PUNCH’S BOOK OF BRITISH COSTUMES.

CHAPER II. – THE ANCIENT BRITISH PERIOD – (Continued).

s we have said, the Ancient Britons were fond of wearing paint; in which respect they have been followed by some few (say a dozen) of their feminine descendants. Whether the ladies then made use of it to “give themselves a colour,” and thought that by so doing they added to their charms, is a matter for conjecture to those who choose to think about it. If the fact were really so, and the gentlemen approved of it, the paint is doubtless noticed in the love-songs of the period. For such a phrase, for instance, as “She’s all my fancy Painted her!” there would then have been a somewhat colourable pretext: and seeing that sky-blue was the colour most in fashion, a sentimental songster might have written of his mistress:-

“Marked you her cheek of heavenly blue,

Her nose-tip of cerulean hue,

Her chin of that same colour too?”

As this blue paint, we are told, was made from a plant called “woad,” we cannot wonder that the wearers got the epithet of “woaden-headed:” and to quote, with fit disgust, another vile pun of the period, their public singers, it is said, washed their faces before singing, lest wags among the audience should bid them not to “holler” till they had got clear of the “woad.”

But it must not be imagined that the clothing of our ancestors consisted only in their colouring, and that their dress-coats were merely coats of paint. The Romans, it is true, at first inclined to this ideal but, like some one or two of the Idées of Napoleon, their idea, as it turned out, was utterly unfounded. The fact was simply this, that, feeling fettered by their clothing, our fathers, like their children, often stripped to fight; and hence Cæsar, when he landed, thought the natives all lived naked. This however, as it proved, was as preposterous a notion as it would be now to fancy that Tom Sayers hath no toggery, should one see him stripped for fighting the Benicia Be-hoy. Like the Cyclops, nudus membra, when he turned out for a scrimmage, the Ancient Briton when at home received his callers with his clothes on; and there is very little doubt that the P. R. of the period indulged in “fancy” dresses, which were gaudy if not neat.

ANCIENT BRITON IN COMPLETE ARMOUR.

While the lower orders dressed in little else than paint and bear skin (the latter bearing proof that bears abounded then in England; though, except upon Stock Exchange, there are none left living now), the gents and upper classes came out much more extensively, and were clothed from top to toe in a variety of vestments, which with the help of the old writers we may venture to describe.

Commencant par le fin, we incline to think their “fins,” like their faces, were left naked, inasmuch as we can find no mention made of gloves, and may guess that, like umbrellas, they had not been yet dreamt of. Nor can we say much about the boots of the Old Bricks,* seeing that it is doubtful if they’d any boots at all: and for want of our Balmorals, for ought we know, the dandies may have sported blacked-up bare feet. Some of the swells, however, wore a king of shoe, which being made of neat skin, made their feet perhaps look neat: but whether their possessors used to put their shoes for “Boots” to clean, outside their bedroom doors, is a point which Diodo(o)rus has said nothing to clear up.

ANCIENT BRITISH HIGHLOWS AND BEFROOM DOOR OF THE PERIOD.

That they wore braccæ, or breeches, is placed (of course) beyond dispute by the fact that Mr. Martial mentions that they did; but he quite omits to tell us, whether or no to the gentlemen monopolised the use of them, or if the privilege of wearing them was extended to the ladies. That they wore a tunic also is equally indisputable, inasmuch as it is mentioned both by Pliny and Herodian; and over this the swells threw a sagum or short cloak, which in the Celtic was called saic – a word which seems to throw some light upon the nature of the garment, as it corresponds exactly to our gentish “sack.” Posterity, however, is completely in the dark as to whether the old Britons used braces for their braccæ, or whether they suspended them by buttons to the tunic, in the fashion of the modern “roley-polcy” suit.

Perhaps, however, the most curious part of their costume was the article of clothing, which they used by way of head-cover. This was called a cappan, from the Ancient British cab, a word which meant, however, not a hansom, but a hat. It was called so, we are told, because its shape was conical, and bore resemblance to a roof; and this explains the ancient jokes by which the modern gent now calls his hat a “tile,” or, still more reconditely, alludes to it as “thatch.”

We believe the Ancient Britons wore their hair in the old way; that is to say, not having hair-cutters they never had it cut. It was turned back, we are told, upon the crown of the head, and fell behind in bushy curls which “oftte dydde tangle inne ye bushes.” We are not quite so well up in our Cæsar as we might be, although we had his writings literally “at our fingers ends” at school, and our fingers’ ends long tingled with the raps his volumes gave us. But we believe that writer says there’s nothing new beneath the Sun, and if he doesn’t he has certainly recorded that which proves it. By what we learn from him we find that our recent Moustache Movement has been only a revival, and has restored to us a fashion which we fondly thought was new. The Moustache Movere in fact is nothing but a plagiarist. Tell it not in Regent Street! the Ancient British Swells did precisely as the moderns do; that is to say, they shaved the chin, but wore immensely long moustaches. Strabo describes those of the dwellers in the Scilly Isles as actually “hanging down upon their breasts like wings;” in which respect – with all regard for Regent Street we say it – we think these Scilly fellows were quite worthy of their name.

BRITISH SWELL OF THE PERIOD.

As to the dress worn by the women very little can be said, inasmuch as, it is feared, there was but very little of it. Books of fashion were not written so profusely then as now; and even Cæsar, though he penned a volume De Bell. Gall., had scarce the gallantry to mention a single belle or gal in it. Perhaps it may have been his modesty which caused his silence on the subject: for, so far as we can learn, the costume which was mostly worn bu Ancient Britonesses was cut much in the same fashion as the dress of that young lady, of whom the poet tells us that-

“A single pin at night undid

The robe that veiled her beauty:”

Or, as pins were probably not known in that blest age, a thorn may be assumed to have been used by way of fastening. Of course there were however some exceptions to this rule (for when were women, except sisters, ever known to dress alike?) and compared to the mere commonalty, and maids-of-all-work of the period, the swellesses, we find, were really splendidly got up, considering, that is, the early time of their up-getting. Dion Cassius informs us that Queen Boadicea came out, like Miss Dinah, in most “gorgeous array,” for she wore a torque of gold, and a many-coloured tunic, and over it a robe of coarse stuff, fastened by a brooch.

At this mention of a brooch we may fitly broach the question as to what were the chief ornaments which were used by our great, great – we really can’t enumerate how many times great – grandmothers: and if it be no fib, we find that besides fibulæ, they wore necklaces and armlets, both having been discovered in the early British barrows, which for purposes of digging resemble the Welsh wheals. Whether, although their wardrobes were but scantily supplied, dress much occupied the thoughts and conversation of our ancestresses, is a point which being moot, we shall ourselves be mute upon. But as women then were women, one might fancy that it did; and one might make a fancy-sketch of a tea-party of the period, whereat these ancient ladies met to talk about their torques.

* A Celtic synonym for Britons. – Cox.

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