During the process which we have described the safety-pin has become stronger and larger, until in the last stage it has grown almost out of recognition.
Straight pins have developed along the same two lines, and we have the strictly useful pin and tie- or hat-pins, which are often quite as important as fastenings, but which may also be highly ornamental. These small articles have a special claim to our attention, as they have been taken as being emblematical of clothes, or at least of female attire. Even now the allowance which a lady is given for dress is called “pin-money.” Moreover, it is possible to illustrate by means of pins the various phases of culture through which mankind has passed in the process of civilization. We meet with pins of bone, in the stage of stone, before metals were used. In the stage characterized by bronze we have pins made of this alloy. Such pins occurred in Egypt before the historic period, and they have been found in the Swiss lake dwellings as well as in our own country.
Although we now live in the iron, or perhaps more correctly steel, stage of culture, the familiar pin of to-day is still usually made of brass; but nevertheless we find steel pins of the ordinary form which are plated with brass, and glass-headed steel pins are very common. In early times also gold, silver, and precious stones were pressed into service for making ornamental pins, and very handsome pins are represented on effigies of the fourteenth century in Westminster Abbey. These, no doubt, have for their descendants the scarf-pins of to-day.
A muff-chain is a thing which is very often seen at the present day, and this simple arrangement, coupled with the way in which it is worn (see Figure 101), may lead us along a very interesting line of research, which we may follow for a short time. If we look once again at the muff, we shall see that it is supported by a chain which goes round the back of the neck, allowing the muff to rest against the front of the body. This is a primitive method of carrying a burden. Pedlars of old made use of it, and it is still adopted by the hawker (see Figure 102), because, if necessary, the hands can remain free, while a modification of the same principle is seen when the strap takes the form of a baldric, and passes over one shoulder and under the arm on the other side. In this way travellers carry their courier-bags (see Figure 103), the school-boy or girl supports his or her satchel, the fisherman his creel, and the sportsman his field-glasses. To a baldric also was attached the quiver of the archer, and sometimes such a band was merely worn as a decoration. (See Figure 104.) In the illustration which we give, and which is of the time of Henry V, the baldric is hung with bells like those which were worn by horses. Possibly a survival of the ornamental use of the baldric is to be seen in the ribbons of various orders and in military sashes, though no doubt the bandoleer which carries the pouch or cartridges of a modern soldier represents the useful baldric. It is of interest to note that the red or blue cord worn over the cross-belts of the Life Guards and Horse Guards is a survival of a cord by which the horn containing powder for priming muskets used to be suspended. In this connection we might also mention the leather sling of a rifle and the strap by which the itinerant harpist, in common with the organ-grinder, carries his instrument.
Fig. 104.—An ornamental baldric of the early fifteenth century. (Royal MSS. 15 D. 5, after Fairholt.)
The ordinary belt should not be overlooked, as from it many things, such as weapons, may be suspended, not to mention pouches, which may carry ammunition, flint and steel, and so on.
Fig. 105.—A lady’s dress, showing the part which is called a yoke, and recalls a primitive method of carrying burdens.
Even more intimately connected with dress are pockets, and they may be touched upon here, for they are intended for carrying small objects. We have seen how the flaps of pockets which have become ornamental survive after the pockets themselves have disappeared (see Figure 21), and it is worthy of note that clothes in various countries lend themselves to the transportation of commodities. It has been pointed out by Mr. Otis T. Mason9 that the Oriental, especially the Korean, has pockets in his sleeves having the capacity of half a bushel; while the Turk and Arab can stow an equal amount in the ample folds of their robes. The writer also remembers hearing the account of a journey in Asia from a traveller who, when riding in wide trousers fastened at the ankle, used to keep all his clean linen in one trouser-leg and his dirty clothes in the other.
We are reminded by the name given to the upper part of a lady’s dress, namely, the yoke (see Figure 105), of another means of carrying burdens, which still survives in London, where a few milk-women even now carry round their pails on a yoke. Their costume, which includes a small shawl and an apron, can be compared with that of the barge-girl, though the picturesque sun-bonnet of the latter is lacking.
