One of the first entries in regard to dress made by Philip Fithian in 1773, when he went to Virginia as a school-teacher, was that “almost every Lady wears a Red Cloak; and when they ride out they tye a Red Handkerchief over their Head &; Face; so when I first came to Virginia, I was distrest whenever I saw a Lady, for I thought she had the Tooth-Ach!” When the young tutor left his charge a year later, he wrote a long letter of introduction, instruction, and advice to his successor; and so much impression had this riding-dress still upon him that he recounted at length the “Masked Ladies,” as he calls them, explaining that the whole neck and face was covered, save a narrow slit for the eyes, as if they had “the Mumps or Tooth-Ach.” It is possible that the insect torments encountered by the fair riders may have been the reason for this cloaking and masking. Not only mosquitoes and flies and fleas were abundant, but Fithian tells of the irritating illness and high fever of the fairest of his little flock from being bitten with ticks, “which cover her like a distinct smallpox.”
In seventeenth-century inventories an occasional item is a rocket. I think no better description of a rocket can be given than that of Celia Fiennes:—
“You meete all sorts of countrywomen wrapped up in the mantles called West Country Rockets, a large mantle doubled together, of a sort of serge, some are linsey-woolsey and a deep fringe or fag at the lower end; these hang down, some to their feet, some only just below the waist; in the summer they are all in white garments of this sort, in the winter they are in red ones.”
This would seem much like a blanket shawl, but the word was also applied to the scarlet round cloak.
Another much-used name and cloaklike garment was the roquelaure. A very good contemporary definition may be copied from A Treatise on the Modes, 1715; it says it is “a short abridgement or compendium of a coat which is dedicated to the Duke of Roquelaure.” It was simply a shorter cloak than had been worn, and it was hoodless; for the great curled wigs with heavy locks well over the shoulders made hoods superfluous; and even impossible, for men’s wear. It was very speedily taken into favor by women; and soon the advertisements of lost articles show that it was worn by women universally as by men. In the Boston News Letter, in 1730, a citizen advertises that he has lost his “Blue Cloak or Roculo with brass buttons.” This was the first of an ingenious series of misspellings which produced at times a word almost unrelated to the original French word. Rocklow, rockolet, roquelo, rochelo, roquello, and even rotkello have I found. Ashton says that scarlet cloth was the favorite fabric for roquelaures in England; and he deems the scarlet roclows and rocliers with gold loops and buttons “exceeding magnifical.” I note in the American advertisements that the lost roquelaures are of very bright colors; some were of silk, some of camlet; generally they are simply ‘cloth.’ Many of the American roquelaures had double capes. I think those handsome, gay cloaks must have given a very bright, cheerful aspect to the town streets of the middle of the eighteenth century.
Sir William Pepperell, who was ever a little shaky in his spelling, but possibly no more so than his neighbors, sent in 1737 from Piscataqua to one Hooper in England for “A Handsom Rockolet for my daughter of about 15 yrs. old, or what is ye Most Newest Fashion for one of her age to ware at meeting in ye Winter Season.”
The capuchin was a hooded cloak named from the hooded garment worn by the Capuchin monks. The date 1752 given by Fairholt as an early date of its wear is far wrong. Fielding used the word in Tom Jones in 1749; other English publications, in 1709; and I find it in the Letters of Madame de Sévigné as early as 1686. The cardinal, worn at the same date, was originally of scarlet cloth, and I find was generally of some wool stuff. At one time I felt sure that cardinal was always the name for the woollen cloak, and capuchin of the silken one; but now I am a bit uncertain whether this is a rule. Judging from references in literature and advertisements, the capuchin was a richer garment than the cardinal. Capuchins were frequently trimmed liberally with lace, ribbons, and robings; were made of silk with gauze ruffles, or of figured velvet. One is here shown which is taken from one of Hogarth’s prints.
A Capuchin. From Hogarth.