Duke of York first put on a periwig on the 5th of February, 1664, and that he saw the king in one for the first time on the 18th of April following. About the same period the crown of the hat was lowered, and the feathers laid upon the brim. ence, where all the ladies walked, talking and fid- | uriant. The minute Pepys informs us that the dling with their hats and feathers, and changing and trying one another's by one another's heads, and laughing. . . . . But, above all, Mrs. Stewart, in her dress, with her hat cocked and a red plume, with her sweet eye, little, Roman nose, and excellent taille, is now the greatest beauty I ever saw, I think, in my life." Silver-lace gowns are mentioned by the same authority as a revived fashion in 1664; and yellow bird's-eye hoods were in vogue May 10th, 1665. The riding-habits of the ladies were, as usual, fashioned after the garb of the other sex. In 1666 Mr. Pepys says, " Walking in the galleries at Whitehall, I find the ladies of honor dressed in their riding garbs with coats and doublets with deep skirts, just for all the world like men, and buttoned their doublets up the breast, with periwigs and with hats. So that, only for a long petticoat dragging under their men's coats, nobody could take them for women in any point whatever; which was an odd sight, and a sight that did not please me. It was Mrs. Wells and another fine lady that I saw thus." Evelyn also says, September 13th, 1666, "The queen was now in her cavalier riding-habit, hat, and feather, and horseman's coat, going to take the air." In 1669 we first hear of the sac, or sacque, "My wife," says Pepys, "this day (March 2d) put on first her French gown called a sac, which becomes her very well." During the short reign of James II. some of the fashions which characterized the accession of William and Mary began to appear, but they will be fully described in our next notice of this subject. The first great change in costume took place in 1666, when the king declared, in council, his design of adopting a certain habit which he was resolved never to alter! It consisted of a long, close vest of black cloth or velvet, pinked with white satin; a loose surcoat or tunic over it, of an oriental character; and, instead of shoes and stockings, buskins or brodequins: and on the 18th of October, says Evelyn, the king put on his new dress "solemnly." Pepys says, under the date of the day before-"The court is all full of vests, only my Lord St. Albans (Jermyn) not pinked, but plain black; and they say the king says the pinking on white makes them look too much like magpies, so hath bespoke one of plain velvet." Randal Holmes, in his Accedence of Armory, gives us a rude figure of a vest in one of his diagrams, and a detailed description of it in the text, as follows:"He beareth argent a vest azure, lined sable. This was the form of the Russian ambassador's loose coat when he came first to England, shortly after Charles II.'s return from exile, which garb was so taken to that it became a great fashion and wear both in court, city, and country. The several parts of the fashion are these:-The vest, a side-deep, loose coat, almost to the feet, with short sleeves. The tunic, a closebodied coat, the skirts being down to the knees. The sash, the girdle by which the tunic was tied to the body, so called because it hath a round button and tassel hanging at the end of it. The zone is a girdle of silk without buttons and tassel, which is tied in a long knot before." Evelyn tells us that divers courtiers and gentlemen gave the king gold, by way of wager that he would not persist in his resolution of wearing this peculiar habit, and of course they must have won their bet, for the fashion does not appear to have lasted two years, its abandonment being accelerated perhaps by the insolence of Louis XIV. and his courtiers, who, in contempt of Charles, put all their servants into his newly-fancied costume. The only representation we remember to have met with of an English gentleman so attired is the portrait of Henry Bennett, earl of Arlington, published by Mr. Lodge in his Collection of Illustrious Personages, and which, from the appearance of the broad and richly-embroidered shoulder-belt, introduced, according to Pepys, in 1668, we must presume was executed just before the change of fashion. The reign of Charles II. presents us with three distinct fashions of male costume, with their several varieties. The first is to be seen in the curious original painting at Goodrich Court of the triumphal entry of Charles II. into London at his restoration, and in the print of his procession through Westminster, engraved in Ogilvy's work on the coronation of this king. It is described by Randal Holmes, whose