must have been a source of wonder to many. They run from neck to waist
of a tight-fitting jacket in such a crowded line that the pages usually
go by the name of "Buttons." Occasionally we see the livery ornamented
by two other rows of buttons which are useless, and run from the
shoulder towards the waist (see Figure 114) in a way similar to that
described as being the case on the coats of His Majesty's postilions. On
looking at an old book[17] of fashions we find that a costume called the
"Dutch Skeleton Dress" was very fashionable for young boys in 1826 (see
Figure 115). In this we find that there were brass buttons arranged in
three rows, similar to those we have just described. It is difficult
even in the modern page-boy's dress to see the lower edge of his coat,
but in the case of the small boy of 1826 it was impossible, because his
trousers were buttoned on to the outside of it.
[Illustration: FIG. 114.--A modern page-boy's livery.]
[Illustration: FIG. 115.--The Dutch skeleton dress, fashionable for boys
in 1826.]
The name of the skeleton dress is interesting, because it points to the
buttons marking out the position of the breast bone, and it recalls
the story that the lacing on the breast of Hussars, which we have
interpreted as representing enlarged buttonholes, was intended to give
the appearance of ribs. This would be in keeping with the figure of a
skull that was worn by some of them on their head-dress. We may imagine
that in the page-boys, with the superabundance of buttons in one row,
that the other two series have migrated and joined with those which
originally fastened the coat.
On special occasions such as weddings and coronations, the nobility and
members of old families dress their servants in state liveries, and some
very interesting costumes appear for the time. For instance, at the
wedding of the Duke of Norfolk in 1877, some of the coachmen and footmen
appeared wearing on the shoulder of their livery a "manche" or large
hanging sleeve, which is familiar to students of heraldry and may be the
origin of the sign usually called the "Crooked Billet."
An interesting little survival is sometimes seen on livery collars.
It is a little patch of lace, and is an imitation of the knotched
buttonhole or laced hole which was commonly made on elaborate dresses.
We get a survival of a livery cap, which was worn by servants generally
in the middle of the eighteenth century, in the black cap worn by the
drum-major of the Foot Guards and the bands of the Household Cavalry. We
find that it is also adopted by huntsmen and postilions (see Figure
89), while jockey caps are of a similar shape.
The costume of jockeys is an instance of parti-coloured dress which,
apart from the Stage, is now chiefly worn in connection with sports
such as football and racing. Some parti-coloured garments made their
appearance early in English history, as we shall see when dealing with
the subject of patterns.
The cockade is now a particular feature of the liveried servant, and as
the story of its evolution is of a particularly striking nature, we will
consider it in a special chapter.
Here and there we find survivals of the old beadle, with his
three-cornered hat and his long gown with its curious capes and its
bright edging. To find the original wearer of such garments we shall
have to look about at the end of the seventeenth century. The watch then
wore very large coats with many capes, and from these was developed that
of the beadle. No doubt colours and other ornamentation were produced so
as to bring the dress of the beadle more into the line with liveries and
to give him a more ornamental and imposing appearance.
We might also mention that the beadle, to whom we shall once more
allude, still makes his appearance and plays his part in the Punch and
Judy show.
When we recall the many and varied liveries which the porters belonging
to the various places of amusement and business establishments now wear,
we cannot help drawing attention to the magnitude of the problem which
would confront any one who desired to trace the origin of their clothes.
In one detail or another we see the remains of an old livery, while
turning from these we find a gaily coloured plastron borrowed from a
Hussar uniform, and besides the cap there are a host of other features
which have been taken from military and civilian dress.
Railway porters if not menials are the servants of the companies which
employ them, and there is one feature of their dress which is worthy of
note. It will be seen that their waistcoats, although generally built
on the same plan as that of the ordinary individual and having a linen
back, are provided with sleeves. It is truly a coat which comes to the
waist, such as we shall speak of when dealing with the dress of the
Guards and other regiments, and it is usually the outermost garment of
the porter.