PRIMITIVE NECKLACES—FINGER-RINGS—THE ORIGIN OF THE HAIR COMB—BUTTONS—STUDS—FLOWERS—FEATHERS—AMULETS
We have touched upon one or two objects which may have a decorative character, but we now come to a consideration of ornaments themselves. Roughly speaking, they owe their survival to one of two reasons: either the deep-rooted instinct which exists in even the lowest races for adorning their person, or, secondly, the adoption of various objects which have been worn as charms or amulets.
Dr. E. B. Tylor10 has pointed out the tendency of higher civilization to give up savage ornaments. Not the most primitive possibly, but seemingly the most barbarous, are the ornaments which are fastened into the body in special orifices which are pierced to receive them. It is true that in this country we do not make holes in our lips for the insertion of wooden plugs two or three inches across, and the only nose ornaments which we see are on the faces of the Hindu ayahs who have come over from India with their white nurselings; but still many among the population pierce their ears for the reception of earrings. In the higher social ranks ear-drops are now worn which do not require the ear to be perforated for their reception; but among the lower orders—as, for instance, those who live in canal-boats—the ears of men, women, and children are still pierced.
Of ornaments which can be attached to the person without injuring it there are more in use, but they are practically confined in civilized countries to the neck, arms, and head. Of those which are fastened to clothes we will not for the moment speak. Beads, which at the moment of writing seem to be greatly in fashion, or their representatives, take us back to the very earliest men of whose work we have any knowledge. In the caves where the Stone Age men of the mammoth period lived there have been found periwinkle shells, which were bored to form bracelets or necklaces, just as nowadays native tribes and æsthetic ladies still make use of the more ornamental and beautiful exotic shells. The prehistoric Egyptians who, it has been calculated, flourished about 6000 B.C., had necklaces of beads cut out from pieces of shell, and others made of many different materials. Among the earliest remains in our own country beads are found, and throughout the historic period everywhere they seem to have held their sway.
We have already mentioned how easy it is for ornaments to be used as currencies, owing to the facility with which they may be carried on the person, and beads for many centuries have been used—as in Africa for instance—in the place of money. There are on the west coast of that continent still to be seen “aggries” similar to those which the Arab traders brought with them from Egypt as early as the seventeenth dynasty. At the present day beads of various kinds—for only particular varieties will buy certain commodities—are made and exported to Africa to be used in trading.
While speaking of Egyptian beads, it might be said that, as in other matters of art, the Egyptians excelled in the making of beads. Some—known as blue popo beads, which found their way to West Africa—are worth more than their weight in gold at the present day, and the most skilful of the Venetian beadmakers are unable to imitate them sufficiently well to induce the natives to accept them.
Chains for the neck in our time do not assume very massive proportions, except those which are used as symbols of office in the case of mayors and by the members of various knightly orders. These take us back to the time of Richard II, when such ornaments came into vogue.
Among savage races metal rings find much favour as ornaments, and they illustrate the fact that the lady who wears the minimum of clothes will put up with the height of inconvenience, not to say pain, just as her over-dressed and more civilized white sister will do, in order to be in the height of fashion. The Padaung women put metal collars round their necks when they are young children till these number between twenty and thirty, and the necks of the wearers are stretched out in the most grotesque and uncomfortable fashion. (See Plate VI.) African belles will wear great copper rings on their limbs, which get so hot in the sun that an attendant has to carry water with which to occasionally cool them down. The wearing of armlets and bracelets has never been confined to women. Men among the Greeks did not wear them, but among the Romans they did. Armlets were conferred on soldiers for heroic deeds, and even now the rank of non-commissioned officers in the army is indicated by stripes on their sleeves.
Two Padaung women, showing the numerous metal collars which they wear round their necks.
(See page 114.)
PLATE VI.
Dr. Tylor hints that ordinary finger-rings have originated from those used as signets in Egypt and Babylon. In this case the modern signet ring, which we have already discussed in connection with heraldic devices, is a survival from the earliest times. Most rings are now merely ornamental, though a few are symbolical—the episcopal ring of the bishop, the engagement ring of the betrothed damsel, and the wedding ring of the wife.