notes on dress, in the Harleian Library, were written at this period. Under the date of 1659 he gives the following description of a gentleman's dress: "A short-waisted doublet and petticoat breeches; the lining, being lower than the breeches, is tied above the knees; the breeches are ornamented with ribbons up to the pocket, and half their breadth upon the thigh: the waistband is set about with ribbons, and the shirt hanging out over them." The hat was high-crowned, and ornamented with a plume of feathers. Beneath the knee hung long, drooping lace ruffles, and a rich falling-collar of The vest, however, seems to have originated the lace, with a cloak hung carelessly over the shoulders. long square-cut coat which succeeded it, and the High-heeled shoes, tied with ribbons, completed the tunic the waistcoat, nearly as long, which was worn costume of the English gallant. The hair was again under the coat, and almost entirely concealed the worn very long, and flowing in natural ringlets on breeches. The sleeves of the coat came no farther the shoulders; and to such an extent did this fashion than the elbows, where they were turned back and obtain, that in 1664 the ample periwig or peruke formed a large cuff, those of the shirt bulging forth was introduced from the court of Louis XIV., no from beneath, ruffled at the wrist and adorned natural English head of hair being sufficiently lux-profusely with ribbons. Both coat and waistcoat arms were to be a sword and a case of pistols, the barrels of which were not to be under fourteen inches in length. For the foot, a musketeer is ordered to have a musket, the barrel not under three feet in length, a collar of bandeliers, and a sword. Pikemen are to be armed with a pike made of ash, not under sixteen feet in length, with a back, breast, head-piece, and sword. COSTUME OF THE NOBILITY AND GENTRY, temp. James II. Selected from Sandford's Coronation of James II., 1687. had buttons and button-holes all the way down the front. The stiff band and falling-collar were superseded by a neckcloth or cravat of Brussels or Flanders lace tied with ribbons under the chin, the ends hanging down square; and the broad hat, which had already been turned up, or "cocked" behind, in 1667, was sometimes entirely surrounded by short feathers, which fell curling over the brim. A round hat, with a very small brim, ornamented with a cockade or favor, appears in the print of the funeral of General Monk, 1670; and the marble statue of that celebrated general in Winchester Cathedral presents him to us in something like the jockey-edged, sometimes flat, with a wooden hilt like a cap which is now worn by the royal state-footmen, trumpeters, watermen, &c. Small buckles, instead of shoe-strings, were worn by Charles II., in 1666, when he assumed the fanciful dress before mentioned; but the shoe-buckle, as known to us at present, appears to have been introduced about 1680. It was not general, however, till the reign of Anne. The fashions of the later years of Charles II. continued, with little variation, during the short reign of his brother James. The brims of the hats were frequently turned up on both sides; and each gallant cocked his hat according to his own fancy, or after the style of some leader of fashion. One mode was called the Monmouth cock, after the unfortunate Duke of Monmouth. Defensive armor was now falling into disuse. The statute of the 13 and 14 Car. II., c. 3, orders the defensive arms of the cavalry to consist simply of a back and breast-piece and a pot helmet; the breast and pot to be pistol-proof. The offensive 1 Pepys Officers wore the helmet, with a corslet or cuirass, and sometimes only a large gorget over the buff coat. The bayonet was invented in this reign, at Bayonne, whence its name. It was sometimes three dagger, and was screwed or merely stuck into the muzzle of the gun. Numbers may be seen disposed in fanciful shapes in the armory at the Tower, and the guard-rooms at St. James's, Hampton Court, &c. The bandelier was superseded, toward the close of Charles's reign, by a cartridge-box of tin, strongly recommended by Lord Orrery. The names of regiments as they still exist in the British army were first given in this reign. The Coldstream Foot Guards date their formation from 1660, when two regiments were added to the one raised about ten years previously by General Monk, at Coldstream, on the borders of Scotland. To these were added the 1st Royal Scots, brought over from France at the Restoration. The Life Guards were raised in 1661; the Blues, called Oxford Blues, from their first commander, Aubrey, earl of Oxford, in the same year; also the 2d, or Queen's (foot). The 3d, or Old Buffs, so called from their accoutrements