If we now turn to the costume of the gentleman, we shall find a very
good instance of what Mr. Paley Baildon claims to be done whenever a
new garment is adopted. He says that it is always put on over all the
others. In the case of the ordinary civilian we have the waistcoat,
which was originally an outer garment. Then comes the frock-coat or
surtout, which at the beginning of the nineteenth century was an
overcoat, and over this again in cold weather the modern ulster or
top-coat is put.
No consideration of servants' dress would be complete without an
allusion to the cap and apron of the house- or parlour-maid. To begin
with, we see in these a survival of the special dresses which were once
adopted by particular trades. The fact that the cap is white points to
a connection with the early head-dresses of women which we see now
perpetuated by the nuns, and which are relics of the time when it was
customary to have linen caps and hoods. Perhaps there is some connection
between the cap of the servant and the custom which condemns women to
wear their hats in church and makes them feel desirous of keeping them
on their heads at all kinds of public entertainments. On this question,
however, we shall have a word to say later.
Sometimes servants' caps have strings which, like those that are
customarily found on bonnets and on mitres (see page 54), are the
survival of the ends of a head fillet. The latest development in this
direction is a scarf which is allowed to hang down from the backs of
ladies' hats, and which may be of so substantial a nature that it looks
very much like a fringed towel.
The apron can claim a long history, and just as the plush and powder of
the footman were once worn by his master, so we may easily discover that
the apron was not always the special attribute of those who work or
serve. Towards the end of the seventeenth century aprons were considered
an almost essential part of a fine lady's costume. A little later on,
Queen Anne made and wore them herself, and very gaily ornamented
garments they were.
In the case of the lower classes, aprons were--as they still often
are--provided with bibs. The old name for them was barme-cloth, and
under this title Chaucer refers to the apron of Carpenter's wife as
being as white as the morning milk. Unless the article of dress which
we are discussing was of considerable age, we should hardly have the
proverbial expression which defines a man who is always at home as being
tied to his wife's apron-strings.
Another name for an apron with a bib which was pinned to the front of
the dress was "pinner," which gives us the word pinafore, which refers
now to a kind of overall rather than to an apron.
In the costumes of the barge-women and milk-women, where we get a slight
survival of characteristic country dress, we have seen that in both
cases the apron is always adopted as part of the outfit. (See Plate
VIII.)
[Illustration: A BARGE GIRL WITH THE CHARACTERISTIC BONNET AND APRON.
SHE IS NOT WEARING HER SMALL PLAID SHAWL.
(_From a photograph by Wakefield, Brentford._)
_PLATE VIII._]
The uniform of the hospital nurse partakes somewhat of that of the
nun, but at the same time the apron is often one of its most important
features. We mention this uniform here because it has become customary
of recent years for the nurses who look after the children of well-to-do
families to assume the bonnet and veil and severely cut collars and
cuffs of the hospital nurse.
Here again we get a case on all fours with the adoption of evening dress
by waiters, and the gradual assumption by the lower classes of the dress
of their social superiors.
XVI
COCKADES
THE COCKADE A DEGENERATED CHAPERON--THE VARIETIES OF THE
COCKADE--COCKADE WEARERS
The cockade as we know it (see Figure 116) is now commonly worn by
servants, but, like their clothes generally, it was once used by their
masters. The books of an old-established firm of hat manufacturers show
that as late as 1789 cockades were worn by gentlemen themselves.
Apparently in the beginning, the sporting of a black cockade meant
allegiance to the House of Hanover. Now the use of the ornaments is
supposed to be confined to the servants of Royalty and of those in the
Royal service, though this does not seem to be actually the case. In a
letter to the _Morning Post_[18] Messrs. André and Co. say that "the
practice has long been regarded as a convenient and fitting sign of
social distinction, and that only such persons should assume the cockade
as enjoy hereditary rank or else some position of importance in the
State, including all officers, military and civil." Yet they can find no
trace of the question even having been dealt with by any authority, nor
have the classes of persons privileged to display the cockade been at
any time accurately defined.
[Illustration: FIG. 116.--The cockade, known as the "large treble,"
representing a survival of the chaperon.]
Sir Alfred Scott Gatty, Garter King-at-Arms, points out that the matter
is really outside the College of Arms, and it does not come under
the jurisdiction of the Lord Chamberlain's department, which usually
arranges all matters connected with official dress.
