half of her body, so the
ladies of this day might well be taken for 'sirs,' with their
double-breasted riding-coats like the men, and their hair in a queue
surmounted by a cocked hat.
Colours and combinations of colours are very striking: petticoats of
black satin covered with large bunches of worked flowers, morning gown
of yellow flowered satin faced with cherry-coloured bands, waistcoats
of one colour with a fringe of another, bird's-eye hoods, bodices
covered with gold lace and embroidered flowers--all these gave a gay,
artificial appearance to the age; but we are to become still more
quaintly devised, still more powdered and patched, in the next reign.
GEORGE THE SECOND
Reigned thirty-three years: 1727-1760.
Born 1683. Married, 1705, Caroline of Anspach.
THE MEN
Just a few names of wigs, and you will see how the periwig has gone
into the background, how the bob-wig has superseded the campaign wig;
you will find a veritable confusion of barbers' enthusiasms,
half-forgotten designs, names dependent on a twist, a lock, a careful
disarrangement--pigeon's-wing wigs with wings of hair at the sides,
comets with long, full tails, cauliflowers with a profusion of curls,
royal bind-wigs, staircase wigs, ladders, brushes, Count Saxe wigs,
cut bobs, long bobs, negligents, chain-buckles, drop-wigs, bags. Go
and look at Hogarth; there's a world of dress for you by the grim
humorist who painted Sarah Malcolm, the murderess, in her cell; who
painted 'Taste in High Life.' Wigs! inexhaustible subject--wigs
passing from father to son until they arrived at the second-hand
dealers in Monmouth Street, and there, after a rough overhauling,
began a new life. There was a wig lottery at sixpence a ticket in
Rosemary Lane, and with even ordinary wigs--Grizzle Majors at
twenty-five shillings, Great Tyes at a guinea, and Brown Bagwigs at
fifteen shillings--quite a considerable saving might be made by the
lucky lottery winner.
[Illustration: {Back view of a man's coat; seven types of hat for
men}]
On wigs, hats cocked to suit the passing fashion, broad-brimmed,
narrow-brimmed, round, three-cornered, high-brimmed, low-brimmed,
turned high off the forehead, turned low in front and high at the
back--an endless crowd. Such a day for clothes, for patches, and
politics, Tory side and Whig to your face, Tory or Whig cock to your
hat; pockets high, pockets low, stiff cuffs, crushable cuffs, a
regular jumble of go-as-you-please. Let me try to sort the jumble.
[Illustration: {1739: Two views of a coat for men}]
[Illustration: {A man of the time of George II.; a sleeve; a
waistcoat}]
Foremost, the coat. The coat is growing more full, more spread; it
becomes, on the beau, a great spreading, flaunting, skirted affair
just buttoned by a button or two at the waist. It is laced or
embroidered all over; it is flowered or plain. The cuffs are huge;
they will, of course, suit the fancy of the owner, or the tailor.
About 1745 they will get small--some will get small; then the fashions
begin to run riot; by the cut of coat you may not know the date
of it, then, when you pass it in the street. From 1745 there begins
the same jumble as to-day, a hopeless thing to unravel; in the next
reign, certainly, you may tell yourself here is one of the new
Macaronis, but that will be all you will mark out of the crowd of
fashions--one more remarkable, newer than the rest, but perhaps you
have been in the country for a week, and a new mode has come in and is
dying out.
[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF GEORGE II. (1727-1760)
Notice the heavy cuffs, and the very full skirts of the coat. He
carries a _chapeau bras_ under his arm--a hat for carrying only,
since he will not ruffle his wig. He wears a black satin tie to his
wig, the ends of which tie come round his neck, are made into a bow,
and brooched with a solitaire.]
[Illustration: {A man of the time of George II.}]
From coat let us look at waistcoat. Full flaps and long almost to the
knees; but again, about 1756, they will be shorter. They are fringed,
flowered, laced, open to show the lace cravat fall so daintily, to
show the black velvet bow-tie that comes over from the black velvet,
or silk, or satin tie of the queue. Ruffles of lace, of all qualities,
at the wrists, the beau's hand emerging with his snuff-box from a
filmy froth of white lace.
[Illustration: {A man of the time of George II.; a wig; breeches and
stockings}]