being formed of buffalo leather, were raised in 1665; the Scotch Fusileers (now 21st Foot), so called from their carrying the fusil, a lighter firelock than the musket, in 1678. | merry-meetings and festivals, and all sports and In this year we learn from Evelyn that grenadiers games, whether out-door or domestic, were classed were first brought into our service: they were so with the excesses of drinking healths, brawling, and called, he says, "because they were dextrous at profane swearing, as unworthy of Christians, and flinging hand-grenades, every one having a pouch- meriting the most unqualified condemnation. ful; they had furred caps with coped crowns, like Janizaries, which made them look very fierce; and some had long hoods hanging down behind, as we picture fools; their clothing being likewise piebald, yellow and red." In 1680, the 4th, or the King's Own, were raised. James II. added to the British cavalry the 1st, or King's regiment of Dragoon Guards, June 6th, 1685; and the 2d, or Queen's Dragoon Guards, in the same year: to the infantry also, in 1685, the 5th and 7th regiments (the latter called the Royal Fusileers); and in 1688, the 23d, or Welsh Fu sileers. The peculiarities of demeanor and outward appearance by which the English Puritans of the seventeenth century were distinguished took their rise no doubt, in the main, from the principles they held in religion and morals, which were in a high degree rigid, austere, and enthusiastic, and naturally produced a corresponding severity of manners, and a disregard of, and contempt for, many things which were generally reckoned among the tempering and softening influences, or at least the agreeable decorations, of social life. But part of their sternness or sourness may also be attributed to the spirit of contradiction excited by the prevalence of the opposite temper among their opponents; just as the excessive levity and recklessness of the Cavaliers, on the other hand, was in part provoked by their disgust at the demureness, and, as they deemed it, hypocritical sanctimoniousness of the Puritans and Roundheads. The two parties were separated from each other, in all their ways and habits, by feelings of mutual aversion. The Cavaliers ruffled in gay clothing, rich lace, and jewelry, and the Puritans could not find garments sufficiently sad in color and homely in cut. The royalists were almost as much devoted to the dressing of their long hair and the curling of their love-locks, as to the crown which they fought to uphold; and, therefore, the Puritans shore their hair so close to the skull that their ears stood out in strong relief, while their naked countenances were rendered more grim and ghastly. So particular were the latter party in regard to these ridiculous externals, that they looked upon their brethren who were so unfortunate as to have ruddy cheeks as very doubtful characters; and even the brave and faithful Hutchinson was considered as a lukewarm adherent, because he dressed well and wore long hair. Upon the same principle of separation from the worldlings, the Puritans affected a slowness of speech that frequently ended in drawling, and a solemnity of tone that often degenerated into a snuffle or nasal twang, while their talk, even upon the most ordinary occasions, was liberally dovetailed with texts of Scripture. Music and dancing, 1 Echard's History of England.-Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson by his Wife The Puritans, however, were not so ignorant as not to know that men must have social excitement, even though they should only meet to groan; and they endeavored to extract from religious observances a compensation for their unsparing proscription of all ordinary amusements. The church-bell was their harp and cittern, and psalms were their roundelays; the mustering of the congregation sufficed them for a merry-meeting; and nothing that Shakspeare ever penned was equal, in their eyes, to a sermon of length and pith, that soared to the highest heights, or plunged into the deepest abysms, of theology. This last enjoyment was their feast of fat things; and the Puritan clergy were not slow in feeding their congregations to the full. Besides unriddling those mysteries which reason can not fathom, and expatiating largely upon those spiritual joys and terrors that never fail to excite an audience, they stimulated the people with political sermons, in which "the good old cause" was glorified, the measures of state canvassed, the news of the past week detailed, and the events of the next anticipated, or even prophesied. The eager congregation hung upon the lips of such a preacher; they projected their heads, and put their hands behind their ears, and bent them forward, that