Before, however, we touch on the various kinds of cockades, and mention
those by whom the different types are at present worn, it will be well
to deal with the construction and evolution of the cockade, and we
shall be able to show that it has considerable claims to be considered
something more than a mere conventional rosette. As regards actual
material, the basis of the cockade consists of leather, which is
japanned, while a certain amount of ribbon may also be used. In the case
of mourning, we find that the cockade should properly be covered with
black cloth (see Figure 117), but nowadays a piece of crape is often
twisted round the one generally worn. The ribbon is usually merely a
small bow tied in the middle of the rosette (see Figure 116), but the
centre of the latter may be covered with ribbon and the bow replaced by
a button.
[Illustration: FIG. 117.--A "treble cockade" covered with black cloth
for mourning. The concentric circles would appear to represent the
twisted liripipe of the chaperon.]
The cockades worn by the Royal servants on the front of their
three-cornered hats on state occasions (see Figure 120) are large.
The rosette has points, while the upper part, or fan, shows them in
profusion, and there is no silk bow. The Royal cockade for semi-state
has a simple fan, while that worn on the silk hat at ordinary times (see
Figure 121) has no fan, but the edges are cut into points and there is a
bow of ribbon in the centre.
[Illustration: FIG. 118.--Treble cockade used by Chelsea pensioners.]
[Illustration: FIG. 119.--The Regent cockade.]
[Illustration: FIG. 120.--Royal cockade for state occasions.]
[Illustration: FIG. 121.--Ordinary Royal cockade.]
The ordinary fan cockade is used in various sizes, and is shown in
Figure 116. This is called the "treble," and has a bow of ribbon as a
rule. A curious variety worn by the Chelsea Pensioners has no ribbon,
while a segment is cut from the lower part of the rosette (see Figure
118). The only other variety with regard to shape that we have now to
mention is the "regent" cockade, which is exactly like the treble, but
without the fan. (See Figure 119.)
[Illustration: Two stages in the evolution of the chaperon.
FIG. 122.--Combined hood and cape.
FIG. 123.--Enlargement of the peak of the hood to form the liripipe.
(After Calthrop, by kind permission of Messrs. A. and C. Black.)]
It appears that the cockade can lay claim to have been descended from a
very ancient and curious form of head-dress, and Mr. Calthrop[19] has
traced in a very interesting way the development of this, as well as of
the cockade which is a survival of it in miniature. The head-dress in
question was called a chaperon, and came into favour in the time of
Richard II. It was itself derived from a hood and a cape which were
originally worn separately, but afterwards the two were joined together
for convenience, so that they could both be donned at the same time.
Fashion lengthened out the peak of the hood extravagantly until it
reached nearly to the ground, and then the prolongation was called a
liripipe. Next it was ordained that the whole arrangement should be
twisted up round the head, so that what was in the beginning a cape
with jagged edges stuck out on one side like a cock's comb.
[Illustration: Further development of the chaperon.
FIG. 124.--Cape and liripipe made into a head-dress that can be altered
at will.
FIG. 125.--A chaperon ready made up, in order to save trouble.
(After Calthrop, by kind permission of Messrs. A. and C. Black.)]
It will be noticed that the modern cockade shows the jagged edges
sticking up, and it would appear that the rosette represents a coiled-up
liripipe. Even to-day cockades are of various colours, and, as Mr.
Calthrop points out, the servant's chaperon from which it was derived
used to bear the colours of the master's livery. The chaperon is also to
be seen on the robes of the Knights of the Garter at the present day,
where it is fixed on the right shoulder as a kind of cape. (See Figure
144.) Mr. Calthrop also points out that the present head-dress of the
French lawyer is another descendant of the chaperon, and that the
buttons worn by the members of the Legion of Honour and other foreign
Orders are connected with the same idea.
