England in the Days of Old Part 2

See how his perfumed head is powdered ore; 'Twou'd stink else, for it wanted salt before."

In "Musarum Deliciae," 1655, we read:--

"At the devill's shopps you buy A dresse of powdered hayre, On which your feathers flaunt and fly; But i'de wish you have a care, Lest Lucifer's selfe, who is not prouder, Do one day dresse up your haire with a powder."

From the pen of R. Younge, in 1656, appeared, "The Impartial Monitor." The author closes with a tirade against female follies in these words:--"It were a good deed to tell men also of mealing their heads and shoulders, of wearing fardingales about their legs, etc.; for these likewise deserve the rod, since all that are discreet do but hate and scorn them for it." A "Loyal Litany" against the Oliverians runs thus:--

"From a king-killing saint, Patch, powder, and paint, Libera nos, Domine."

Ma.s.singer, in the "City Madam," printed in 1679, describing the dress of a rich merchant's wife, mentions powder thus:--

"Since your husband was knighted, as I said, The reverend hood cast off, your borrowed hair Powdered and curled, was by your dresser's art, Formed like a coronet, hanged with diamonds And richest orient pearls."

John Gay, in his poem, "Trivia, or the Art of Walking the Streets of London," published in 1716, advises in pa.s.sing a c.o.xcomb,--

"Him like the Miller, pa.s.s with caution by, Lest from his shoulder clouds of powder fly."

We learn from the "Annals of the Barber-Surgeons" some particulars respecting the taxing of powder. On 8th August, 1751, "Mr. John Brooks,"

it is stated, "attended and produced a deed to which he requested the subscription of the Court; this deed recited that by an Act of Parliament pa.s.sed in the tenth year of Queen Anne, it was enacted that a duty of twopence per pound should be laid upon all starch imported, and of a penny per pound upon all starch made in Great Britain, that no perfumer, barber, or seller of hair-powder should mix any powder of alabaster, plaster of Paris, whiting, lime, etc. (sweet scents excepted), with any starch to be made use of for making hair-powder, under a pain of forfeiting the hair-powder and 50, and that any person who should expose the same for sale should forfeit it and 20." Other details were given in the deed, and the Barber-Surgeons gave it their support, and promised twenty guineas towards the cost of pa.s.sing the Bill through Parliament.

A few years prior to the above proceeding we gather from the _Gentleman's Magazine_ particulars of some convictions for using powder not made in accordance with the laws of the land. "On the 20th October, 1745," it is recorded, "fifty-one barbers were convicted before the commissioners of excise, and fined in the penalty of 20, for having in their custody hair-powder not made of starch, contrary to Act of Parliament: and on the 27th of the same month, forty-nine other barbers were convicted of the same offence, and fined in the like penalty."

Before powder was used, the hair was generally greased with pomade, and powdering operations were attended with some trouble. In houses of any pretension was a small room set apart for the purpose, and it was known as "the powdering-room." Here were fixed two curtains, and the person went behind, exposing the head only, which received its proper supply of powder without any going on the clothes of the individual dressed.

In the _Rambler_, No. 109, under date 1751, a young gentleman writes that his mother would rather follow him to his grave than see him sneak about with dirty shoes and blotted fingers, hair unpowdered, and a hat unc.o.c.ked.

We have seen that hair-powder was taxed, and on the 5th of May, 1795, an Act of Parliament was pa.s.sed taxing persons using it. Pitt was in power, and being sorely in need of money, hit upon the plan of a tax of a guinea per head on those who used hair-powder. He was prepared to meet much ridicule by this movement, but he saw that it would yield a considerable revenue, estimating it as much as 200,000 a year. Fox, with force, said that a fiscal arrangement dependent on a capricious fashion must be regarded as an absurdity, but the Opposition were unable to defeat the proposal, and the Act was pa.s.sed. Pitt's powerful rival, Charles James Fox, in his early manhood, was one of the most fashionable men about town.

