e
the fashion of cocking up three sides, one at least being fastened with
a loop of ribbon from which developed the cockade. A black cockade
became the sign of a military man in England before 1750, and the same
ornament, highly conventionalized, is now at the side of the tall hats
worn by the grooms and coachmen of military and naval officers.
Following varying fashions, the 18th-century cocked hat was laced with
gold and silver or edged with feathers. It was cocked in a hundred
forms, from that which has three sides slightly curled upward to the
great Khevenhueller cock, wherewith a very wide-brimmed hat was flapped
up at the front and rear, a military or martial hat. Wigs, worn by all
the upper- and middle-class men, were generally powdered, but the lesser
or Ramillie wig soon drove out the huge and costly full-bottomed
periwig, even for ceremonial occasions. Of Lord Bolingbroke it is told
that he once attended Queen Anne in haste with a tie or Ramillie wig on
his head. Her Majesty showed her displeasure by remarking that his
lordship would next come to court in a night-cap. Nevertheless, the
tie-wig soon became court wear, secured at the back with a huge bow of
ribbon below which hung the plaited pigtail, worn waist-long about 1740.
But by that time young bloods were leaving campaign-wigs for the bob-wig
which sat yet more closely to the head, the curls leaving the neck
uncovered. Bag-wigs, found early in the century, covered the looped up
pigtail in a black silk bag. Clergymen and grave physicians affected the
full-bottomed wig after it became old fashioned. Subject to slight
changes, eagerly followed by the beaux and mocked by the satirists, the
habit of well-dressed men shows no great variety--the large-cuffed,
collarless coats whose full skirts are now shortened, now lengthened,
the long waistcoat to match, the closely fitting breeches, the
stockings, the shoes and jack-boots. The coat tends to be thrown open to
show the waistcoat, upon which brocade and embroideries were lavished.
Stockings, until the middle of the century, were commonly drawn over the
ends of the breeches and gartered below the knee. By 1740 the long
cravat with hanging ends grows old fashioned. Young men take to the
solitaire, a black cravat which became a mere loop of ribbon passed
loosely round the neck and secured to the black tie of the wig.

[Illustration: FIG. 45.--An English Gentleman (c. 1730).]

George III.'s long reign begins with