A writer in the _Sketch_[20] sees in the rosette and fan of the treble
cockade the remnants of the crown and star which we see on military
uniforms. He says that the earlier forms seem to have been made of
metal, which must surely be a mistake, though the cock of the hat was,
as we know, sometimes fastened up with a brooch. The example which he
figures, however, and uses in support of his theory, is evidently a
helmet plate which displays the star, garter, and St. George's Cross,
the whole being surmounted by a crown, and in the cockade he claims to
see all these elements in a modified condition. If this derivation of
the cockade were correct, it would be in keeping with the quotation
which the same writer gives from Cussan's "Handbook of Heraldry," that
the privilege of wearing a cockade is confined to the servants of
officers in the King's service, or those who by courtesy may be regarded
as such. The theory is that the servant is a private soldier who when
not wearing his uniform retains this badge as a mark of his profession.
We cannot help thinking that Mr. Calthrop's derivation of the cockade is
more feasible, though it is not easy to see the remains of the coiled-up
liripipe of the chaperon in the way which Mr. Calthrop represents it in
his sketch.[21] In the majority of the cockades there is no trace of
a spiral such as he indicates in his figure, though in the mourning
cockade, concentric rings are very clearly shown. A word may now be said
as to those whose coachmen and footmen wear cockades.
The Royal cockade is used by the servants of the King, and by those
belonging to members of the Royal Household. It is large and circular,
as we have seen, and half the disk projects above the top of the hat.
The regent cockade, which has no fan, is worn by the servants of naval
officers, and no part of it is allowed to project above the hat. The
servants of the officers in the Army, Yeomanry, Militia, and Volunteers
wear the treble cockade with the fan, as do also the Lords Lieutenant
and their deputies, as well as the servants of the members of the
Diplomatic Corps. Besides this, it appears that the same kind of cockade
is worn by the servants of the following: All peers and their sons
and daughters, baronets, knights, and sheriffs, judges, justices, and
magistrates; members and high officers of Parliament and of the Civil
Service; dignitaries of the Church, King's Counsel, and law officers of
the Crown.
English ambassadors have the fan painted with three stripes of red,
white, and blue, and while the edge of the rosette is red, the next
part is white, and the centre blue. In this case also the ribbon in
the centre shows the same three colours. The cockade of the Danish
ambassador is of ordinary black leather, but the centre is covered with
a rosette of ribbon, red at the edge, with a circle of white next to
it, and green in the centre, while the whole is finished off with an
ornamental black button or knob. Other foreign ambassadors have their
cockades coloured upon the same principle as the English; but in some
the colours are shown on the fan in bands instead of in stripes, and the
centre of the rosette may have segments of different colours instead of
rings. In the case of the French ambassador the colours on the fan are
in stripes, while those of the rosette are in segments.
Of recent years cockades have been reduced in size until they have
become mere pigmies in connection with the uniform of "chauffeurs," or
motorcar drivers. The latter customarily wear a military kind of hat
with a mushroom top, and as a cockade fastened on the side of one of
these would not look elegant, a very small cockade is now made and
fixed in the front of the cap just above the peak. Would not one of the
wearers of the old cock's-comb turbans be amazed if he could see the
most recent outcome of his head-dress in its modern surroundings?
There seems to be little doubt but that the "cockade" forms part of the
livery of many who have no recognized right to it. Perhaps the ease with
which it can be assumed is shown by the price lists of jobmasters, in
which we find, after the charge for the hire of broughams and victorias,
a footnote to the effect that cockades are "6d. extra if required."
XVII
CHILDREN'S DRESS
SURVIVALS IN CHILDREN'S DRESS--SPECIAL SCHOOL COSTUMES--THE
BLUE-COAT BOY--PUBLIC SCHOOL BOYS--ADOPTION OF A SPECIAL DRESS
AT GIRLS' SCHOOLS
Children's costume, though characteristic, is in some instances
connected with ceremonies, and in others with particular institutions;
it may therefore with advantage be considered at this point.
We find that for very many centuries in this country, children, except
when small babies and in their early years, were dressed practically
in the same way as their parents, and looked like men and women in
miniature.
The ludicrous effect that was sometimes produced is well seen in
Hogarth's engravings, which date from the time when infants were
powdered and patched as well as dressed in a way that made them truly
grotesque.
