Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/508

476 COSTUME [ENGLISH. puffed out from beneath the chin so as to resemble the breast of a pigeon. Round straw hats, with drooping edge- frills, bows of ribbon, feathers, and high crowns, completed this costume. Then in about five years came the era of short waists, that might be distinguished as the waistless era, when ladies dresses, no longer distended by hoops, fell in straight loose folds to their feet. About 1795 open dresses were discarded ; the saques ceased to be ; waists became longer, and when the present century dawned they regained their natural position and form. At this time bonnets were worn that incased the wearer s head, or were flat and projecting. They also were adorned with a taste that was comparatively simple and becoming ; and, at the same time, the hair, free from powder, was dressed in curls about the face and neck. While thus in ordinary life costume at the close of the 18th century became approximately what might be desired, court-dress still exhibited the extravagancies that under other condi tions had happily become obsolete, the hoop with all its really offensive mass of so-called decorative allies retaining their ground in defiance of all opposition, until the chief offender and its worst associates were banished by royal command when George IV. had become king. BARONIAL. The peers of the United Kingdom, on occasions of state and ceremony, over their habitual dress wear robes of scarlet cloth, made long and of ample dimensions, which are adjusted on the right shoulder and are guarded with bands or rows of ermine, the robes of the different orders and ranks of the peerage being distinguished as follows : Barons, who now form the lowest order of British peers, on their scarlet robes have two bands of ermine ; viscounts, whose order intervenes between the barons and the earls, have two and a half bands of ermine; the robes of earls have three bands ; those of marquises have three and a half rows ; and upon the robes of dukes, whose order is the highest, the ermine is in four rows. For notices of the costume and insignia of members of orders of knighthood, see HERALDRY. JUDICIAL AND FORENSIC. So long as the highest offices in the law were held, in accordance with mediaeval usage, by dignified ecclesiastics, those eminent personages were represented in their monu.- mental effigies, not as wearing judicial or other legal dress and robes, but as habited in the official vestments of their rank as churchmen ; and that this practice con tinued in force down to the time of the Reformation is shown in the brass in Ely Cathedral to Thomas Good rich, bishop of that see, who also was lord high chan cellor of England. Monumental effigies of judges, however, and of other personages of note in the law, occasionally occur from the middle of the 14th century downwards, which give information as to the form and adjustment of legal robes that doubtless is authentic, and therefore valuable ; but these authorities do not extend to any indications of colour. The actual dress of these legal personages evidently differed but little, if it differed at all, from the ordinary costume of their day ; but over their dress they wore a tippet, and a robe which with rare exceptions was fastened on the right shoulder, and their heads were covered with a close-fitting coif, in addition to which in the 15th and 16th centuries they carried the hood with the long pendant scarf, so characteristic of those times, cast over one of their shoulders. It is probable, also, that the long and loose gown with wide sleeves in general use assumed at a comoaratively early period the aspect of an official robe by being made of the same material and colour as the unquestionably official mantle. In the second half of the 15th century and in the century following, the gowns worn by the judges when on the bench, and on all occasions of state and ceremony, certainly constituted parts of their official attire. Scarlet appears to have been the prevalent colour of judicial robes, with linings and trim mings of miniver the white skin of the ermine until the 17th century, when on certain occasions the judges wore robes of black or violet ; but robes and gowns of a yellowish hue, and distinguished as " mustard-coloured," were also worn ; and there is a record of an issue of " liveries " of both cloth and silk with fur from the great wardrobe, in the time of Edward III., to the justices, the colour of each fabric being green. Again, in similar allowances under Richard II. and Henry VI., " green " is a colour specially mentioned with "violet in grain," and fur of " miniver." In his fine sculptured effigy at Harwood in Yorkshire, Chief Justice Sir William Gascoigne (died in 1419) is represented having suspended from his girdle an anlace or short sword, with a gypciere ; and the same appendages also appear in several brasses to judges. In four illuminations, which have been reproduced in fac-simile and published in the Archccologia (xxxix. 358), in which are represented sittings of the king s four superior courts in the time of Henry VI. Chancery, King s Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer the robes and costume of the lord chancellor, judges, Serjeants, barristers, and officers of the courts are shown with minute attention to both colour and details. The chancellor and one judge who sits beside him, and all the judges of the three other courts, are alike in being attired in ample robes of scarlet, lined and trimmed with white fur ; but the chancellor alone wears a scarlet robe which is not fastened on the shoulder and has open ings pierced on each side to admit his arms passing through, so showing the sleeves of his under garment to be white ; he is further distinguished by having about his shoulders and over his robe a tippet of scarlet, lined and bordered with white fur ; the white lining of his hood, also, stands up about his neck like a collar, and on his head he has a close-fitting dark brown cap. Under his scarlet robe, the judge sitting on the right of the chancellor, who holds in his hands a sealed document, is habited in a gown of the same colour ; bare-headed and tonsured, he also has the white lining of his hood adjusted about his neck after the manner of a collar. To the right and left, two on each side, their seats on the same level with the two central scarlet- robed figures, four other personages, who may have been masters in Chancery, are seated, habited in flowing " mustard-colour " robes not adjusted on the shoulder, and having falling over their shoulders large hoods of the same colour lined with white ; they all are bare-headed, and three of their number certainly are tonsured. Five judges sit in the Court of King s Bench, robed alike in scarlet gowns, with tippets, and mantles worn over their tippets, and fastened on the right shoulder. All these robes are lined and bordered with white, and the mantles have scarlet hoods worn as collars closely encircling the throat. These five judges wear white coifs, as do the seven judges, all of them robed exactly like their brethren of the King s Bench, who preside in the Court of Common Pleas. Over the Court of Exchequer a baron presides, who is robed in the fame manner as the judges of the two courts last named ; but he differs from them in wearing (doubtless over his coif, which is not shown) a large scarlet Lood-like cap, of the fashion prevalent at his day. He sits with two other judges on each side of him, who wear "mustard-colour" robes of the same character ; two of them also wear the large caps; while the two others, wearing coifs, hold similar caps in their

hands ; all these caps are " mustard-colour."