AN ATTEMPT IS MADE TO REMOVE THE UNPLEASANT IMPRESSION PRODUCED UPON
THE LADIES BY THE DOCTOR'S TYE-WIG AND HIS SUIT OF SNUFF-COLOURED
DITTOS.
So full of shapes is fancy
That it alone is high fantastical.
TWELFTH NIGHT.
I must not allow the feminine part of my readers to suppose that the
Doctor when in his prime of life, was not a very likeable person in
appearance, as well as in every thing else, although he wore what in
the middle of the last century, was the costume of a respectable
country practitioner in medicine. Though at Leyden he could only look
at a Burgemeester's daughter as a cat may look at a King, there was
not a Mayor or Alderman's daughter in Doncaster who would have thought
herself disparaged if he had fixed his eyes upon her, and made her a
proffer of his hand.
Yet as in the opinion of many dress “makes the man,” and any thing
which departs widely from the standard of dress, “the fellow,” I must
endeavour to give those young Ladies who are influenced more than they
ought to be, and perhaps more than they are aware, by such an opinion,
a more favourable notion of the Doctor's appearance, than they are
likely to have if they bring him before their eyes in the fashion of
his times. It will not assist this intention on my part, if I request
you to look at him as you would look at a friend who was dressed in
such a costume for a masquerade or a fancy ball; for your friend would
expect and wish to be laughed at, having assumed the dress for that
benevolent purpose. Well then, let us take off the aforesaid sad
snuff-colour coat with broad deep cuffs; still the waistcoat with its
long flaps, and the breeches that barely reach to the knee will
provoke your merriment. We must not proceed farther in undressing him;
and if I conceal these under a loose morning gown of green damask, the
insuperable perriwig would still remain.
Let me then present him to your imagination, setting forth on
horseback in that sort of weather which no man encounters voluntarily,
but which men of his profession who practise in the Country are called
upon to face at all seasons and all hours. Look at him in a great coat
of the closest texture that the looms of Leeds could furnish,—one of
those dreadnoughts the utility of which sets fashion at defiance. You
will not observe his boot-stockings coming high above the knees; the
coat covers them; and if it did not, you would be far from despising
them now. His tie-wig is all but hidden under a hat, the brim of which
is broad enough to answer in some degree the use of an umbrella. Look
at him now, about to set off on some case of emergency; with haste in
his expressive eyes, and a cast of thoughtful anxiety over one of the
most benignant countenances that Nature ever impressed with the
characters of good humour and good sense!
Was he then so handsome? you say. Nay, Ladies, I know not whether you
would have called him so: for among the things which were too
wonderful for him, yea, which he knew not, I suspect that Solomon
might have included a woman's notion of handsomeness in man.