Such a livery as we have described is also adopted by the general run of well-to-do people. The aristocracy, however, are more inclined to stand upon ceremony, and through it to make more show. Their footmen, who go by the generic name of “Jeames,” wear plush breeches, silk stockings, and powdered hair. (See Figure 111.)

A little inquiry will soon show that these peculiarities of dress were those which it pleased the gentlemen of George III’s time to adopt. Some flunkeys belonging to the nobility have their breasts ornamented with cords known as aiguillettes, and these give them somewhat of a military appearance, besides reminding us of the old retainers. The coats that go with the plush breeches and are cut away so as to recall the wings of a pigeon—hence the name “pouter” coat—are a special feature of George III’s reign. The coachman’s coat is usually a little fuller in the skirt, and carries us back to the time of George II. In another way this costume is a little older in its style than that of the footman who powders his own hair instead of wearing a wig like his colleague. (See Figure 112.)

In connection with the Lord Mayor more ceremony still is maintained. His coachmen and footmen appear in all the glory of three-cornered hats, which are decorated with feathers, and their coats are highly ornamented. They are representatives of the very fine gentlemen of George III’s time.

On the back of the collar of the Lord Mayor’s coachman, we find an arrangement that looks like an elaborately made rosette of black ribbon (see Figure 113). This is a survival of the bag-wig, of which we shall have occasion to speak again when dealing with Court and military dress, so that we need not go into further details here with regard to this curious vestige. (See page 229, Figure 143.)

This is a progressive age, in spite of the many survivals which still flourish, and when we come to consider the costume of the modern manservant who attends at table, or the waiter in the restaurant, we find that he has come out of his generation, as it were, and has adopted the dress of his masters before they have themselves discarded it. Confusion has arisen through this before now, and it has been suggested that if ornamental buttons were worn by the man who serves, the difficulty would be overcome.

The writer well remembers being amused when standing in a room at a well-known restaurant, where a private dinner was to be given, to notice the change which suddenly came over the dress of the waiters. When the latter first arrived they had black cloth buttons on their coats, while in a few minutes’ time, these same garments were adorned with brass buttons bearing the initials of the firm that provided the dinner. Inquiry soon elicited the fact that the men carried with them small brass cases which were sprung on to their ordinary buttons, and at once gave them the appearance of being on the staff, and showed that they were waiters.

The almost overwhelming number of buttons which are worn by page-boys 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 book17 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.

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.)

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 Post18 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.

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.

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.

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.)

It appears that the cockade can lay claim to have been descended from a very ancient and curious form of head-dress, and Mr. Calthrop19 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.

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 Sketch20 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. Druitt22 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 continues23:—“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.

At the present day, as a rule, when a girl puts up her hair her petticoats are usually lengthened simultaneously. The age at which these important changes are made varies. For instance, if a girl has a number of unmarried sisters older than herself, the time is often put off. Sometimes the term “old-fashioned” is synonymous with “sensible,” and people with such ideas very often keep their girls in short frocks until they are really grown up.

The two changes in the girls’ method of dressing are not, however, always made at the same time. In the upper classes we find a tendency for the long dress to come first. Girls, on the other hand, who have to go out into the world as nursemaids and kitchenmaids, may, in order to make themselves look older and more sedate, put up their hair while they are still in short frocks, though it must be said that the effect is not quite pleasing if it is business-like.

In the bib of the infant we find a relative of that part of the apron or the more voluminous pinafore which covers the chest. Although grown-up women sometimes wear pinafores, these, like the bibs, must now be considered as part of children’s dress, though no doubt in the beginning they were derived from the costume of grown-up people.

The next subject that we may appropriately consider here is that of the characteristic costumes which are worn in certain schools. In connection with boys, the first case which immediately comes to mind is that of the Blue-coat boys, as the scholars of Christ’s Hospital, which was founded in 1552, have come to be called. Their blue coat is part of the ordinary dress of the citizen of the reign of Edward VI, and the scholarly man at this time had the skirts of his blue coat long, while in other cases they were cut off at the knee. Instead of trunks, however, the Blue-coat boy wears more modern knickerbockers, but he clings to his yellow stockings. (See Plate IX, Figure B.)

The scholars of Christ’s Hospital have discarded caps (see Plate IX, Figure A), but the one which should go with their dress is flat, like the one which came into fashion in the reign just mentioned. It was the one afterwards called the statute cap, when Elizabeth for the good of trade ordered that “one cap of wool, knitted thick and dressed in England,” was to be worn “by all over six years of age except such persons as had twenty marks a year in land and their heirs and such as have borne office of worship.” A cap of the same kind was worn by Edward VI, and is still part of the dress of Beef-eaters at the Tower of London.

