BEAVER HATS.
Permit me to suggest that, in asking a question, it is often desirable that the querist should state briefly the amount of information he already possesses on the subject. For instance, had Mr. "T.H. Turner," when inquiring after beaver hats (No. 7. p. 100.), stated, that he had met with the mention of them as early as the time of Hen. III., I, of course, should not have troubled you with a notice of them in the reign of Elizabeth. Indeed, I owe Mr. Turner an apology; for if I had reflected a moment upon the extensive antiquarian information of the querist, I should certainly have concluded that he must be well acquainted with the authorities I cited, which happened to be at my elbow at the time I read the query. Mr. B. Corney (No. 19. p. 307.) has supplied a beaver hat from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales; we meet with another in his Testament of Creseide, v. 386., "in a mantill and a beaver hat." We may therefore conclude that they were not unusual in Chaucer's time. I now think it very probable that beaver hats were introduced into this country as early as the Norman Conquest; for we find mention of them in Normandy at a still earlier period. In the "Chronicle of the Abbey of St. Wandrille" (edited by Acheri, in his Spicilegium), we find, amongst the gifts of the Abbot Ansegisus, who died A.D. 833,
"Cappas Romanas duas, unam videlicet ex rubeo cindato, et fimbriis viridibus in circuitu ornatam; alteram ex cane Pontico, quero vulgus Bevurum nuncupat, similiter fimbriis sui coloris decoratam in orbe."
I do not conceive this cap to have been made of the skin of a beaver, for the term would then most probably have been "ex pelli canis Pontici."
This Chronicle contains several curious inventories of the gifts of many of the abbots; in which we may see the splendour of the vessels and vestments used at that period in religious services, as well as the style of reading then prevalent amongst the monks.
Gastros.
Cambridge, March 11.
[There is a Query which arises out of this subject which none of our correspondents have yet touched upon—What was the original meaning of Beaver, as applied to a hat or cap? and was it taken from the name of the animal, or did it give the name to it?]