As early as the seventh century a ring was among the distinctive insignia of a bishop, and one was found on the finger of Bishop Agilbert of Paris (who lived at this time) when his coffin was opened. The ring was of gold and, as is usual, had a jewel set in it, on which, in the particular case mentioned, was a likeness of Christ and of St. Jerome. The origin is no doubt to be found in the fact that in Roman times rings were used as an insignia of rank.
The episcopal ring proper was only one of many other rings which a bishop might wear as ornaments. It was borne on the third finger of the right hand, above the second joint, and was usually kept in place with a plain guard ring.
The Greeks and Romans used betrothal rings as pledges, but not wedding rings. There is a good deal of interesting symbolism in connection with rings, and it is said that the third finger of the left hand was chosen because in old times it was thought that a vein came to that finger direct from the heart. The practical point is that the finger in question is not very much used, and on it the rings would not be so liable to be worn out as on some of the others.
It is also supposed that the left hand was chosen as it was the less important, and the wearing of a ring on this hand signified servitude. An interesting form of early wedding rings was that called the gimmal ring, which consisted of two links, each having a hand upon it, which when brought together formed a single ring with the hands clasped together. The ring was used at betrothal, and the man and woman each kept a half until their wedding day. Perhaps the old custom of breaking a coin upon engagement so that each of the contracting parties may have half, is a relic of the same custom. In Ireland the peasantry still use a ring, though a solid one, bearing clasped hands. We have possibly a survival of the interesting posey rings in those which bear the word Mizpah. This originally signified “a watch-tower,” but it is now taken as expressing the following sentiment: “God watch over thee and me when we are apart.” In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the couplet or line was, as in the case mentioned, put on the outside of the ring, while later, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the words were engraved inside the ring. Occasionally we see a necktie held in place with a ring, and this may well be connected with the custom of wearing rings round the neck on a ribbon. It is recorded that the Duke of Burgundy, who died in 1476, carried his signet ring in this way.
A custom is still sometimes followed which dates back to the sixteenth century. It is that of choosing stones on account of the first letters of their names and setting them in a ring in such an order that the initials spell a word or words. For instance, the following—Ruby, Emerald, Garnet, Amethyst, Ruby, and Diamond, indicate REGARD; while a lover’s exhortation is produced by such a combination as Lapis-lazuli, Opal, Verdi-antique, Emerald, Malachite, Emerald.
Many of the Egyptian rings are made of blue pottery or faïence, and some of them show highly ornamental and pierced work. The lotus flowers and other figures upon them point to their being symbolical. Others bear the sacred eye in the place where the seal would be in a signet ring, and were probably used as amulets; but of ornaments worn on account of their supposed virtues we will speak in a moment.
An ornament for the head, with which we will deal, is the crown. Mr. Elworthy, in a paper to the British Association at Ipswich in 1895, derived the crown from horns of honour. He maintained that the symbols found on the head of the god Serapis were the elements from which were formed the composite head-dress called the crown, into which horns entered to a very great extent. The panache in heraldry is derived from the horn, and it may be recalled that the deer-skin cloaks worn by the Bronze Age people over the woven dresses that have been described on pages 18 and 73, bore the horns of the animal from which they were taken.
Though the comb used as an ornament in the hair is also worn on the head, it is on a very much lower plane than the crown, and has presumably a very much less exalted origin. Professor Boyd Dawkins11 has expressed the opinion that the old loom comb (see Fig. 106), such as one found in the prehistoric lake dwellings which have been excavated at Glastonbury, is the ancestor of the comb worn as a head-dress at the present day (see Fig. 107). Combs were used to push down the weft on a hand loom, the warp being kept taut by means of weights. The long hair-combs used by the natives of the West Carolines are also of very much the same shape as the old loom combs.
Already in the safety-pin and scarf-pin we have had instances of fastenings which at times are ornamental. The button and its relative the stud afford another case in point. A stud is in reality a button which appears on both sides of the stuff through which it is put. It is obvious that it is most convenient to use when the material to be fastened is of a stiff texture. At present we use studs in our starched linen, and they are also adopted for fastening parts of leather accoutrements, as they evidently were in the times of the later bronze folk. This will be seen from Figure 108. One of these is adorned with the triskele, which is allied to the swastika, and no doubt gave rise to the three-legged charge on the coat of arms of the Isle of Man and of Sicily.
