English Costume Part 35

Plain round riding-coats were worn, fastened by a clasp or a couple of large b.u.t.tons.

The habit of tying the neckcloth in a bow with full hanging ends was dying out, and a more loosely tied cravat was being worn; this was finished with fine lace ends, and was frequently worn quite long.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {Three men of the time of William and Mary}]

Stockings were pulled over the knee, and were gartered below and rolled above it.

The ordinary citizen wore a modified edition of these clothes--plain in cut, full, without half the number of b.u.t.tons, and without the tremendous periwig, wearing merely his own hair long.

For convenience in riding, the skirts of the coats were slit up the back to the waist; this slit could be b.u.t.toned up if need be.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {A man of the time of William and Mary; a shoe}]

Now, let us give the dandy of this time his pipe, and let him go in peace. Let us watch him stroll down the street, planting his high heels carefully, to join two companions outside the tobacco shop.

Here, by the great carved wood figure of a smoking Indian with his kilt of tobacco leaves, he meets his fellows. From the hoop hung by the door one chooses a pipe, another asks for a quid to chew and a spittoon, the third calls for a paper of snuff newly rasped. Then they pull aside the curtains and go into the room behind the shop, where, seated at a table made of planks upon barrels, they will discuss the merits of smoking, chewing, and snuffing.

'We three are engaged in one cause, I snuffs, I smokes, and I chaws.'

THE WOMEN

Let me picture for you a lady of this time in the language of those learned in dress, and you will see how much it may benefit.

'We see her coming afar off; against the yew hedge her weeds shine for a moment. We see her figuretto gown well looped and puffed with the monte-la-haut. Her ech.e.l.le is beautiful, and her pinner exquisitely worked. We can see her commode, her top-not, and her fontage, for she wears no rayonne. A silver pin holds her meurtriers, and the fashion suits better than did the creve-coeurs. One hand holds her Saxon green m.u.f.fetee, under one arm is her chapeau-bras. She is beautiful, she needs no plumpers, and she regards us kindly with her watchet eyes.'

A lady of this date would read this and enjoy it, just as a lady of to-day would understand modern dress language, which is equally peculiar to the mere man. For example, this one of the Queen of Spain's hats from her trousseau (curiously enough a trousseau is a little bundle):

'The hat is a paille d'Italie trimmed with a profusion of pink roses, accompanied by a pink chiffon ruffle fashioned into ma.s.ses bouillonnee arranged at intervals and circled with wreaths of shaded roses.'

[Ill.u.s.tration: {Two women of the time of William and Mary}]

The modern terms so vaguely used are shocking, and the descriptive names given to colours by dress-artists are horrible beyond belief--such as Watteau pink and elephant grey, not to speak of Sevres-blue cherries.

However, the female mind delights in such jargon and hotch-potch.

Let me be kind enough to translate our William and Mary fashion language. 'Weeds' is a term still in use in 'widow's weeds,' meaning the entire dress appearance of a woman. A 'figuretto gown looped and puffed with the monte-la-haut' is a gown of figured material gathered into loops over the petticoat and stiffened out with wires 'monte-la-haut.' The 'ech.e.l.le' is a stomacher laced with ribbons in rungs like a ladder. Her 'pinner' is her ap.r.o.n. The 'commode' is the wire frame over which the curls are arranged, piled up in high ma.s.ses over the forehead. The 'top-not' is a large bow worn at the top of the commode; and the 'fontage' or 'tower' is a French arrangement of alternate layers of lace and ribbon raised one above another about half a yard high. It was invented in the time of Louis XIV., about 1680, by Mademoiselle Fontage. The 'rayonne' is a cloth hood pinned in a circle. The 'meurtriers,' or murderers, are those twists in the hair which tie or unloose the arrangements of curls; and the 'creve-coeurs' are the row of little forehead curls of the previous reign. A 'm.u.f.fetee' is a little m.u.f.f, and a 'chapeau-bras' is a hat never worn, but made to be carried under the arm by men or women; for the men hated to disarrange their wigs.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {A woman of the time of William and Mary}]

'Plumpers' were artificial arrangements for filling out the cheeks, and 'watchet' eyes are blue eyes.

