English Costume Part 38

[Ill.u.s.tration: {A man of the time of George II.; four styles of hair for men}]

There was a deal of dressing up--the King, bless you, in a Turkish array at a masque--the day of the Corydon and Sylvia: mock shepherd, dainty shepherdess was here; my lord in silk loose coat with paste b.u.t.tons, fringed waistcoat, little three-cornered hat under his arm, and a pastoral staff between his fingers, a crook covered with cherry and blue ribbons; and my lady in such a hoop of sprigged silk or some such stuff, the tiniest of straw hat on her head, high heels tapping the ground, all a-shepherding--what? Cupids, I suppose, little Dresden loves, little comfit-box jokes, little spiteful remarks about the Germans.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {1745: Two men of the time of George II.; 1758: Three men of the time of George II.}]

Come, let me doff my Kevenhuller hat with the gold fringe, bring my red heels together with a smart tap, bow, with my hand on the third b.u.t.ton of my coat from which my stick dangles, and let me introduce the ladies.

THE WOMEN

I will introduce the fair, painted, powdered, patched, perfumed s.e.x (though this would do for man or woman of the great world then) by some lines from the _Bath Guide_:

'Bring, O bring thy essence-pot, Amber, musk, and bergamot; Eau de chipre, eau de luce, Sanspareil, and citron juice.

In a band-box is contained Painted lawns, and chequered shades, c.r.a.pe that's worn by love-lorn maids, Watered tabbies, flowered brocades; Straw-built hats, and bonnets green, Catgut, gauzes, tippets, ruffs; Fans and hoods, and feathered m.u.f.fs, Stomachers, and Paris nets, Earrings, necklaces, aigrets, Fringes, blouses, and mignionets; Fine vermillion for the cheek, Velvet patches a la grecque.

Come, but don't forget the gloves, Which, with all the smiling loves, Venus caught young Cupid picking From the tender breast of chicken.'

[Ill.u.s.tration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF GEORGE II. (1727-1760)

She is wearing a large pinner over her dress. Notice the large panniers, the sleeves without cuffs, the tied cap, and the shortness of the skirts.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: {Three women of the time of George II.}]

Now I think it will be best to describe a lady of quality. In the first years of the reign she still wears the large hoop skirt, a circular whalebone arrangement started at the waist, and, at intervals, the hoops were placed so that the petticoat stood out all round like a bell; over this the skirt hung stiff and solemn. The bodice was tight-laced, cut square in front where the neckerchief of linen or lace made the edge soft. The sleeves still retained the cuff covering the elbow, and the under-sleeve of linen with lace frills came half-way down the forearm, leaving bare arm and wrist to show.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {Four women of the time of George II.}]

Over the skirt she would wear, as her taste held her, a long, plain ap.r.o.n, or a long, tucked ap.r.o.n, or an ap.r.o.n to her knees. The bodice generally formed the top of a gown, which gown was very full-skirted, and was divided so as to hang back behind the dress, showing, often, very little in front. This will be seen clearly in the ill.u.s.trations.

The hair is very tightly gathered up behind, twisted into a small k.n.o.b on the top of the head, and either drawn straight back from the forehead or parted in the middle, allowing a small fringe to hang on the temples. Nearly every woman wore a small cap or a small round straw hat with a ribbon round it.

The lady's shoes would be high-heeled and pointed-toed, with a little buckle and strap.

About the middle of the reign the sacque became the general town fas.h.i.+on, the sacque being so named on account of the back, which fell from the shoulders into wide, loose folds over the hooped petticoat.

The sacque was gathered at the back in close pleats, which fell open over the skirt part of this dress. The front of the sacque was sometimes open, sometimes made tight in the bodice.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {A woman of the time of George II.; four types of shoe}]

Now the lady would puff her hair at the sides and powder it; if she had no hair she wore false, and a little later a full wig. She would now often discard her neat cap and wear a veil behind her back, over her hair, and falling over her shoulders.

In 1748, so they say, and so I believe to be true, the King, walking in the Mall, saw the d.u.c.h.ess of Bedford riding in a blue riding-habit with white silk facings--this would be a man's skirted coat, double-breasted, a cravat, a three-corned hat, and a full blue skirt.

He admired her dress so much and thought it so neat that he straightway ordered that the officers of the navy, who, until now, had worn scarlet, should take this coat for the model of their new uniform. So did the navy go into blue and white.