Buttons have from time to time done a great deal in the way of decorating clothes, in addition to the part which they have played as fastenings. We saw in an earlier chapter how many of our buttons, which are now only ornamental, were once of use, and any history of costume which goes into details will show how largely, superfluous buttons have figured as ornaments. The older Quakers, of course, refused to wear any buttons that were not needful, and brought down upon them the criticisms of Cobbett, who referred to other things which they lacked besides buttons. Although at the present time we may be inclined to appreciate some of our purposeless buttons, on account of their historic associations, we cannot say the same for many of those which now appear on ladies’ dresses. There is little sense in having on the front of a bodice a series of buttons of which the first member is very large and the last very small, with the others graduated in size between them, while there seems to be no rhyme nor reason in many other individual buttons or patches of them which are dotted here and there over the costume. It is not as if these additions were really handsome. Not long ago they looked as if the wearer had saved up all her old glove buttons, and then had sewed them to her frock, for they were quite tiny and made of brass. Now, though they are larger, they are merely covered with the cloth of which the dress is made and are usually quite plain.
In some cases buttons show great beauty of design, and for this reason, if not on account of the material of which they are made, may be exceedingly valuable.
Bearing on the antiquity of buttons, we may say that they are found among prehistoric remains in this country, and though they were foreign to the ancient Egyptians, we learn (through the kindness of Professor Flinders Petrie) that engraved buttons or seals were usual from the sixth to the nineteenth dynasty, probably among foreign immigrants, for the designs are never true Egyptian. In the present year, 1907, Professor Petrie found a cornelian button with a copper shank which belongs to the twelfth dynasty.
The use of flowers, whether artificial or natural, on the person, and more particularly the wearing of feathers, also takes us back to the primitive instinct of early or uncivilized man.
In our own country the custom of wearing feathers is an exceedingly old one. The single upright specimens worn by the knights of the fourteenth century have been characterized as being preposterous in size. The plumes afterwards worn in helmets in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were also immense. In 1606, according to Nichol’s “Progresses,” on the occasion of the visit of Christian IV, some of the knights “wore strange feathers of rich and great esteem which they called Birdes of Paradice,” and, unfortunately, ladies of the present day wear them still. In the reign of Edward IV, we learn, only men, practically speaking, wore feathers. They still survive in the army, but otherwise in the twentieth century, with the exception of an occasional small and modest instance amongst civilians, the wearing of plumes is confined to ladies.
Many flowers and feathers are exceedingly beautiful, and from an artistic point of view there seems little reason why we should allow civilization to sweep them away. We are quiet and colourless in our clothing, and if we are not careful the same element of dulness may creep into our lives. At the same time, however, to wear feathers which can only be obtained at the cost of cruelty or of depriving others of the sight of beautiful birds, or, again, of bringing any species to extinction, savours too much of barbarousness and thoughtlessness to be in any way condoned.
Ostriches are reared for their feathers, and the plumage of many birds that are killed for food is always at hand.
Men have much less opportunity now of showing any great individuality in their dress than heretofore, but sometimes they may be known by always wearing a buttonhole, even if that does not always consist of the same kind of bloom. The language of flowers, though now seemingly considered to be a dead letter, was hardly invented for nothing.
Of the brooch and its connection with the safety-pin we have already spoken. In many ornaments we find remnants of religious ideas; for instance, all brooches showing a crescent pattern or bearing the design of a hand are connected with the old phallic worship. The cross, it may be mentioned, is of much more ancient origin than Christianity, and is connected intimately with the swastika or fylfot.
The locket and other pendant ornaments must in many, if not all, cases be the descendants of amulets. The Arab women at the present day wear a little metal box containing a written talisman. An ancient Egyptian buried, with his mummies, many amulets and charms so that the soul, in obedience to various precepts, might enter into complete union with Ra, the solar god, and so accompany him on his journey round the world, and secure his everlasting protection.
It is due to these ideas that we owe the beautifully modelled figures of glazed pottery found in the Egyptian tombs. Many of them depict the various gods and goddesses acknowledged in Egypt, and they are usually pierced for attachment to the person. These were also carried on the person during life, and children especially were accustomed to wear them.