Here are a few particulars of his "get up" about 1770, drawn from the _Monthly Magazine_: "He had his chapeau-bas, his red-heeled shoes, and his blue hair-powder." Later, when Pitt's tax was gathered, like other Whigs he refused to use hair-powder. For more than a quarter of a century it had been customary for men to wear their hair long, tied in a pig-tail and powdered. Pitt's measure gave rise to a number of Crop Clubs. The _Times_ for April 14th, 1795, contains particulars of one. "A numerous club," says the paragraph, "has been formed in Lambeth, called the _Crop Club_, every member of which, on his entrance, is obliged to have his head docked as close as the Duke of Bridgewater's old bay coach-horses. This a.s.semblage is inst.i.tuted for the purpose of opposing, or rather evading, the tax on powdered heads." Hair cropping was by no means confined to the humbler ranks of society. The _Times_ of April 25th, 1795, reports that:--"The following n.o.blemen and gentlemen were at the party with the Duke of Bedford, at Woburn Abbey, when a general cropping and combing out of hair-powder took place: Lord W. Russell, Lord Villiers, Lord Paget, &c., &c. They entered into an engagement to forfeit a sum of money if any of them wore their hair tied, or powdered, within a certain period. Many n.o.blemen and gentlemen in the county of Bedford have since followed the example: it has become general with the gentry in Hampshire, and the ladies have left off wearing powder." Hair-powder did not long continue in use in the army, for in 1799 it was abolished on account of the high price of flour, caused through the bad harvests. Using flour for the hair instead of for food was an old grievance among the poor. In the "Art of Dressing the Hair," 1770, the author complains:--

"Their h.o.a.rded grain contractors spare, And starve the poor to beautify the hair."

Pitt's estimates proved correct, for in the first year the tax produced 210,136. The tax was increased from a guinea to one pound three shillings and sixpence. Pitt's Tory friends gave him loyal support. The Whigs might taunt them by calling them "guinea-pigs," it mattered little, for they were not merely ready to pay the tax for themselves but to pay patriotic guineas for their servants. A number of persons were exempt from paying the tax, including "the royal family and their servants, the clergy with an income of under 100 per annum, subalterns, non-commissioned officers and privates in the army and navy, and all officers and privates of the yeomanry and volunteers enrolled during the past year. A father having more than two unmarried daughters might obtain on payment for two, a license for the remainder." A gentlemen took out a license for his butler, coachman, and footman, etc., and if he changed during the year it stood good for the newly engaged servants.

Powder was not wholly set aside by ladies until 1793, when with consideration Queen Charlotte abandoned its use, swayed no doubt by her desire to cheapen, in that time of dearth, the flour of which it was made.

It has been said its disuse was attributable to Sir Joshua Reynolds, Angelica Kauffmann, and other painters of their day, but it is much more likely that the artists painted the hair "full and flowing" because they found it so, not that they as a cla.s.s dictated to their patronesses in despite of fashion. The French Revolution had somewhat to do with the change, a powdered head or wig was a token of aristocracy, and as the fashion might lead to the guillotine, sensible people discarded it long before the English legislature put a tax upon its use.

With reference to this Sir Walter Scott says in the fifth chapter of "The Antiquary":--"Regular were the Antiquary's inquiries at an old-fashioned barber, who dressed the only three wigs in the parish, which, in defiance of taxes and times, were still subjected to the operation of powdering and frizzling, and who for that purpose divided his time among the three employers whom fashion had yet left him."

"Fly with this letter, Caxon," said the senior (the Antiquary), holding out his missive, "fly to Knockwinnock, and bring me back an answer. Go as fast as if the town council were met and waiting for the provost, and the provost was waiting for his new powdered wig." "Ah, sir," answered the messenger, with a deep sigh, "thae days hae lang gane by. Deil a wig has a provost of Fairport worn sin' auld Provost Jervie's time--and he had a quean of a servant-la.s.s that dressed it hersel', wi' the doup o' a candle and a dredging box. But I hae seen the day, Monkbarns, when the town council of Fairport wad hae as soon wanted their town-clerk, or their gill of brandy ower-head after the haddies, as they wad hae wanted ilk ane a weel-favoured, sonsy, decent periwig on his pow. Hegh, sirs! nae wonder the commons will be discontent, and rise against the law, when they see magistrates, and bailies, and deacons, and the provost himsel', wi' heads as bald an' as bare as one o' my blocks."

It was not in Scotland alone that the barber was peripatetic. "In the last century," says Mrs. G. Linnaeus Banks, author of the "Manchester Man" and other popular novels, "he waited on his chief customers or patrons at their own homes, not merely to shave, but to powder the hair or the wig, and he had to start on his round betimes. Where the patron was the owner of a spare periwig it might be dressed in advance, and sent home in a box, or mounted on a stand, such as a barrister keeps handy at the present day.