The poorer cla.s.ses were not, of course, dressed in hooped skirts, but the bodice and gown over the petticoat, the ap.r.o.n, and the turned back cuff to the short sleeve were worn by all. The orange wench laced her gown neatly, and wore a white cloth tied over her head; about her shoulders she wore a kerchief of white, and often a plain frill of linen at her elbows. There were blue canvas, striped dimity, flannel, and ticken for the humble; for the rich, l.u.s.trings, satins, Padesois, velvets, damasks, fans and Leghorn hats, bands of Valenciennes and Point de Dunquerque--these might be bought of Mrs. Holt, whose card Hogarth engraved, at the Two Olive Posts in the Broad part of the Strand.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {Two women of the time of George II.}]

Seventeen hundred and fifty-five saw the one-horse chairs introduced from France, called cabriolets, the first of our own extraordinary wild-looking conveyances contrived for the minimum of comfort and the maximum of danger. This invention captivated the hearts of both men and women. The men painted cabriolets on their waistcoats, they embroidered them on their stockings, they cut them out in black silk and patched their cheeks with them, horse and all; the women began to take up, a little later, the cabriolet caps with round sides like linen wheels, and later still, at the very end of the reign, there began a craze for such head-dresses--post-chaises, chairs and chairmen, even waggons, and this craze grew and grew, and hair grew--in wigs--to meet the cry for hair and straw men-of-war, for loads of hay, for birds of paradise, for goodness knows what forms of utter absurdity, all of which I put down to the introduction of the cab.

I think that I can best describe the lady of this day as a swollen, skirted figure with a pinched waist, little head of hair, or tiny cap, developing into a loose sacque-backed figure still whaleboned out, with hair puffed at the sides and powdered, getting ready to develop again into a queer figure under a tower of hair, but that waits for the next reign.

One cannot do better than go to Hogarth's prints and pictures--wonderful records of this time--one picture especially, 'Taste in High Life,' being a fine record of the clothes of 1742; here you will see the panier and the sacque, the monstrous m.u.f.f, the huge hoop, the long-tailed wig, the black boy and the monkey. In the 'Noon'

of the 'Four Parts of the Day' there are clothes again satirized.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {A woman of the time of George II.; a shawl}]

I am trusting that the drawings will supply what my words have failed to picture, and I again--for the twenty-first time--repeat that, given the cut and the idea of the time, the student has always to realize that there can be no hard-and-fast rule about the fas.h.i.+ons; with the shape he can take liberties up to the points shown, with colour he can do anything--patterns of the materials are obtainable, and Hogarth will give anything required in detail.

GEORGE THE THIRD

Reigned sixty years: 1760-1820.

Born 1738. Married, 1761, Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

THE MEN AND WOMEN

Throughout this long reign the changes of costume are so frequent, so varied, and so jumbled together, that any precise account of them would be impossible. I have endeavoured to give a leading example of most kind of styles in the budget of drawings which goes with this chapter.

Details concerning this reign are so numerous: Fas.h.i.+on books, fas.h.i.+on articles in the _London Magazine_, the _St. James's Chronicle_, works innumerable on hair-dressing, tailors' patterns--these are easily within the reach of those who hunt the second-hand shops, or are within reasonable distance of a library.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF GEORGE III. (1760-1820)

The full-skirted coat, though still worn, has given way, in general, to the tail-coat. The waistcoat is much shorter. Black silk knee-breeches and stockings are very general.]

Following my drawings, you will see in the first the ordinary wig, skirted coat, knee-breeches, chapeau-bras, cravat or waistcoat, of the man about town. I do not mean of the exquisite about town, but, if you will take it kindly, just such clothes as you or I might have worn.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {Eleven types of head-dress for women; three types of shoe}]

In the second drawing we see a fas.h.i.+onable man, who might have strutted past the first fellow in the Park. His hair is dressed in a twisted roll; he wears a tight-brimmed little hat, a frogged coat, a fringed waistcoat, striped breeches, and buckled shoes.

In the third we see the dress of a Macaroni. On his absurd wig he wears a little Nevernoise hat; his cravat is tied in a bow; his breeches are loose, and beribboned at the knee. Many of these Macaronis wore coloured strings at the knee of their breeches, but the fas.h.i.+on died away when Jack Rann, 'Sixteen String Jack,' as he was called after this fas.h.i.+on, had been hung in this make of breeches.

In number four we see the development of the tail-coat and the high-b.u.t.toned waistcoat. The tail-coat is, of course, son to the frock-coat, the skirts of which, being inconvenient for riding, had first been b.u.t.toned back and then cut back to give more play.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF GEORGE III. (1760-1820)

In the earlier half of the reign. Notice her sack dress over a satin dress, and the white, elaborately made skirt. Also the big cap and the curls of white wig.]

In the fifth drawing we see the double-breasted cut-away coat.

Number six is but a further tail-coat design.

Number seven shows how different were the styles at one time. Indeed, except for the Macaroni and other extreme fas.h.i.+ons, the entire budget of men as shown might have formed a crowd in the Park on one day about twenty years before the end of the reign. There would not be much powdered hair after 1795, but a few examples would remain.