Old religious beliefs and superstitions that have not yet died out, have elsewhere given rise to the wearing of charms, and it is interesting to note that flint arrow-heads, under the name of “elves’ arrows,” were made into pendants by races who had reached the metal stage of culture.
Precious stones, upon which a word may be said here, no doubt at first were prized for their beauty alone, and then imagination gradually endowed many of them with fictitious properties and virtues, though doubtless the supposed attributes of some and the value and beauty of others have kept many precious stones in favour until the present day. Fashion is now particularly fickle as regards them, and craftsmen who deal with gems, feel her decrees12 more keenly perhaps than any one else. Some half-dozen kinds of stones—such as diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, opals, and turquoises—never go completely out of fashion, but even among these, one or other becomes paramount from time to time.
The topaz and chrysolite were reported to lose their brilliancy when placed in liquid that contains poison. To the amethyst was attributed the power of warding off the effects of drunkenness. The diamond, it was believed, gave to the wearers magnanimity, virtue, and courage. The ancients supposed that the opal shared the charm of every stone of which it reflected the colour, but when it was stolen, the thief became invisible, and was allowed to escape scot free. Mr. Claremont13 has made an interesting suggestion as to the reason why the opal has been considered unlucky. The notion, he says, is not nearly so ancient as many of the superstitions relating to other stones, and probably does not date further back than the Middle Ages. The old name “ophal” was used as late as the time of Queen Elizabeth, and came from the Greek for “eye”-stone, and as eyes are unlucky even in peacocks’ feathers, perhaps the explanation of the superstition lies in the name of the stone.
Such walking-sticks as those garnished with “sylver” and “golde,” which are described as being at the Royal Palace at Greenwich in the reign of Henry VIII, may well be considered as ornaments. The same may be said of the be-ribboned canes of the exquisites of Charles II’s and later times. We mention them because, within the last two or three years, there has been a talk of seeing “the nice conduct of a clouded cane” more generally considered, and some men have appeared at the theatre with long, gold-knobbed and tasselled canes.
The buckle, which may be ornamental or useful, or both, is well worthy of our attention. It consists in its simple form of a ring and a pin, and the latter is hinged on to the former. It is, in fact, much like a brooch, but without a hasp, and used in a different way. There are brooches, however, at the present day, which are even simpler in construction than the buckle, and they are used14 even now by blacksmiths in Kirkudbrightshire, in the form of the iron ring and a horseshoe nail, with which they fasten their aprons. Similar pin-ring brooches were used in Ireland until quite recently and are known from early times. Mr. Edward Lovett15 thinks that such a fastening may well have been derived from two bones of the sheep or deer, the garment being pulled through the ring formed by half the hip girdle, and speared through with the pointed heel bone.
A still more primitive pin was no doubt a thorn, and fish-hooks are to this day used on the coasts of Essex, which are made from the same natural object.
HEAD SHAVING—WIGS THAT ARE STILL WORN—ROMAN CURLS AND FRINGES
The styles in which hair is dressed are so intimately connected with fashions in costume that no excuse is needed for dealing with the question here. Moreover, there are certain vestiges in costume occasionally to be met with which owe their origin to the way in which hair was once arranged. Hair can be treated in all sorts of manners without injuring the person in any way, and usually without causing pain, though some fashions in hair arrangement had results that were far from pleasant, and must have caused considerable discomfort.
In addition to the styles in which hair is allowed to grow, there are others which lead to its removal from one or more of the places which it normally covers, and almost every change that could be rung is met with. In addition to the hair on the head, women have only their eyebrows and eyelashes to consider, though it is the fashion to remove any “superfluous” hair from their faces and arms. Men have also to consider moustaches, whiskers, and beard. Nowadays it is decreed that women’s hair should be long and that men’s should be short; but even now men with long hair do not necessarily look effeminate, as is shown by the cowboys from the Wild West who have taken part in various exhibitions in this country, and whose hair reaches on to their shoulders. The shaving of the whole head is carried out by many savage nations, and this is perhaps surprising, seeing that the process cannot but be laborious and even painful when carried out with flint knives or pieces of shell. The Chinese leave the hair that grows from one small spot in order to make their pigtail.
