sonal appearance of their servants. Yet we have it on reliable
authority that a trusted superintendent of one of the great contractors
served the firm in Russia, and there cultivated the beard and moustache.
On his return to England he displayed no disposition to resume the use
of the razor. The head contractor grew alarmed at the terrible example
he was setting those engaged in the office, and insisted that the
adornment should be cut off, which was done. The poor fellow caught
cold, and in a few days died.

[Illustration: Charles Dickens, born 1812, died 1870.]

An important firm of timber merchants in Hull made it a condition that
any clerks employed by them should be clean shaven. This rule was
strictly enforced until the firm closed its career a few years ago.

Mr Serjeant Robinson, in his interesting and informing volume, "Bench
and Bar Reminiscences" (London, 1889), deals with the legal aspect of
our theme. He says for many years anterior to 1860 scarcely a beard, and
certainly not even a downy symptom of a moustache, was to be seen on the
face of a practising barrister. Towards the close of the first half of
the nineteenth century a quiet, gentlemanly, well-informed barrister,
named Brierley, used to attend the Central Criminal Court, wearing a
long flowing beard and a thick moustache. These hirsute adornments gave
offence to the leaders who regularly attended the sessions. No other
exception could be taken to him. A meeting of the senior Bar was held,
and he was summoned to attend. He was called upon to defend his action.
Instead of denying the jurisdiction of the tribunal that was to judge
him, he recognised the enormity of his crime, and excused himself on the
ground of a serious affection of the throat, and stated that it was
under urgent medical advice that he was induced to transgress the
unwritten ordinances of the Bar. Despite the reasonableness of the plea,
a small majority passed upon him a vote of censure for subjecting the
Bar to general ridicule by his extravagant physiognomy. "This was," says
Mr Serjeant Robinson, "the worst that could befall him, for of course he
could not be prevented from coming within the sacred precincts of the
court, nor from taking his seat at the Bar table. The only means of
carrying out the resolution was by sending him to Coventry. But he did
not give them the opportunity of executing it, for he seldom appeared
afterwards. It is not known what became of this barrister af