Part 6

On his carriage, the Marquis of Abergavenny wears his badges, a rose and a portcullis, one on each side of his crest, and there are interesting cases here and there of badges worn as part of a livery. The porters of the Inner Temple wear the pascal lamb in silver. Watermen still have badges on their arms, and not very long ago the private firemen of the insurance companies wore badges bearing the sign of the company. When speaking of signs, it is worthy of note that very many royal badges have furnished signs for inns. We cannot go into details, but we may mention the White Hart of Richard II, the Falcon and Fetterlock of Henry VII, now degenerated into the hawk and buckle, and the Rose and Crown also used by the Tudors.

Those who chance to see the dress of our convicts will hardly be inclined to associate it in any way with that of royalty. Yet it is true, nevertheless, that the broad arrow which marks--we can hardly say adorns--the garments of the penitentiary, is in reality a royal badge. The broad arrow can be traced to an ancient symbol consisting of three converging rods or rays of light used by the Druids, and it was adopted by Edward III as his badge. The symbol was also worn by the Black Prince and other Princes of Wales. As early as the year 1386 the broad arrow was used in the Royal household, and from the beginning of the eighteenth century onwards it was adopted as a mark for distinguishing Government stores.

We may conclude our remarks upon this fascinating subject by alluding to a case in which a crest is actually borne on the head. It will be seen on looking at Figure 89, which represents the postilion of a Lord Mayor of London, that he wears upon his jockey cap the actual crest of his master, in the same way that in the days of chivalry the knights wore their crests upon their helmets. On his sleeve also there is a full coat of arms with helmet and crest, which takes the place of the badge, and is similar to the instances which we have mentioned just above.

X

GLOVES AND MITTENS

ORIGIN OF THE BABY'S GLOVE--FOURCHETTES--THE "POINTS" ON THE BACKS OF GLOVES

Gloves play a considerable part in our everyday life, and now exercise a kind of mild tyranny over us. It is perhaps not to be wondered at, seeing the importance which has been attached to these protectors of the hand in the past.

Records show that in the earliest gloves there were no divisions between the fingers, and only the thumbs had a separate covering. This is what one might have expected to be the case, and if we look at the gloves which tiny babies wear (see Figure 90), we shall find a similar state of affairs, so that here we have a direct survival from very early times.

Such a case is on all fours with that of young animals which belong to species that originally were spotted like the leopard, but which in the course of their evolution have changed their spots, and are now, like the lion, self-coloured. Among other animals which are spotted when immature may be mentioned the wild boar and the tapir (see Frontispiece). While these young ones are protected by their parents, their primitive colouring is no detriment to them, but when they go out into the world for themselves it would be disadvantageous under existing conditions for them to retain their aboriginal markings. In a similar way the baby wears the primitive glove, which its ancestors made shift to use for purposes of warmth or protection, and the child continues to do so until it is necessary or convenient for it to use its fingers to help itself without removing its gloves.

There is little doubt but that gloves are the products of a cold climate, and it is interesting to note that in Iceland, where in order that gloves may be put on quickly and easily they are made without fingers; and what is more, so that no time shall be wasted in choosing right or left-hand gloves, they are provided with two thumbs, one of which is in use while the other remains idle.

Of vestiges, gloves offer a very curious instance. There are on the backs of most of them, at the present day, three lines of raised embroidery or fancy stitching, which run almost parallel with one another, though they converge slightly as they approach the wrist. When these are worked in black on the back of a white woollen glove, for instance, they are very conspicuous, and to explain their origin may well seem puzzling. (See Figure 91.)

Inquiry into the history of these most persistent ornaments is apt to produce a fine crop of speculations. One explanation that may be offered is that the lines are vestiges that date from the time when gloves were so ill-fitting that they had to be laced up the back with the help of a string which was passed through eyelet holes. On hearing this one might be tempted to ask why there should be three ornaments and not one. Another guess which can be more easily shown to be wrong is that we are dealing with the remains of ventilation holes. We say "more easily" because an examination of the facts will show that openings through which air was intended to enter were made in the palm of the glove.

A third suggestion which may occur, is that the ornamentation is a survival from the time when great men, particularly prelates, had various devices and even jewels fixed to the back of their gloves. Once more, however, we meet with the difficulty in the shape of the point that there are always three of the marks.

