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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 June 2012
As Mr. Strutt, in his “Habits of the People of England,” has already given us a very full account of the female head-dress from the earliest periods, accompanied by many curious and interesting engravings, I shall confine my observations on the subject to those of a subsequent date.
page 31 note a The horned head-dress may be found as late as the reign of Elizabeth, but covered in the middle by a kind of cloth, or drapery. See a specimen, as worn in one of the French provinces (Pl. VIII. fig. 17) published by Boissardin 1581.
page 31 note b Collier's Annals of the Stage, vol. ii. 224.
page 32 note c It is a common practice to take off impressions from brass-plates by means of rubbing with lead, or black leather upon paper; but this is a great error, as may be seen by fig. 9 and 10, which give the real appearance of the plates, while figg. 11 and 12 are representations of the impressions from the plates, the beautiful ornamental traceries of which are formed by accident.
page 33 note d Figg. 12, 13, 14, 18, 19, and 22 are copied from Holbein's Portraits, published by Cliamberlaine. Figg. 17, 20, and 23, from Hollar; 15, 16, and 24, from other prints. Figg. 15, 16, and 17 represent three different head-dresses of Anne Boleyn; fig. 18 the head-dress of the Marchioness of Dorset, of an earlier date than the engraving of her published by the Society. Figg. 19 and 20 Anne of Cleves; figg. 24, Catharine Parr. Figg. 21, 25, the head-dress of Queen Mary at different periods.
page 33 note e Ellis's Letters, vol. i. 273.
page 33 note f A cowl, a monk's hood, derived, according to Dr. Johnson, from cuzle, Saxon: cucullus, Latin. It may be observed that this word and caul both allude to the covering of the head. The language formerly used at the English court, and among the higher ranks of society, was Norman-French, and of course with the French pronunciation, as in the diphthong au, pronounced ou or om, as in Pauls, which was formerly pronounced Powles.
page 34 note g That the initial letter of the name was worn about the time of Henry VIII. we find by a portrait of the Lady Monteagle; she has the letter M ornamented with pearls, &c. at the end of her necklace.
page 35 note h Restituta, vol. Hi.
page 35 note i See Gent. Mag. for Oct. 1790, review of Gilpin's Picturesque Views of Scotland.
page 37 note k Milan, a city in Lombardy, whence our milliner.
page 38 note l In “the Ladies' Dictionary,” the huke is thus explained: “A Dutch attire, covering the head, face, and all the body.” From this it appears, that the mantle and the hood sometimes formed one dress, which may account for the hood being confounded with the huke.
page 39 note m Collier's Annals of the Stage, vol. ii. 387.
page 39 note n British Bibliographer, vol. ii.
page 40 note o “Minever is the fur of the ermine mixed with that of the small wesel (Menuvair) called gris or grey.” (Cotgrave.) The nobility had them of ermine and sable, the wealthy merchants of vair and grey (the dainty minever). The lower order of people, &c. of the squirrel, lamb, and above all of rabbits' skins, &c.
page 44 note p Ellis's Letters, vol. i. 292.
page 44 note q Lysons's Cheshire, p. 600.
page 45 note r Thrum, any coarse yarn.
page 45 note s Strutt, vol. iii. p. 83.
page 46 note t Here it seems as if the hat and cap were the same.
page 47 note u In referring to the “Dictionaire de l'Academie Franfois,” 1787, we find under the word perruque, “Les femmes en habit de chasse portent des perruques.”
page 50 note x Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, edited by Dallaway; vol. iii. p. 212.
page 51 note y Archaeologia, vol. xxi. 476.
page 52 note z “La Comtesse étoit grande chasseresse, et toujours vêtue en homme; elle passoit sa vie à la campagne.”
page 53 note a “Voyez la Fable de l'Ægle et du Hibou, par la Fontaine.”
page 53 note b The name of a fashion.
page 54 note c “Calumbuc—A certain precious wood, of an agreeable scent, brought from the Indies.
“Polvil—The Portugal term for the most exquisite powders and perfumes.
“Plumpers—Certain very thin, round, and light balls, to plump up and fill up the cavities of the cheeks, much used by old court countesses.
“Settee—Is only a double pinner.—Ladyes Dictionary, 1694.
“Cupée—Is a pinner that hangs close to the head. ib.
“Frelan—Bonnet and pinner together.
“Fontange—The top-knot, so called from Mademoiselle de Fontange, one of the French king's mistresses, who first wore it.