In this country it might be thought that the tonsure of priests was the only remnant of shaving the head; but we need go no farther than the East End of London to find Jewesses who upon marriage shave their head and put on wigs. It appears that the custom is still universal in the remote villages of Russia, where every Jewess on her marriage shaves her head. The wig that is worn is of a very plain pattern, and the hair of which it is composed is parted down the middle. The object which seems to underlie the custom is the destruction of the charm of the women when once they have found husbands. In London the younger women do not seem to be keeping up the practice, and it is mostly in the case of those who are over forty years of age that shaved heads and wigs are to be found.
There may be, however, another explanation. In many countries where great value was attached to a profuse head of hair a variety of superstitions arose, and emblematic observances were followed with regard to it. Parents dedicated the hair of their infants to gods, as did young women theirs at their marriage, warriors after a successful campaign, and sailors after deliverance from a storm. The Egyptians of all classes, as well as their slaves, shaved their heads and wore wigs. By this habit they ensured greater cleanliness, and the structure of the wig not only allowed the heat from the head to escape, but protected the latter effectively from the sun.
It does not happen that both sexes always follow the practice of shaving their heads, for, contrary to what prevails amongst civilized nations, Fijian women are usually closely cropped, while the men spend much time and attention on cultivating and elaborately arranging a luxuriant mass of hair.
The tendency nowadays is to cultivate eyebrows and eyelashes, but if we go back in our history to the reign of Richard II we find that it was thought necessary to pull out the eyebrows, and at the present day in some parts of Africa it is one of the requirements of female beauty to eradicate the eyebrows. Special pinchers for this purpose are to be found among the appliances of the native toilet. A man may of course remove all the hair, speaking in the ordinary way, from his face, or he may retain only his moustache or his whiskers or his beard, or a combination of any two of these. At the present day we meet with all sorts of styles, though one may be the fashion for the moment among the younger generation or those who wish to be considered smart. One cannot alter the disposition of one’s hair as easily as one can change one’s clothes, and this, perhaps, taken in conjunction with the objection to change on the part of a man and his relatives, gives the variety that has been mentioned. For instance, if it were customary when a man was young for his fellows to wear beards or only a moustache, then he continues to wear a beard or only a moustache.
Perhaps no other fashions come round again more regularly than those which govern the amount of hair on a man’s face, and it may be interesting to indicate very briefly some of the changes which have taken place during the last two thousand years or so in this country.
The inhabitants of England at the time of the Roman invasion either did not shave at all or wore only a moustache. The Romans often cut their beards (see Plate VII, Figure F.), and the Saxons parted their beards into double locks or neatly trimmed them. When the Normans came into this country they were closely shaved, but afterwards they went to the opposite extreme.
In the fourteenth century old men wore beards and the younger generation shaved. Edward III had a long beard, Edward II two small tufts on his chin, and in Edward IV’s time the beard was closely shaven. Afterwards we find that a tax was put on beards, and once more, in Elizabeth’s and the following reigns, we have a number of extraordinary fashions in connection with the hair on the chin. When we get to 1798, among the upper classes beards were again no longer worn, and there have been several changes since that time.
Apart from the prevailing fashion, there is, under the conditions which we have seen to govern the matter, considerable scope for the indulgence of individual taste, and often an effect is produced which is much more striking than otherwise would be the case. A man may choose, for instance, to grow a large pair of bushy whiskers, and he may thereby give character and importance to his face, which without them would be very insignificant. Curly hair is effective and has its advantages, therefore we find that it is carefully imitated both in the case of real hair and of wigs. The effect is now usually produced artificially only in connection with ladies’ hair. When dealing with this branch of the subject, once more we might allude to the monstrous toilets which have been built up in defiance of all laws of proportion and, we might add, of comfort and cleanliness also.
To utilize the hair from the heads of others is an ancient practice still to be met with, and all sorts of means for making the most of one’s own hair in the shape of pads and so on are still adopted.