In making a careful investigation into the true origin of the vestiges we can, on the one side, endeavour to see whether there is anything in the form of the hand which can have given rise to the number three, that is so constant; and on the other, whether the glove-makers have any particular name for the marks which may throw some light upon them. In connection with the first line of research, it will be seen on spreading out the fingers that there are, if we ignore the thumb which has its insertion lower down in the hand, three "V"-shaped openings between them, and we find on taking up our second clue that the ornaments are called "points." Now there is a point at the bottom of a "V," and this is well seen in looking at a glove where the pieces or fourchettes which form the insides of the fingers meet (see Figure 92); but if this is evident in a modern glove, it is very much more so in old gloves. (See Figure 93.)

A result of this fact was that the stitching which made the fingers was carried down for some distance on to the back of the glove, as seen in Queen Elizabeth's coronation glove. (See Figure 93.)

This stitching was and is often somewhat elaborate, and in some cases a line of embroidery covered it. This is well seen in the glove of Anne, the Queen Consort of James I (see Figure 94); and here it is noticeable that the two lines of embroidery at the points of the three "V's" run parallel and touching each other, so that we get a beginning of the three "points" as we know them. With improvements in the making of the fourchettes, the stitching terminated more abruptly, and the embroidery was allowed to remain on the back of the glove, where it is still to be seen.

Some mention should perhaps be made of mittens. When they are used for the purpose of keeping the hands warm, they are usually on the principle of a baby's glove, but with the end of the thumb and part of the bag for the fingers cut off. Otherwise, when these articles are used merely to cover part of the hands, or for ornament, they are more elaborate, and divisions are introduced for some distance between the fingers. In the construction of these, as in that of stockings and other garments, we meet with the modern tendency towards transparency. Often also the patterns are dependent upon the skin showing through, and we are once more reminded of tattooing.

XI

TAGS, PINS, AND BALDRICS

LACES--THE EVOLUTION AND VAGARIES OF THE SAFETY-PIN--PRIMITIVE METHODS OF CARRYING BURDENS AS ILLUSTRATED BY MUFF-CHAINS, BALDRICS, AND YOKES

During the course of their evolution many little appurtenances in connection with dress go through a number of changes. Some of them, which at first are useful, afterwards become ornamental. Others, which have reached a stage in which they are both necessary and decorative, may for a time be simplified and retain a practical importance only, while at a later period they resume their ornamental character once more.

We have at the present day various laces which are provided with simple metal tags, and which are as primitive as they very well can be. (See Figure 95.)

If we examine the dresses of both sexes in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, we shall find that ties were used to a great extent instead of buttons, and they were provided with metal tags of an ornamental character called aiglets, or, more properly, aiguillettes. In many cases the chief object of the ribbons which they adorned was that of embellishment, for as many as a dozen or more might be found round one knee. Sometimes the tags were in the form of little figures, and in the "Taming of the Shrew" it is said of Petruchio that if you gave him gold enough any one "might marry him to a puppet or an aglet-baby."

Of recent years the velvet ribbons which ladies have worn round their necks have been provided in like manner with little tags (see Figure 96), though the fashion does not seem to have developed again to any very great extent.

The safety-pin is an object which may well occupy our attention for a moment. As we knew it when we were children, it was merely a piece of wire that had been pointed at one end and bent into the required shape. (See Figure 97.)

The point was protected in a very simple manner, and the safety-pins used for fastening hooks to curtains are still constructed in the same way. Occasionally gold safety-pins of a plain and even ornamental character were made and used as brooches by ladies for fastening lace, or by men for securing their ties in the place of the straight scarf-pins. It would seem therefore that a brooch is a development of the safety-pin rather than the reverse; but if we study the brooches or fibulæ of the Romans, we shall find that the pin, instead of being hinged, was often made in one piece with the rest of the structure. A coil or two in the metal acted as a spring, as in the case of the safety-pin, and prevented breakage. We may even find an Etruscan fibula of such simple construction (see Figure 98) that it is to all intents and purposes a safety-pin. All sorts of devices have been invented for the better protection of the points in modern safety-pins, as well as for rendering the opening and closing more easy; but this is the development which has taken place along practical lines. Such pins are for use only, and are not intended to be seen. When, on the other hand, safety-pins are not hidden, they retain their more simple character as regards their fastenings, though they themselves again become decorative, and are ornamented in various ways. We have therefore a very good illustration of the evolution of one thing along two different lines, and of the survival of the fittest types in each case.

