Shirt Collars.In Hone's Every-day Book, vol. ii. p. 381., I find the following, which I think is after the present ridiculous fashion of wearing shirt collars, viz. so tight round the neck, and so stiff, that it is a wonder there are not some serious accidents.
These collars, at present worn by the fast young men of the day, are called "The Piccadilly three-folds." Now, if this goes on until they get to a "nail in depth, and stiffened with yellow starch, and double wired," I think it will only be proper to put a heavy tax upon them.
"Piccadilly.The picadil was the round hem, or the piece set about the edge or skirt of a garment, whether at top or bottom; also a kind of stiff collar, made in fashion of a band, that went about the neck and round about the shoulders: hence the term 'wooden piccadilloes' (meaning the pillory) in Hudibras; and see Nares' Glossary, and Blount's Glossographia. At the time that ruffs and picadils were much in fashion, there was a celebrated ordinary near St. James's, called Piccadilly: because, as some say, it was the outmost, or skirt-house, situate at the hem of the town: but it more probably took its name from one Higgins, a tailor, who made a fortune by picadils, and built this with a few adjoining houses. The name has by a few been derived from a much frequented shop for the sale of these articles; this probably took its rise from the circumstance of Higgins having built houses there, which however were not for selling ruffs; and indeed, with the exception of his buildings, the site of the present Piccadilly was at that time open country, and quite out of the way of trade. At a later period, when Burlington House was built, its noble owner chose the situation, then at some distance from the extremity of the town, that none might build beyond him. The ruffs formerly worn by gentlemen were frequently double wired, and stiffened with yellow starch: and the practice was at one time carried to such an excess, that they were limited by Queen Elizabeth 'to a nayle of a yeard in depth.' In the time of James I., they still continued of a preposterous size: so that, previous to the visit made by that monarch to Cambridge in 1615, the Vice-chancellor of the University thought fit to issue an order, prohibiting 'the fearful enormity and excess of apparel seen in all degrees, as, namely, strange piccadilloes, vast bands, huge cuffs, shoe roses, tufts, locks, and tops of hair, unbeseeming that modesty and carriage of students in so renowned a university.'"
It is scarcely to be supposed that the ladies were deficient in the size of their ruffs, &c.
I must conclude this in the words of the immortal poet:
" . . . . New fashions,
Though they be never so ridiculous,
Nay, let them be unmanly, yet are followed."
Queries
"DAYS OF MY YOUTH."
The following lines are understood to have been written by the late Mr. St. George Tucker of Virginia, U. S. Any information in support of this opinion, or, if it be unfounded, in disproof of it, is requested by