When speaking of footmen, we shall find that those who dress in the costume that was in fashion when hair powder was in vogue still wear it, and the custom has been traced to the days of Rome, when gold dust was put upon the head. It has been suggested that our Saxon forerunners used coloured hair powder or else dyed their hair, but the evidence comes from Saxon drawings in which the hair is often painted blue, and this may be due merely to the caprice of the artist. It is well to be wary also in studying the colour of clothes at early periods, by looking at pictures, to remember that the illuminators may have followed their own fancy, and made garments of such colours as fitted in with their own ideas of ornament.
Though the use of wigs is extremely ancient, the origin, which is customarily ascribed to the peruke, is interesting. Many curious fashions have arisen through royal peculiarities or temporary indispositions, the courtiers having imitated their royal master or mistress, out of compliment. Louis XIV had, when a child, remarkably beautiful hair, which fell in curls on to his shoulders, and to imitate this, his courtiers put on false hair, while later in life the king himself adopted the fashion which they had set.
The obvious use of artificial additions to the hair has now been discontinued for very many years except in a few cases. Judges and barristers with a few Parliamentary and other officials still wear wigs, as do also certain coachmen and footmen, but these we shall consider elsewhere.
It will prove of no small interest after recalling the various modes of doing the hair which ladies have adopted during the last twenty or thirty years, to compare them with the fashions in Egypt in Roman times about two hundred years before the Christian era.
The reason why we can do this so well is that the Romano-Egyptians put on the top of their coffins a model of the head of the person who was buried in it. Professor Flinders Petrie has shown that the effigies were really portraits, and even a glance at some of them would go far to prove the statement. Professor Petrie made composite photographs of the face on the outside of the coffin and of the skull within, and both in the profile as well as in the full-face pictures it was seen that the plaster model clothed the skull, as it were, with flesh.
To return to the question of hair dressing, if one examines Plate VII we shall see first of all a lady with corkscrew curls, which were more prevalent in the last century than they are now, though they have not yet died out. Then we have a lady with a very elaborate fringe, another who allows her hair to fall in waves on her forehead, and it forms a chignon at the back. Lastly (Plate VII, Figure B) a little girl with a small bun on the top of her head. Another specimen, not figured here, and also contained in the celebrated Myers Collection, shows the bun exactly as it was worn at the end of the last century.
We have included two heads (Plate VII, Figures A and F), one of a boy and the other of a man, showing the great likeness that exists between the way in which hair was done more than two thousand years ago and at the present day.
Besides the methods of hair arrangement which have survived or been revived, there are certain little features still to be seen here and there in modern dress which owe their origin to the ways in which hair or wigs were dressed.
A remnant of the bag-wig, with its great bow of black ribbon, we may find in the army. For a long time on the backs of the collars of the officers and staff-sergeants of the Welsh Fusiliers there have been fixed some ribbons which hang down their back. These, which are few in number, are called the “flash,” and are said to represent the bow which used to ornament the bag-wig. A hundred years ago the officers of the regiment wore their hair turned up behind, and it was then tied with a bow. This is in keeping with another explanation which Mr. R. Simkin has given us, which is that the flash is the survival of a bunch of ribbons that were sewn on the back of the coat-collar to protect it from the pomatum and powder of the “clubbed” or “queued” hair. The privilege of wearing the “flash” has recently been extended to all ranks of the regiment (see Figure 109).
Fig. 109.—The “flash” of five black ribbons on the collar of the Welsh Fusiliers. A survival from the days of the pigtail.
A survival of the same kind, which takes us back to the time of wigs, is to be seen on the backs of the collars of several court dresses, and it is known technically as the “wig-bag.” It is also, as we have had occasion to mention, to be seen on the back of the collar of the liveries of some servants whose dress is in the old style, and here, as in the case of the Lord Mayor’s coachman, it looks as if it had originated in a bow (see Figure 113).
FASHIONS KEPT UP BY CEREMONIES—SURVIVALS IN SPECIAL COSTUME—FLOWING GARMENTS
In the foregoing pages we have been concerned chiefly with individual parts of costume, and while showing how various garments have reached their present form, we have busied ourselves with discovering the origin of many important survivals. We have not however hesitated, in dealing with these details, to touch on all kinds of costumes, and here and there we have left civilians’ dress for a moment to take an illustration from that of the soldier or the member of some other profession.