The ornamental safety-pin in recent years has changed its habits, and it is interesting to note its vagaries. A little while ago its sphere of action was extended, and instead of figuring under the chins of ladies it took up a position in the back of their waistbands (see Figure 99), where it occupied itself with the duty of keeping blouse and skirt together. Then, as if this situation were not important enough, the safety-pin migrated to the head and usurped the place of the straight hat-pin (see Figure 100), just as in the case of men it has sometimes ousted the tie-pin proper.

During the process which we have described the safety-pin has become stronger and larger, until in the last stage it has grown almost out of recognition.

Straight pins have developed along the same two lines, and we have the strictly useful pin and tie- or hat-pins, which are often quite as important as fastenings, but which may also be highly ornamental. These small articles have a special claim to our attention, as they have been taken as being emblematical of clothes, or at least of female attire. Even now the allowance which a lady is given for dress is called "pin-money." Moreover, it is possible to illustrate by means of pins the various phases of culture through which mankind has passed in the process of civilization. We meet with pins of bone, in the stage of stone, before metals were used. In the stage characterized by bronze we have pins made of this alloy. Such pins occurred in Egypt before the historic period, and they have been found in the Swiss lake dwellings as well as in our own country.

Although we now live in the iron, or perhaps more correctly steel, stage of culture, the familiar pin of to-day is still usually made of brass; but nevertheless we find steel pins of the ordinary form which are plated with brass, and glass-headed steel pins are very common. In early times also gold, silver, and precious stones were pressed into service for making ornamental pins, and very handsome pins are represented on effigies of the fourteenth century in Westminster Abbey. These, no doubt, have for their descendants the scarf-pins of to-day.

A muff-chain is a thing which is very often seen at the present day, and this simple arrangement, coupled with the way in which it is worn (see Figure 101), may lead us along a very interesting line of research, which we may follow for a short time. If we look once again at the muff, we shall see that it is supported by a chain which goes round the back of the neck, allowing the muff to rest against the front of the body. This is a primitive method of carrying a burden. Pedlars of old made use of it, and it is still adopted by the hawker (see Figure 102), because, if necessary, the hands can remain free, while a modification of the same principle is seen when the strap takes the form of a baldric, and passes over one shoulder and under the arm on the other side. In this way travellers carry their courier-bags (see Figure 103), the school-boy or girl supports his or her satchel, the fisherman his creel, and the sportsman his field-glasses. To a baldric also was attached the quiver of the archer, and sometimes such a band was merely worn as a decoration. (See Figure 104.) In the illustration which we give, and which is of the time of Henry V, the baldric is hung with bells like those which were worn by horses. Possibly a survival of the ornamental use of the baldric is to be seen in the ribbons of various orders and in military sashes, though no doubt the bandoleer which carries the pouch or cartridges of a modern soldier represents the useful baldric. It is of interest to note that the red or blue cord worn over the cross-belts of the Life Guards and Horse Guards is a survival of a cord by which the horn containing powder for priming muskets used to be suspended. In this connection we might also mention the leather sling of a rifle and the strap by which the itinerant harpist, in common with the organ-grinder, carries his instrument.

The ordinary belt should not be overlooked, as from it many things, such as weapons, may be suspended, not to mention pouches, which may carry ammunition, flint and steel, and so on.

Even more intimately connected with dress are pockets, and they may be touched upon here, for they are intended for carrying small objects. We have seen how the flaps of pockets which have become ornamental survive after the pockets themselves have disappeared (see Figure 21), and it is worthy of note that clothes in various countries lend themselves to the transportation of commodities. It has been pointed out by Mr. Otis T. Mason[9] that the Oriental, especially the Korean, has pockets in his sleeves having the capacity of half a bushel; while the Turk and Arab can stow an equal amount in the ample folds of their robes. The writer also remembers hearing the account of a journey in Asia from a traveller who, when riding in wide trousers fastened at the ankle, used to keep all his clean linen in one trouser-leg and his dirty clothes in the other.

