St J. Hope, ii. 144, who quotes the order for, these same robes,
from which it would appear that the mayor also wore black velvet).
About this period begin to occur notices of the wearing of official robes by the wives of mayors and aldermen; e.g. for Lincoln there is an entry in the corporation records in 15442 “ Every alderman that hath not been mayor to prepare for himself and his wife gowns of crimson, and every one that hath been mayor to prepare for himself and his wife gowns of scarlet and tippets of velvetvto be worn at all principal feasts" (see 14th report, Hist. MSS, Cormniss. App. VlII). St John Hope (p. lxxxix) quotes numerous instances in the 16th century, in some of which the husband was liable to a heavy fine in the event of his wife’s non-compliance with the rule.
In 1568 (see Stow, and J. G. Nichols, Account of 55 Royal Processions and Entertainments, pt. ii. p. 94) first appeared an “ Order observed by my Lord Mayor, Aldermen and Sheriffs, for their meetings and wearing A the apparel throughout the whole year, according as formerly it hath been used, ” which has been altered and revised from time to time by order of the Corporation, and is still issued under the name of the Handbook of Ceremonials to the officers of the City Corporation. In 1568 we find the aldermen and Sheriffs going to Westminster in the Lord Mayor's procession in scarlet-furred gowns “and their cloaks borne with them,” and in 1575 Nichols quotes a London citizen's description of the same procession; “they of the livery in their long gowns, with hood on the left shoulder, half black and half red … The Mayor in a long gown of scarlet, and on his left shoulder a hood of black velvet, and a collar of SS … The Aldermen in scarlet gowns, those having been mayors with chains of gold, the others with black velvet tippets." The Order of 1629 gives particulars of the various owns; the cloaks are violet from Michaelmas to Whitsuntide, gurred, for mayors and ex-mayors, with “amys,” for aldermen with “calabre,” and scarlet in summer, lined with “ changeable taliety " and “green taffety” respectively.
After the 16th century the costume of the Lord Mayor can be studied in successive “Orders” or Ceremonial Books, accounts of coronations, &c., and in portraits and statues belonging to the various city companies. Early in the 19th century (1806) the Lord Mayor began to wear on some state occasions a black robe with gold lace, similar to that of the Lord Chancellor. The Ceremonial Book was thoroughly revised in 1864, and the latest edition is that issued in 1906 (Handbook of Ceremonials, &c., “issued under the direction and with the approval of the Privileges Committee of the Court of Aldermen”).
At the present day the Lord Mayor has several sets of robes; a special Coronation robe (see illustration in Naylor, Book of the Coronation of George IV., 1837), a crimson velvet robe of state like that of an earl, worn with the chain and jewel, e.g. in the presence of the sovereign when in the city;[1] a black robe of state trimmed with gold, which is worn with the chain and jewel, e.g. at the Guildhall on Lord Mayor's 'Day; the scarlet robes, which are worn, with or without the chain, on most public occasions, such as the service at St Paul's on the first day of the Easter Law Term, audiences of the sovereign, the election of the Lord Mayor, the opening of the Central Criminal Court, &c.; a violet gown, which is worn, e.g., when the Lord Mayor elect is presented to the king, when he is sworn in, at the election of sheriffs, &c., and a black gown worn in church on Good Friday, '&c. The aldermen wear scarlet on most occasions of ceremony, ex-mayors “having the Cap of Dignity attached to their gown, and being entitled to introduce a sword and mace into their badges.” Violet robes are also worn on certain occasions marked in the almanac of the Alderman’s Pocket-Book; and black gowns when the Lord Mayor wears his., The sheriffs and recorders[2] have scarlet, violet and black gowns, and the members of the common council have deep mazarine blue gowns, which seem to have been first prescribed in 1761.
For Scotland. an order of James I. and VI. of 1610 (see Register of Privy Council, loc. cit.) ordered that the provosts, aldermen, &c., of every borough should wear, for ordinary occasions, black furred gowns, the officers of the chief boroughs having also scarlet furred gowns for Sundays and other solemn occasions, when the provost of Edinburgh was to wear a gold chain.