At the same time, we have indicated that on occasions of ceremony, whether religious or otherwise, the dress adopted is, as a rule, more primitive or older in style than that which is customarily worn. This is what might be expected, as, on the one hand, innate conservatism and objection to change come into play, and, on the other, ordinary everyday practical matters being for the time put on one side, it is possible to wear clothes which otherwise would be inconvenient and liable to get damaged.
When we ourselves dress for dinner we go back nearly a century, but nothing could be more primitive than the Court etiquette of certain tribes,16 where the subjects of the king may only approach him when entirely unclothed. Livingstone was received by the Queen of the Balonde Negroes in South Africa when she was in a state of complete nudity. The women of neighbouring tribes and members of other races, for instance those in Australia, entirely remove their clothing on festive occasions.
Among some black races, also, the girls who are sent as official messengers to important persons are not clothed. There are still certain tribes of “leaf wearers” in India, while at a yearly festival in Madras the whole low-caste population throw off their ordinary clothing and put on aprons of leafy twigs. Another case in point is that of the priests who conducted the sacrifices in ancient Italy and Greece, for they are often represented on monuments as being naked, while the rest of those present at the ceremony are fully clothed.
In taking up the question of ceremonial dress among civilized peoples, we find that we have a very wide field in which to wander. We have the Court, which might alone occupy our whole attention; we have naval, military, ecclesiastical, and legal dress, the garb of the universities, the costume of pantomime characters, of the acrobat, of the athlete, and the liveries of servants, besides the costumes adopted for special ceremonies and in connection with particular institutions. In treating of survivals in the case of the army, where the variety in uniform—if we may use this paradoxical expression—is so great, we may content ourselves with discussing matters in a way similar to that which we have adopted before. On the other hand, we may also describe and illustrate particular costumes, as a whole, while showing how far their history may carry us back.
In addition to the clothes actually worn by persons, there are those which are found on dolls. These may be on the representations of personages such as St. Nicholas, on the Continent and elsewhere, and they are interesting because in many cases they may show a national costume which is no longer worn. In the same way, puppets such as are used in the play which we know as Punch and Judy, and their dresses, like others which we have studied, may bring to our notice chapters of history in a way that is exceedingly attractive.
There is no doubt but that long flowing garments produce a more elegant effect, and give rise to a more stately appearance than those which are short or tight fitting. In the case of men, such garments would now be too much in the way on ordinary occasions, or when any physical exertion is required. The king and noblemen on state occasions wear robes, as do also the members of City companies and borough councillors when they assemble together. The case of the clergy will occur to every one, and legal and academical dress may also be mentioned.
In the privacy of the home it is possible for every man to wear a dressing-gown, and pyjamas have not in all cases superseded the more primitive nightshirt. In the case of ladies, we find that they cling lovingly to long dresses, though, as we know, there is much effort being made to dispense with skirts under ordinary conditions, and the fact that short skirts have for some years been fashionable for outdoor use looks as if some progress were being made.
THE PROTOTYPES OF LIVERIES—REMINISCENCES OF GEORGE II AND GEORGE III—ORIGIN OF THE PAGE-BOY’S BUTTONS—THE JOCKEY CAP—APRONS
In taking up the question of special costumes, we may perhaps begin with those which we see most commonly, and for that reason we may turn our attention, in the first place, to the liveries and dress of servants.
We have laid down a sort of rule that the costume of servants is that of the master of an earlier generation, and we will now bring forward some evidence in support of it.
Modern coachmen and outdoor footmen wear the tall hat, the bright buttons, doeskin breeches and the top boots characteristic of the outdoor and riding dress of the gentlemen at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The groom, it will be noticed (see Figure 110), wears in addition a leather belt, and the reason for this will not perhaps strike the inquirer straight away. Our grandmothers and great-grandmothers did not always drive in carriages, and it was customary for them, when riding on horseback, to sit on a pillion behind a gentleman or a servant. The belt which we now see round the waist of a groom afforded a hold to which they had to cling, in order to prevent themselves from falling off the horse.