No fashion has ever been so inconvenient, uncomfortable, and injurious as to prevent its being adopted if initiated by high authority. Reason may influence the leader of fashion, but imitation does the rest. For example, the ruff was first worn by Queen Elizabeth to hide an ugly wen on her neck. The Court, from policy or politeness, adopted the new invention, and the commonalty, after the manner of nations, aped the costume of its social superiors.
The custom may originate in the express or tacit command of the ruler, or from mere imitation, but the result is the same. Henry VIII. introduced the fashion of wearing patches, by using round disks of plaster to conceal the repulsive appearance of his skin, and when a French queen's hair showed signs of turning grey all the ladies in France felt obliged to grease and powder their tresses. This custom soon spread widely in Europe, and with very unpleasant results, for, as hair-dressing was thus rendered a long and troublesome process, it was found inconvenient to go through the ceremony more than once in a week or ten days, and insect-powder soon became a necessary adjunct to the toilet. Coming to more recent times we may inquire into the origin of the "masher collar" of the present day, but we have to go some way back to seek it.
The neck of "the finest gentleman in Europe" was extensively seamed with scars of old abscesses, and, like "the maiden queen," he sought to conceal this deformity, and used a neck-cloth swathed