they might not lose a single word: some took down the sermon in short-hand; and at those passages which were particularly gratifying the audience expressed their delight by a loud buzzing hum. Sometimes the preacher, when he meant to give a very vigorous sermon, prepared for action in the pulpit by throwing off his cloak, after which he laid about him like a thresher; and this was called "taking pains." On some occasions, too, the orator would enliven his auditory by what was intended for a stroke of wit: in this case he would select a text that bore some whimsical or unexpected allusion to his subject; and thus the congregation were electrified into a sudden grin. The popular Hugh Peters was the most celebrated of these ecclesiastical buffos, and it is said he was much indebted for his success to his experience as a player before he became a divine.3 The devotedness of the Puritans to Scripture language was so strong, that the names which they selected for their children in baptism were either expressive of a Christian quality, or proper names taken from the Old Testament, while those that in any way savored of paganism or popery were lothingly rejected. Many of them even held, besides, that the Scriptures were so full and express upon every subject, that every thing must be necessarily sinful which was not enjoined there. War itself, 1 Letter of Samuel Butler, in Somers's Tracts, vol. iv. p. 582. 2 Character of England, Somers's Tracts, vol. vii. 3 On one occasion, being robbed on the highway, not only of his purse but his garment, by the notorious Captain Hind, Peters took for the text of his next sermon the passage, "I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on ?" • Echard. as well as politics, was attempted to be carried on | Determined, also, that their military saviors should upon Scripture principles; and men who fought not go unrewarded, they made the soldiers of Monk with the musket and cannon were drilled, exhorted, happy after the popular fashion, by plying them and led on, as if they wielded lamps and pitchers, with strong liquors, so that they were drunk every or pebbles and slings. A curious instance of this day.' The reign of the saints was at an end: they veneration for the Old Testament mode of warfare stole into corners, too happy to escape notice, amid was exhibited in the trial of Colonel Fiennes for the general confusion. his cowardly surrender of Bristol. He declared before the court-martial that he had surrendered the town because it was untenable; but he was told that, in this case, he should have fortified himself in the citadel—even as did the men of Thebez, who betook themselves to their tower, when their city was taken by Abimelech, the son of Gideon. Who knew, it was added, but that some women of Bristol, after the example of her of Thebez, might have thrown down a piece of a mill-stone, or a tile that would have broken Prince Rupert's skull? Heresy in a soldier was also to the full as great a crime in the eyes of the Puritans as cowardice itself: on one occasion an officer, for having speculated too freely on the nature of sin, had his sword broken over his head by sentence of a court-martial. But the Puritans were not the only fanatics of this period of religious and political excitement. When the crawling and foot-licking age of loyalty succeeded, with the Restoration, there was exhibited by right reverend and most learned prelates a fanaticism less fervid indeed, but far more profane and mischievous, than that of the Commonwealth -and God, the Church, and the King, became their Trinity, while it was hard to tell which person of the three was the most devoutly worshiped. Then, too, the duties of non-resistance and passive obedience were inculcated as the golden rule of Christian practice, while opposition to monarchy was represented as a crime in which, if the sinner died, his salvation was hopeless. In the same way, Charles and his brother were fanatics, who vibrated to the very last between their confessors and their mistresses; and those gay and guilty courtiers were fanatics, who, even amid their excesses, would sometimes fast and pray, and be visited by superstitious impulses more ridiculous than the worst that have been fabled of Cromwell himself. In this temper of the public mind the Restoration brought with it a tide not only of levity but of licentiousness-an inundation of all the debauchery of the French court, in which Charles and his followers had chiefly spent their exile. The strangest scenes were exhibited in the Duchess of Portsmouth's dressing-room, where Evelyn saw this worthless Cleopatra in her loose morning-garment, as she had newly got out of bed, while his majesty and the court gallants were standing