The blue coat afterwards came to be the ordinary livery of serving-men in the sixteenth and early part of the seventeenth centuries, and blue is still a popular colour for coachmen’s liveries at the present day.

In a similar way we find that certain schools are called grey-coat or green-coat schools, and we have blue schools—for instance, one for boys and another for girls at Wells.

Then there is the Red Maid School, which was established in 1627 at Bristol, and in accordance with the founder’s will the girls are dressed in red frocks, with white aprons and tippets and plain straw bonnets, trimmed with blue ribbon. In connection with this foundation it may be said that £50 is set on one side each year for the award of marriage portions to girls who have left the school.

Our public schools afford us very interesting cases of special dresses. Perhaps no other coat which a boy wears is so well known as the Eton jacket. This is accompanied by a tall silk hat.

King’s scholars who are on the foundation and live “in College” also wear an academical gown of fairly ample proportions. The Eton jacket was not always black, and originally the head-dress was a mortar-board, and there was a broad lace collar or bands round the neck (see page 47). The black coats and top hats were introduced in 1820 as mourning for King George III, and have been worn ever since. The broad collar which takes its name from Eton is probably a survival of lace bands, and is worn over the jacket in the same way.

Very similar coats are also worn by the younger boys at Westminster and at Harrow. In the latter case the jacket finishes off in a small point at the back, whereas the jacket worn at Eton is cut straight. The older boys at Eton wear a morning coat, a stick-up collar, and a white tie. This white tie is also worn by the masters, whether they be clerks in holy orders or not, and it seems to be a survival of a white choker which was wound round and round the stick-up collar, though, on the other hand, it may represent academical bands.

At Winchester the scholars wear bands, and this is no doubt connected with the use of academical dress, for it is usual for the boys on the foundation of public schools, as we have seen to be the case at Eton, to wear gowns.

The upper boys at Harrow, on the other hand, wear dress-coats with swallow tails; but should, however, a lower boy outgrow his short jacket, he is given what is called “charity” tails.

When speeches are made at Eton, those who take part in the performance wear dress-coats, knee-breeches, silk stockings, and buckled shoes.

Some costumes have probably been in existence since the foundation and endowment of the schools, and we can find parallel cases in the dress of some almshouses and hospitals for pensioners. Probably the idea originally underlying the wearing of a special dress is the same as is to be seen in modern charity schools, where all the boys or girls are dressed alike. It must simplify the tailoring and dressmaking arrangements, but at the same time it intentionally or unintentionally brands the children. Nevertheless, we see that the boys at most aristocratic and celebrated schools are in very much the same kind of boat.

To return to Eton again, we might mention one or two fashions in the ordinary dress which are curious. It is ordained that the lowest button of the waistcoat should be left unbuttoned and the bottom of the trousers should be turned up, while it is part of the performance to thrust the hands deeply into the trouser pockets. If a boy elects to wear an overcoat, and he does not occupy a certain definite position or status in the school, public opinion forces him to keep the collar of his top coat turned up. Of course, schools generally, and sometimes the various houses in important schools, make a particular point of school or house colours.

At Eton, on the Fourth of June, in connection with the boating there are interesting ornamentations added to the straw hats in the shape of flowers, and three boys who act as coxswains wear the uniform of an admiral and carry bouquets. The Fourth of June celebrations were instituted to take the place of the festival known as the Eton Montem. The ceremony consisted of a procession to a little hill near Slough, when many old and interesting costumes were worn.

The custom came to an end in the early years of Queen Victoria’s reign, and its immediate object was the collecting of money with which to send the head boy of the year to the University. It seems, however, to have originated in a piece of folk-lore, probably connected with the old tree worship, but sanctioned by the early Christian authorities as a semi-religious function. In this connection it is pleasant to think that flowers seen in the hats on the Fourth of June are a survival of the green branches and garlands that were once brought back each year from the Montem expedition.

When dealing with children’s dress we ought not to forget the special costumes that have been adopted in some private girls’ schools, nor how much is being done in them towards disseminating ideas on the subject of dress reform. For, after all, it is to the women of the future that we must look if any alteration is to be generally made. The introduction of exercises in the gymnasium has necessitated the adoption of a drilling dress in very many cases, but there are schools where such a costume is generally worn at all times, and others where it forms the working dress, while long skirts are only put on when no active exertion is expected.