A relic of this custom is still to be seen in certain costumes which it
is now fashionable for children to wear. Possibly the sailor's suit
takes the most prominent place, and the Highland dress is also a
favourite. It is perhaps not very strange that we do not see little boys
going about in the uniform of policemen, and until the South African
war occupied the attention of this country, boys were seldom if ever
seriously dressed as soldiers, but during the struggle to which allusion
has been made, it was not an uncommon sight to see small boys in the
khaki uniform and slouch hats which were adopted by the troops in
Africa. Now, of course, the knickerbockers of the small boy, and the
short skirts of his little sisters, though not absolutely characteristic
of extreme youth, are recognized features of children's costume.
As regards small infants, it is still customary for some time after
they are born to wrap more or less of a bandage round them in order to
protect their tender bodies from injury. The modern "binder" is, of
course, a relic of swaddling clothes, or those which consisted of a
profusion of bandages. These still survive in the Holy Land. It may here
be said that we meet in the word "pupa," which is the scientific term
that we apply to a chrysalis, with the old Greek name for a baby in
swaddling clothes. It is used now because the wings and legs of the
future flying insect are hidden in something the same way as are the
legs and arms of the much trussed-up baby. From the same word we get the
name "puppet" and the French word "poupée," meaning a doll.
In Roman Catholic churches at the time of baptism it is still the
custom to place on the head of the baby a white cloth. It is now too
small to cover the body, and it is called the chrysome, or chrism cloth,
and with it once the newly-baptized infant was swathed. This was worn
for a month by the child, and if the latter died within that time the
cloth was used as a shroud. The chrysome is really the remains of a
series of vestments which in the sixth or seventh century were worn by
the newly baptized. The most important part of the costume was the albe,
which was probably similar to that worn by the clergy, and a chaplet of
flowers was also used to crown the child after baptism.
There are in this country still a few monumental brasses called chrysom
brasses showing babies in their baptismal robes. A case where the child
is swathed up even more rigidly than was customary in the old world is
to be seen in the case of the North American Indian papoose, which is
fastened down to a cradle of board or basket work, and at first is so
fixed by the swaddling process that only its head is movable. In some
instances several months elapse before even the arms are allowed to be
free, and these are fastened up again at night.
It is probably owing to deformities that were at first accidentally
caused by this bandaging process, that the fashions arose which demand
that the shape of the skull in certain races shall be intentionally and
artificially altered. To this subject, however, we shall refer again
when dealing with the question of the effects of clothes upon the body.
As might well be imagined, the petticoats of small boys are a survival,
and one which is to be commended in every way. The putting of infants at
an early age into jersey knickerbocker suits cannot but be bad for them
physically, and it makes them look for all the world like little woollen
monkeys. Mr. Druitt[22] has described as many as seven brasses of
various dates between the years 1585 and 1642, which show boys dressed
in petticoats.
Dr. Alice Vickery thinks that it would be well if infant boys and girls
were dressed exactly alike, say up to the age of five or seven. She says
it is difficult to judge the extent to which sex bias is imbibed in the
earliest years, and we should do our best to postpone it as long as
possible. She continues[23]:--"If boys and girls were dressed alike,
taught together and played together, this would do much to direct
attention away from, instead of towards, sex distinction. The longer
such a system could be maintained the longer would be the period during
which rewards and punishments, praise and blame, would attach to actions
and conduct, to the exercise of self-control, kindliness and generosity,
efficiency, industry and alertness, quite apart from all intrusions of
sex idea, and its possibilities of subjection and predominance. That
would in itself be a great gain."
"The best school for the training of life and conduct is the school of
equality, where privilege and subjection are alike unknown, and the
co-education of the sexes is a step in the direction of justice and
fraternity."
"There is one point more on which I will add a few words. I have always
been a great sceptic as to the essential physical inferiority of the
feminine. It is true that in the aggregate that inferiority does exist,
but where can we find a place, a people among whom the development of
girlhood has had full and free scope?"
The custom for young girls to wear their hair down is also an old
one, though married ladies of the fifteenth century are occasionally
represented with flowing tresses.