about her. In some other points Charles's domestic habits were also very singular. His especial favorites were little spaniels, of a breed that still retains his name: to these he was so much attached, that he not only suffered them to follow him everywhere, but even to litter and nurse their brood in his bed-chamber; on account of which the room, and, indeed, the whole court, was filthy and offensive. Court language was in no better taste. Charles, in quarreling with Lady Castlemaine, called her a jade, and she, in return, called him a fool; and the first English phrase which the queen learned, and which she applied to her husband, was, "You lie!" The levity of the court is strikingly exemplified in the anecdote told by Pepys, that on the evening of that day of national disgrace, when the Dutch fleet had blocked up the mouth of the Thames and burned the English shipping, Charles was supping with Lady Castlemaine at the Duchess of Monmouth's, where the company diverted themselves with— hunting a moth! Matters were not mended when the king repaired to the council: he could not even affect a decent show of interest in public affairs, and, instead of attending to the business in hand, he would play with his favorite dog.5 6 Sanctioned and encouraged by the royal example, the upper classes now resumed, with double ardor, various immoral practices which Puritanism had held in check. Swearing, which during the ComThe unfortunate peculiarities of manner by which monwealth had been punished by a fine, and proflithe Puritans were distinguished obscured the noble gate conversation, were now so prevalent, that a moral qualities they unquestionably possessed; and young nobleman or man of family was accounted the majority of the nation soon became heartily "no gentleman, nor person of any honor, that had tired of the gloom and constraint of the Common- not, in two hours' sitting, invented some new modwealth. The reaction of feeling, therefore, with ish oath, or found out the late intrigue between the which the restoration of the monarchy was wel- Lord B. and the Lady P., laughed at the fopperies comed was an absolute national frenzy. When of priests, and made lampoons and drolleries on Charles arrived, bonfires were kindled in such mul- the sacred Scriptures themselves." The lives of titudes in the metropolis, that fourteen blazed be- Buckingham, Rochester, and Sedley show how feartween St. Dunstan's and Temple Bar, and thirty-lessly all common decency could be set at naught; one could be seen at once at the Strand Bridge. The populace set up their old May-poles; rung the church-bells; paraded rumps in derision, which afterward they providently roasted and ate; drank the king's health upon their knees in the streets; and broke the windows of Praise-God Barebones. 1 State Trials, vol. iv. p. 274. while their writings evince how talent was employ- 3 Pepys. in being," is the eulogium upon a pretty fellow in Dryden's Wild Gal lant. 7 Lord Somers's Tracts, vol. viii. foul goddess they had set up. Pride of birth had hitherto been a characteristic of the English aristocracy, which made them solicitous for stainless and becoming alliances; but, now, royal and noble concubines and worthless actresses became the patronesses, and even the wives, of the highest nobility. Gaming, also, in the absence of nobler excitements, became a fashionable frenzy, so that a noble house was incomplete without a basset-table; and, in the turning of a die or a card, such sums disappeared as nothing but the leveling of whole forests could supply. In this way, Lord Caernarvon's definition may be said to have been practically adopted | by many great landed proprietors :-" Wood-an excrescence of the earth, provided by God for the payment of debts." The court ladies, as might be expected, were not proof against the examples of a profligate king and equally dissolute nobility; and they became so equivocal in character that few cared to venture the selection of a wife from among them. Some of their frolics, too, were as coarse and as wild as those of the other sex. A choice specimen in this way was the exploit of Mrs. Jenyngs, a maid of honor, afterward Duchess of Tyrconnel. She dressed herself like an orange-wench, and cried or anges about the streets. On occasions of public rejoicing ladies and gentlemen threw fireworks at the crowd, or at one another, and burned each other in sport; they also smutted each other's faces with candle-grease and soot, till most of them were like devils." Gentlemen, too, dressed themselves like ladies, and ladies disguised themselves like gentlemen, clapping periwigs upon their heads.3 A spirit of licentiousness is generally combined with cruelty and recklessness of life; and