Academic Costume.—No thorough study has so far been made of early English academic, costume as compared with that of the continental universities-a study which ought to throw much light on the subject.[3] A vexed question is that of how far academic dress is derived from the ecclesiastical. Anthony Wood's view, that it was derived from the tunica talaris and cucullus of the Benedictines, would not now meet with much support; but many writers seem to be unnecessarily anxious to trace each item of the academic robes to some definite ecclesiastical garment. The medieval scholar was of course a clerk, and had to wear the clerkly gown and the tonsure, But the fact that this was the case makes it more difficult to distinguish between academical and ecclesiastical robes, notably in the case of brasses and other monuments of university graduates and dignitaries who were also priests. Another source of difficulty is the variety of names by which the different, parts of the academic costume are called in the university statutes and elsewhere, resulting sometimes in inextricable confusion.
The earliest information as to English academic dress is found in the second half of the 14th century. Certain early statutes show that “excess in apparel” had already to be rebuked in scholars (cf. the Constitution of Archbishop Stratford, 1342), while the statutes of certain colleges require of the scholars the tonsure and a “decent habit” suitable to a clerk (cf. Statutes of Peterhouse, 1344, and of Merton Coll., Oxford), i.e. a long gown (toga or tunica talaris), which it is stipulated in some cases must be closed in front. Some colleges had liveries, prescribed perhaps by the founder of the college' and laid down by the statutes. The differences of colour and shape in the -undergraduate gowns of most of the Cambridge colleges are supposed to be a survival of this. There was also an ordinance of Richard II. for King’s Hall, Cambridge (1379), which fixed the dress of a scholar as the roba talaris, over which, if a bachelor, he should wear a tabard suited to his degree. The undergraduates seem in the early days to have worn a hood, the ordinary head-covering worn by all, but they gradually teased to do so, until nobody below the rank of a bachelor might wear one.
It is proposed to give here (1) a list of the various parts of the academic dress, with a few remarks on each; (2) a short account of the early costume of the various degrees; (3) a sketch of any changes which have taken place since the Reformation.
The Gown (toga, roba, or tunica talaris) was worn by all degrees, as befitting clerks. It is hard to determine whether there was at first any difference between the gown of the higher degrees, which some maintain was the roba, and that of the lower degrees, the toga or tunica talaris, but it seems improbable. It was frequently fur-lined, but the use of the more costly furs was forbidden to all below the degree of Master, except sons of noblemen, or those possessing a certain income, bachelors using budge (see in Anstey's Munimenta Academica, p. 301, the
- ↑ Sir G. G. Young in a pamphlet called The Place of the Lord Mayor in proceeding through or within the City of London (1852), quotes various royal visits to the city which seem to show that the Lord Mayor did not always wear his crimson velvet robe on these occasions. Thus in 1638 Charles I., on going to meet Marie de Médicis, was met by the Lord Mayor in scarlet, which was also worn at the entry of Charles II. in 1660. In 1702, when Queen Anne went to a thanksgiving service at St Paul’s, the Lord Mayor wore crimson velvet, with the collar and jewel; but in 1705, at the thanksgiving after Blenheim, he met the queen on horseback, dressed in scarlet. In 1714, at the reception of George I., the Lord Mayor wore crimson velvet robes.
- ↑ The recorders had from an early date annual suits of robes like the mayor, aldermen, &c. See Liber Albus, p. 43: “Habet itaque Recordator pro feodo de Camera totiens et talem vesturam lineatam sive penulatum, quotiens et qualem Major et Aldermanni capiunt annuatim." The chamberlain, common serjeant, &c., had also gowns (see an order of 1523 in St J. Hope, ii. 146). For the sword-bearer's cap of maintenance see article Cap and St John Hope i. lxxvi-lxxix. For mayor's and sheriff's chains see ibid. pp. lxxix-lxxxiv.
- ↑ Practically the only detailed study of early English academic costume is a paper on “English Academic Costume (Medieval),” by Dr E. C. Clark, in Archaeolog. Journal, vol. l. pp. 74 seq., 137 seq. and 183 seq., which contains a mass of information, and upon which the present article is to a great extent based. Rashdall (Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, vol., ii. pt. ii.) and Druitt (Costume on Brasses, ch. ii.) each devote a chapter to the subject; Rashdall treats of both the English and continental universities, not very thoroughly, Druitt of English academic dress only, but thoroughly. Clark gives many facts about foreign, as well as the English, costume.