But when ladies had powdered top-knots, the hairdresser made his harvest, especially when a ball or a rout made the calls for his services many and imperative. When at least a couple of hours were required for the arrangement of a single toupee or tower, or commode, as the head-dress was called, it may well be understood that for two or three days prior to the ball the hairdresser was in demand, and as it was impossible to lie down without disarranging the structure he had raised on pads, or framework of wire, plastering with pomatum and disguising with powder, the belles so adorned or disfigured were compelled to sit up night and day, catching what sleep was possible in a chair. And when I add that a head so dressed was rarely disturbed for ten days or a fortnight, it needs no stretch of imagination to realize what a ma.s.s of loathsome nastiness the fine ladies of the last century carried about with them, or what strong stomachs the barbers must have had to deal with them."

The Tories often regarded with mistrust any persons who did not use hair-powder. The Rev. J. Charles c.o.x, LL.D., F.S.A., the eminent antiquary, relates a good story respecting his grandfather. "So late as 1820," says Dr. c.o.x, "Major c.o.x of Derby, an excellent Tory, declined for some time to allow his son Edward to become a pupil of a well-known clerical tutor, for the sole reason that the clergyman did not powder, and wore his hair short, arguing that he must therefore, be a dangerous revolutionist."

In 1869 the tax on hair-powder was repealed, when only some 800 persons paid it, producing about 1,000 per year.

Men wearing m.u.f.fs.

The m.u.f.f in bygone times was worn by men as well as women. Several writers state that it was introduced into England in the reign of Charles II., but this is not correct, for, although it is not of great antiquity, it can certainly be traced back to a much earlier period. Most probably it reached us from France, and when it came into fashion it was small in size.

The earliest representation of a m.u.f.f that has come under our notice occurs in a drawing by Gaspar Rutz (1598) of an English lady, and she wears it pendant from her girdle. A few years later in the wardrobe accounts of Prince Henry of Wales, a charge is made for embroidering two m.u.f.fs. The entries occur in 1608, and are as follow:--"One of cloth of silver, embroidered with purles, plates, and Venice twists of silver and gold; the other of black satten, embroidered with black silk and bugles, viz., for one 7, the other 60s." m.u.f.fs were usually ornamented with bunches of gay ribbons, or some other decorations, and were generally hung round the neck with ribbons.

Several poems and plays of the olden time contain references to men using m.u.f.fs. One of the earliest, if not the first, to mention a man wearing a m.u.f.f, occurs in an epistle by Samuel Rowlands, written about 1600. It is as follows:--

"Behold a most accomplished cavalier That the world's ape of fashion doth appear, Walking the streets his humour to disclose, In the French doublet and the German hose.

The _m.u.f.fes_, cloak, Spanish hat, Toledo blade, Italian ruff, a shoe right Spanish made."

A ballad, describing the frost fair on the Thames in the winter of 1683-4, mentions amongst those present:--

"A spark of the Bar with his cane and his _m.u.f.f_."

In course of time the m.u.f.f was increased in size, until it was very large.

Dryden, in the epilogue of "The Husband his own Cuckstool," 1696, refers to the _monstrous m.u.f.f_ worn by the beau.

Pepys made a point of being in fashion, but in respect to the m.u.f.f he was most economical. He says he took his wife's last year's m.u.f.f, and it is pleasing to record that he gallantly bought her a new one.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MAN WITH m.u.f.f, 1693. (_From a Print of the Period._)]

Professional men did not neglect to add to their dignity by the use of the m.u.f.f. In addition to the gold-headed cane, the doctor carried a m.u.f.f. An old book called "The Mother-in-law," includes a character who is advised by his friends to become a physician. Says one to him: "'Tis but putting on the doctor's gown and cap, and you'll have more knowledge in an instant than you'll know what to do withal." Observes another friend: "Besides, sir, if you had no other qualification than that m.u.f.f of yours, twould go a great way. A m.u.f.f is more than half in the making of a doctor." Cibble tells Nightshade in c.u.mberland's "Cholerick Man," 1775, to "Tuck your hands in your _m.u.f.f_ and never open your lips for the rest of the afternoon; 'twill gain you respect in every house you enter." Alexander Wedderburn, before being called to the English Bar in 1757, had practised as an advocate in his native city, Edinburgh. In his references to his early days, there is an allusion to the m.u.f.f, showing that its use must have been by no means uncommon in Scotland in the middle of the eighteenth century. "Knowing my countrymen at that time," he tells us, "I was at great pains to study and a.s.sume a very grave, solemn deportment for a young man, which my marked features, notwithstanding my small stature, would render more imposing. Men then wore in winter _small m.u.f.fs_, and I flatter myself that, as I paced to the Parliament House, no man of fifty could look more thoughtful or steady. My first client was a citizen whom I did not know. He called upon me in the course of a cause, and becoming familiar with him, I asked him 'how he came to employ me?' The answer was: 'Why, I had noticed you in the High Street, going to the court, the most punctual of any, as the clock struck nine, and you looked so grave and business-like, that I resolved from your appearance to have you for my advocate.'" More instances of the m.u.f.f amongst professional men might be cited, but the foregoing are sufficient to indicate the value set upon it by this cla.s.s.