The ladies have changed a good deal by the middle of this reign: they have looped up the gown till it makes side-panniers and a bag-like droop at the back; the under-gown has a long train, and the bodice is long-waisted. The front of the bodice is laced open, and shows either an arrangement of ribbon and lace or a piece of the material of the under-gown.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {Two hair arrangements and necklines for women}]

Black pinners in silk with a deep frill are worn as well as the white lace and linen ones.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {A woman of the time of William and Mary}]

The ladies wear short black capes of this stuff with a deep frill.

Sometimes, instead of the fontage, a lady wears a lace shawl over her head and shoulders, or a sort of lace cap bedizened with coloured ribbons.

Her sleeves are like a man's, except that they come to the elbow only, showing a white under-sleeve of lace gathered into a deep frill of lace just below the elbow.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF WILLIAM AND MARY (1689-1702)

Here you see the cap called the 'fontage,' the black silk ap.r.o.n, the looped skirt, and the hair on the high frame called a 'commode.']

[Ill.u.s.tration: {A woman of the time of William and Mary}]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Country Folk.]

She is very stiff and tight-laced, and very long in the waist; and at the waist where the gown opens and at the loopings of it the richer wear jewelled brooches.

Later in the reign there began a fashion for copying men's clothes, and ladies wore wide skirted coats with deep-flapped pockets, the sleeves of the coats down below the elbow and with deep-turned overcuffs. They wore, like the men, very much puffed and ruffled linen and lace at the wrists. Also they wore men's waistcoat fashions, carried sticks and little arm-hats--chapeau-bras. To complete the dress the hair was done in a bob-wig style, and the cravat was tied round their necks and pinned. For the winter one of those loose Dutch jackets lined and edged with fur, having wide sleeves.

The general tendency was to look Dutch, stiff, prim, but very prosperous; even the country maid in her best is close upon the heel of fashion with her laced bodice, sleeves with cuffs, ap.r.o.n, and high-heeled shoes.

QUEEN ANNE

Reigned twelve years: 1702-1714.

Born 1665. Married, 1683, Prince George of Denmark.

THE MEN AND WOMEN

When I turn to the opening of the eighteenth century, and leave Dutch William and his Hollands and his pipe and his bulb-gardens behind, it seems to me that there is a great noise, a tumultuous chattering. We seem to burst upon a date of talkers, of coffee-houses, of snuff and scandal. All this was going on before, I say to myself--people were wearing powdered wigs, and were taking snuff, and were talking scandal, but it did not appeal so forcibly.

We arrive at Sedan-chairs and hoops too big for them; we arrive at red-heeled shoes. Though both chairs and red heels belong to the previous reign, still, we arrive at them now--they are very much in the picture. We seem to see a profusion, a confused ma.s.s of bobbins and bone lace, mourning hatbands, silk garters, amber canes correctly conducted, country men in red coats, c.o.xcombs, bra.s.s and looking-gla.s.s snuff-boxes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {A man of the time of Anne}]

Gentlemen walk past our mental vision with seals curiously fancied and exquisitely well cut. Ladies are sighing at the toss of a wig or the tap on a snuff-box, falling sick for a pair of striped garters or a pair of fringed gloves. Gentlemen are sitting baldheaded in elegant dressing-gowns, while their wigs are being taken out of roulettes. The peruquier removes the neat, warm clay tube, gives a last pat to the fine pipes of the hair, and then gently places the wig on the waiting gentlemen. If you can look through the walls of London houses you will next see regiments of gentlemen, their faces pressed into gla.s.s cones, while the peruquier tosses powder over their newly-put-on periwigs.

The bow at the end of the long pigtail on the Ramillies wig is tied--that is over.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF QUEEN ANNE (1702-1714)

The coat has become still more full at the sides. The hat has a more generous brim. Red heels in fashion.]

Running footmen, looking rather like Indians from the outsides of tobacco shops, speed past. They are dressed in close tunics with a fringed edge, which flicks them just above the knee. Their legs are tied up in leather guards, their feet are strongly shod, their wigs are in small bobs. On their heads are little round caps, with a feather stuck in them. In one hand they carry a long stick about 5 feet high, in the top k.n.o.b of which they carry some food or a message.

A message to whom?

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Running Footman.]