“Favorites—Locks dangling on the temples.
“Monté la haut—Certain degrees of wire to raise the dress.
“Palisade—A wire sustaining the hair next the dutchess, or first knot.
Sorti—A little knot of small ribbon, peeping out between the pinner and bonnet.
page 55 note * In the “Ladies Dictionary,” 1694, it is thus explained; “A frame of wire, two or three stories high, fitted for the head, or covered with tiffany, or other thin silks; being now completed into the whole head-dress.”
In the early French dictionaries, we meet with the word Commode as applied to the head-dress, from which it appears to have been out of fashion before 1761, as “Le Grand Dictionaire Français et Flamand,” says, “sorte de coiffure de femme, que nest plus en usage.”
page 59 note d A paper in the Spectator Says of Paradin's History of Lyons, that it mentioned the Fontange. This is an anachronism, as the history was published nearly a century before Madame Fontange was born.
page 61 note e This is a strange contradiction to the rule so universally allowed from the earliest times of the Apostles, of the propriety of women being covered in the churches, an allusion to which we find in Bingham's Antiquities of the Christian Church, (vol. v. 267). that the men “prayed with the head uncovered, according to the Apostles' direction, as esteeming it a great indecency to do otherwise.”
“Tertullian adds another reason in his Apology to the Gentiles. We pray uncovered, because we are not ashamed to appear with open faces; making a sort of testimony and symbol of their innocency in their addressing God without covering. On the other hand, as both nature and custom had made it decent for women to be covered, so they were precise in requiring this to be observed, especially in religious assemblies,” &c.
Again—In the arraignment of Anne Turner, at the King's Bench, in 1615, on the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury,“The Lord Chief Justice told her that women must be covered in the church, but not when they are arraigned, and so caused her to put off her hat; which done, she covered her hair with her handkerchief, being before dressed in her hair, and her hat over it.”
page 63 note f The sketches at the bottom of Plate X. (one head excepted) are taken from the drawings of my late father, who was a great observer of the fashions of his time.
page 63 note g Wise Men's Wonderful Discoveries.
page 66 note h Even the whole dress worn in the beginning of Elizabeth's reign was superior in taste to that of James I. Fig. 12, from Fox's Book of Martyrs, may be compared with fig. 13, from a print in Roland Furieux, 1619.
page 67 note i Collier's Annals, vol. ii. 243.
page 68 note k Published by Isaak Walton.
page 71 note l The following quotation gives a curious specimen of a fine gentleman in the time of Queen Anne, from “The Levellers, a Dialogue between two young Ladies, concerning Matrimony,” edit. 1703. Harl. Misc. vol. xi.—“They (the men) sit in monstrous long perukes, like so many owls in ivybushes; and esteem themselves more upon the reputation of being a beau, than on the substantial qualifications of honour, courage, learning, and judgment. If you heard them talk, you would think yourself at a gossipping at Dover, or that you heard the learned confabulation of the boys in the piazzas of Christ's Hospital. Did you ever see a creature more ridiculous than that stake of human nature which dined the other day at our house, with his great long wig to cover his head and face, which was no bigger than a Hackney-turnip, and much of the same form and shape ? Bless me, how it looked ! just like a great platter of French soup with a little bit of flesh in the middle. Did you mark the beau tiff of his wig, what a deal of pains he took to toss it back, when the very weight thereof was like to draw him from his seat ? Did you not take notice how he replenished his snout with snuff, and what pains he took to let us know that it is Vigo ? Did you not wonder at his learned discourse of the women's accoutrements, from the top knot to the laced shoe; and what lectures he read on the fan, masque, and gloves? He understood ribbons and silk, as well as a milliner and mercer, and was a perfect chemist in beauty-washes and essences,” &c.
In the additional volume of the Spectator (No. 20) 1715. We find “that Bean Hatchet made so wretched a figure about seven years ago, with his three inches offace diameter, under the intolerable load of perriwig, which was then imposed upon the necks of our people.”
page 72 note m By a letter from Dr. John London to Cromwell, it appears that before the Reformation, images of saints were sometimes dressed up with caps, wigs, and other artificial ornaments.
“I have pullyd down the image of our Ladye of Caversham, where unto wasse great pilgremage. The image ys platyd over with sylver, and I have putte it in a cheste,”&c.—with her “cotes,”— “her cappe and here.”—Ellis's Letters, cxxix.