lante," it may be seen, is thus well clothed with nature's best ornament. In the following reign of Henry, the Seventh," the hair was worn enormously long and flowing, a return in fact to the fashion of Henry, the first's time;" but, in the succeeding reign, that fashion was doomed to bow to the will of the arbitrary monarch—the bluff Henry, the Eighth, who compelled his Court to crop their heads, and short hair became fashionable. Here is shown the influence of example; sumptuary laws were often passed, and, as often, disregarded, either from exceptions being made in favour of the higher classes, or else those classes setting the example of disobedience to the laws. During the reigns of the Stuarts, long hair again became the prevailing fashion, and one lock, longer than others, was often left to dangle on the left side of the head-this was known by the appellation of "the love-lock," and gave occasion to severe strictures on the part of the Puritans. Prynne assailed the fashion in a quarto volume on the "Unloveliness of Lovelocks." He mentions a nobleman, who was dangerously ill, and terrified at the immediate prospect of death, as declaring publicly after his recovery his detestation of his "effeminate fantastic love-lock, which he then sensibly perceived to be but a cord of vanity, by which he had given the devil hold fast to lead him captive at his pleasure, and who would never resign his prey as long as he nourished this unlovely bush. He therefore ordered his barber to cut it off." The fashion of long hair received a check from the civil war, and it was

then made, forsooth, a party distinction; that of the Cavalier was long, and flowing on his shoulders, and the disaffected Puritan became the crop, and from hence received the opprobrious appellation of the " Round-head." In the reign of Charles, the Second, the peri-wig, or wig with flowing locks, was imported from France, (as most of our bad fashions are,) and competed with nature for sovereignty. The origin of this absurd fashion is thus detailed in Planche: "The servile imitation," (says he,) "of the courtiers of the Grande Monarque gave rise to that absurd, and detestable monstrosity, a peri-wig. His Majesty, it appears, when a little boy, had remarkably beautiful hair, which hung in long waving curls upon his shoulders, and the courtiers, out of compliment to their young sovereign, had heads of false hair made to imitate his natural locks, which obtained the name of perukes. When the king grew up, he returned the compliment by adopting the article itself, and the perruque or peruke speedily lodged upon the heads and shoulders of all the gentlemen of England, under the corrupted appellation of a periwig."

In several succeeding reigns the peruke, or peri-wig, under the contracted name of wig, and under various forms, and fashions, held its sway; it was sometimes adopted to supply the deficiency of nature; and often, from obsequiousness to the vitiated taste of the times, it has, without necessity, supplanted the far more ornamental, and natural covering, of man. It has, however, * "British Costume," p. 295.

now had its day, which, it is to be hoped, will

never return.

The wig is still retained on the episcopal and legal benches, and here I should wish to see it retained. It imparts that dignity, which is better felt than described-it impresses on the mind a pleasing awe, and conveys to the imagination (rarely, I ween, wrongly so) the suggestion, that much learning is resident beneath it.

In private life, the wig is now seldom seen, unless, truly, to supply nature's wants, and then is generally so formed, as tastefully to imitate her own adornment. With the French Revolution, short hair again became the fixed, and general, fashion, both on the continent, and in this country. Short hair was adopted by the Puritans of the Commonwealth, and by the Levellers of the French Revolution, and thus, unaccountably, seems in alliance with democracy. Who does not remember the occasion of the Hibernian Song of " Croppies, lie down?" The fashion itself is, however, now general; but how long it is doomed to last, who, amidst the changes, and chances, of public taste, shall presume to say? Revolving years may again, more or less gradually, introduce the opposite extreme, and the shoulders of our sons, if not our own, again be covered with the flowing lock.

I do not find it recorded, when the use of powder was introduced, but within the memory of man it generally adorned the gentleman, whether his head reposed beneath the supposed dignifying wig, or was covered with its native

hair. In the latter period of the last century, from the dearth of corn, caused by war, and unpropitious seasons, sense of duty to the public prevailed on some, and a sumptuary tax influenced others, to dispense with the use of this, supposed, ornamental white powder, and the fashion of wearing it is now, with slow and lingering steps, probably waning into utter disuse. I censure not, however, those, who are yet loth to dispense with that, which time has rendered seemingly habitual, and necessary, to them, and to whom its loss would prove a positive discomfort. The origin of the fashion is, I believe, unknown-perchaunce, it may have arisen from the desire of some influential person to conceal his-red hair. There is much probability, that our Saxon Forefathers (from the examples to be seen in the early illuminated Saxon MSS.) either dyed their hair, and beard, blue, or (as is more probable) covered them with a blue powder. You and I, gentle reader, must think this "passing strange," yet, wist you not, that our posterity in future times will equally wonder, that we should have ornamented, in these our days, the head with powder white? Will they not then wonder, that we, for so many years, continued an usage supported by mere fashion, and for which it may be difficult to adduce the plea of reason? It is now time to leave this subject, and to enter on that of the beard, with which John Halle is arrayed, contrary to the general fashion of that age.

The word Beard is derived, according to Minshieu, from the Saxon Word "Berd vel Beard,”

and it is said in the "Gazophylacium Anglicanum," that "it may seem to flow from the Greek Bapúrns, gravity, of which it is a symptom." On the other hand, its Latin Synonyme, Barba, is said by some to be derived "à Barbaris, qui Barbas alebant."

There cannot be a stronger instance of the extreme mutability of fashion than that of the beard. By the Hebrew Nation it was worn from the days of the Patriarchs, and the modern Jews still reverence the custom." The Jews (saysStrutt "On Dress," &c., Introduction, p.xl.) "permitted their beards to grow; but at the same time they trimmed them with care. Το shave the beard entirely, or to mar the corners of the beard, as it is expressed in the Scripture, were signs of mourning.* Hanum, the lord of the Ammonites, in derision shaved half the beards of David's messengers, which was considered by the Israelites as a shameful, and most unpardonable insult. The neglecting also to trim the beard seems to have been a sign of sorrow; for, it is said of Mephibosheth, that he 'trimmed not his beard' from the day, that David departed from Jerusalem, to the day that he returned again in peace." †

The Greeks, and the Romans also, in their earlier æras, wore the beard.

66

Ælian, in his account of Zoilus, the pretended critic, who wrote against Homer and Plato, and thought himself wiser than all, who had gone before him, tells us, that this Zoilus had a very long beard, that hung down upon his breast, but no hair upon

• Leviticus, xix. 27.

+ 2 Sam. xix. 24.

T