the rage for dueling during the reign of Charles II. had increased beyond all former precedent, so that fatal encounters were of daily occurrence from the worst of causes or for no cause at all. An atrocious instance was that of the duel fought between the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Shrewsbury: the duke, after having wronged the earl in "the nicest point," encountered and slew his injured antagonist, the countess standing by the while in the disguise of a page, and holding the horse of her paramour, after whose victory she welcomed with open arms the blood-stained murderer of her husband. Another specimen of a different character is detailed by that prince of gossips, the lively Pepys, in a passage so dramatic, and so illustrative of the manners of the age, as to deserve being quoted at length. "Here Creed did tell us," he says, "the story of the duel last night, in Covent Garden, between Sir H. Bellasses and Tom Porter. It is worth remembering the silliness of the quarrel, and is a kind of emblem of the general complexion of this whole kingdom at present. The two dined yesterday at Sir Robert Carr's, where, it seems, people do drink high, all that come. It happened that these two, the greatest friends in the world, were talking 1 The zero of gambling-heat was displayed at this period by the Duke of St. Albans, who, though more than eighty years old, and completely blind, still continued to frequent the gaming-table, having a man beside him, to tell him the name of each card.- Evelyn. 2 Pepys's Diary. 3 Ibid. together; and Sir H. Bellasses talked a little louder than ordinary to Tom Porter, giving of him some advice. Some of the company standing by said, What, are they quarreling, that they talk so high? Sir H. Bellasses, hearing it, said, No, says he, I would have you know I never quarrel, but I strike; and take that as a rule of mine! How, says Tom Porter, strike? I would I could see the man in England that durst give me a blow! With that, Sir H. Bellasses did give him a box of the ear; and so they were going to fight there, but were hindered. And by-and-by Tom Porter went out, and, meeting Dryden the poet, told him of the business, and that he was resolved to fight Sir H. Bellasses presently, for he knew that, if he did not, they should be friends to-morrow, and then the blow would rest upon him, which he would prevent, and desired Dryden to let him have his boy to bring him notice which way Sir H. Bellasses goes. By-and-by he is informed that Sir H. Bellasses's coach was coming; so Tom Porter went down out of the coffee-house, where he stayed for the tidings, and stopped the coach, and bade Sir H. Bellasses come out. Why, says H. Bellasses, you will not hurt me coming out, will you? No, says Tom Porter. So, out he went, and both drew: and H. Bellasses having drawn, and flung away his scabbard, Tom Porter asked him whether he was ready. The other answering him he was, they fell to fight, some of their acquaintance by. They wounded one another, and H. Bellasses so much, that it is feared he will die; and, finding himself severely wounded, he called to Tom Porter, and kissed him, and bade him shift for himself; for, says he, Tom, thou hast hurt me; but I will make shift to stand upon my legs till thou mayest withdraw, and the world will not take notice of you, for I would not have thee troubled for what thou hast done. And so, whether he did fly or not, I can not tell; but Tom Porter showed H. Bellasses that he was wounded too; and they are both ill, but H. Bellasses to fear of life." The result of this encounter was, that Bellasses died ten days afterward. Politics had now become in England an important element in the common business of life; and here, too, we find the same spirit and fashions which were predominant everywhere else. The debates of parliament were grown to be so protracted, that many of the members adjourned to refresh themselves at taverns, from which they returned, half-drunk, to finish the discussion. Coffee-houses were the favorite resort of those who wished either to gather or retail the political news of the day. Political clubs were also abundant, where the middle classes attended, and took a share in the discussions, to the great wonderment and wrath of the aristocracy. Yea," says a Cavalier writer, alluding to these clubs, they have of late made our citizens statesmen, too, whose business lies quite another way, one would think; every little ale-draper now can tell what the privy council intend to do a month hence, and what the king ought to do. . . . . Very fine, by my treth!" The most noted institution of 1 The present great Interest both of King and People: a Cavalier Tract published in London in 1679. |