We are reminded by the name given to the upper part of a lady's dress, namely, the yoke (see Figure 105), of another means of carrying burdens, which still survives in London, where a few milk-women even now carry round their pails on a yoke. Their costume, which includes a small shawl and an apron, can be compared with that of the barge-girl, though the picturesque sun-bonnet of the latter is lacking.

XII

ORNAMENTS

PRIMITIVE NECKLACES--FINGER-RINGS--THE ORIGIN OF THE HAIR COMB--BUTTONS--STUDS--FLOWERS--FEATHERS--AMULETS

We have touched upon one or two objects which may have a decorative character, but we now come to a consideration of ornaments themselves. Roughly speaking, they owe their survival to one of two reasons: either the deep-rooted instinct which exists in even the lowest races for adorning their person, or, secondly, the adoption of various objects which have been worn as charms or amulets.

Dr. E. B. Tylor[10] has pointed out the tendency of higher civilization to give up savage ornaments. Not the most primitive possibly, but seemingly the most barbarous, are the ornaments which are fastened into the body in special orifices which are pierced to receive them. It is true that in this country we do not make holes in our lips for the insertion of wooden plugs two or three inches across, and the only nose ornaments which we see are on the faces of the Hindu ayahs who have come over from India with their white nurselings; but still many among the population pierce their ears for the reception of earrings. In the higher social ranks ear-drops are now worn which do not require the ear to be perforated for their reception; but among the lower orders--as, for instance, those who live in canal-boats--the ears of men, women, and children are still pierced.

Of ornaments which can be attached to the person without injuring it there are more in use, but they are practically confined in civilized countries to the neck, arms, and head. Of those which are fastened to clothes we will not for the moment speak. Beads, which at the moment of writing seem to be greatly in fashion, or their representatives, take us back to the very earliest men of whose work we have any knowledge. In the caves where the Stone Age men of the mammoth period lived there have been found periwinkle shells, which were bored to form bracelets or necklaces, just as nowadays native tribes and æsthetic ladies still make use of the more ornamental and beautiful exotic shells. The prehistoric Egyptians who, it has been calculated, flourished about 6000 B.C., had necklaces of beads cut out from pieces of shell, and others made of many different materials. Among the earliest remains in our own country beads are found, and throughout the historic period everywhere they seem to have held their sway.

We have already mentioned how easy it is for ornaments to be used as currencies, owing to the facility with which they may be carried on the person, and beads for many centuries have been used--as in Africa for instance--in the place of money. There are on the west coast of that continent still to be seen "aggries" similar to those which the Arab traders brought with them from Egypt as early as the seventeenth dynasty. At the present day beads of various kinds--for only particular varieties will buy certain commodities--are made and exported to Africa to be used in trading.

While speaking of Egyptian beads, it might be said that, as in other matters of art, the Egyptians excelled in the making of beads. Some--known as blue popo beads, which found their way to West Africa--are worth more than their weight in gold at the present day, and the most skilful of the Venetian beadmakers are unable to imitate them sufficiently well to induce the natives to accept them.

Chains for the neck in our time do not assume very massive proportions, except those which are used as symbols of office in the case of mayors and by the members of various knightly orders. These take us back to the time of Richard II, when such ornaments came into vogue.

Among savage races metal rings find much favour as ornaments, and they illustrate the fact that the lady who wears the minimum of clothes will put up with the height of inconvenience, not to say pain, just as her over-dressed and more civilized white sister will do, in order to be in the height of fashion. The Padaung women put metal collars round their necks when they are young children till these number between twenty and thirty, and the necks of the wearers are stretched out in the most grotesque and uncomfortable fashion. (See Plate VI.) African belles will wear great copper rings on their limbs, which get so hot in the sun that an attendant has to carry water with which to occasionally cool them down. The wearing of armlets and bracelets has never been confined to women. Men among the Greeks did not wear them, but among the Romans they did. Armlets were conferred on soldiers for heroic deeds, and even now the rank of non-commissioned officers in the army is indicated by stripes on their sleeves.

Dr. Tylor hints that ordinary finger-rings have originated from those used as signets in Egypt and Babylon. In this case the modern signet ring, which we have already discussed in connection with heraldic devices, is a survival from the earliest times. Most rings are now merely ornamental, though a few are symbolical--the episcopal ring of the bishop, the engagement ring of the betrothed damsel, and the wedding ring of the wife.