Towards the end of the seventeenth century it was customary to carry in the m.u.f.f small dogs known as "m.u.f.f dogs," and Hollar made a picture of one of these little animals.

A tale is told of the eccentric head of one of the colleges at Oxford, who had a great aversion to the undergraduates wearing long hair, that on one occasion he reduced the length of a young man's hair by means of a bread-knife. It is stated that he carried concealed in his m.u.f.f a pair of scissors, and with these he slyly cut off offending locks.

Both the _Tatler_ and the _Spectator_ include notices of the m.u.f.f. In No.

153 of the _Tatler_, 1710, is a description of a poor but doubtless a proud person with a m.u.f.f. "I saw," it is stated, "he was reduced to extreme poverty, by certain shabby superfluities in his dress, for--notwithstanding that it was a very sultry day for the time of the year--he wore a loose great coat and a _m.u.f.f_. Here we see poverty trying to imitate prosperity." There are at least three allusions to the m.u.f.f in the pages of the _Spectator_. We find in the issue for March 19th, 1711, a correspondent desires Addison to be "very satyrical upon the little m.u.f.f"

that was then fashionable amongst men.

A satirical print was published in 1756, at the Gold Acorn Tavern, facing Hungerford Market, London, called the "Beau Admiral." It represents Admiral Byng carrying a large m.u.f.f. He had been sent to relieve Minorca, besieged by the French, and after a futile action withdrew his ships, declaring that the ministry had not furnished him with a sufficient fleet to successfully fight the enemy. This action made the ministry furious, and Byng was brought before a court martial, and early in 1757 he was, according to sentence, shot at Portsmouth.

In America m.u.f.fs were popular with both men and women. Old newspapers contain references to them. The following advertis.e.m.e.nt is drawn from the _Boston News Letter_ of March 5th, 1715:--

"Any man that took up a Man's m.u.f.f drop't on the Lord's Day between the Old Meeting House & the South, are desired to bring it to the Printer's Office, and shall be rewarded."

Mrs. Alice Morse Earle, in her "Costume of Colonial Times" (New York: 1894), gives other instances of men's m.u.f.fs being missing, "In 1725," says Mrs. Earle, "Dr. Prince lost his 'black bear-skin m.u.f.f,' and in 1740 a sable-skin man's m.u.f.f was advertised." It is clear from Mrs. Earle's investigations that the beaux of New England followed closely the lead of the dandies of Old England. "I can easily fancy," she says, "the mincing face of Horace Walpole peering out of a carriage window or a sedan-chair, with his hands and his wrists thrust in a great m.u.f.f; but when I look at the severe and ascetic countenance in the portrait of Thomas Prince, I find it hard to think of him, walking solemnly along Boston streets, carrying his big bear-skin m.u.f.f." Other Bostonians, we are told, maintained the fashion until a much later period. Judge Dana employed it even after Revolutionary times. In 1783, in the will of Rene Hett, of New York, several m.u.f.fs are mentioned, and were considered of sufficient account to form bequests.

The puritans of New England had little regard for warmth in their places of worship, and it is not surprising that men wore m.u.f.fs. People were obliged to attend the services of the church unless they were sick, yet little attempt was made to render the places comfortable.

The first stove introduced into a meeting-house in Ma.s.sachusetts was at Boston in 1773. In 1793 two stoves were placed in the Friends'

meeting-house, Salem, and in 1809 one was erected in the North Church, Salem. Persons are still living in the United States who can remember the knocking of feet on a cold day towards the close of a long sermon. The preachers would ask for a little patience and promise to close their discourses.