“Each son of Sol, to make him look more big,
Had on a large, grave, decent, three tailed wig.”
Of course, we don’t suppose that Dr. Brocklesby’s barber or the learned doctor intended it as an advertisement; but it was the constant practice of his barber to carry the said doctor’s wig in its box through the crowd at the Exchange, calling out, “Make way for Dr. Brocklesby’s wig!” Our allusion is to the dignity and importance of the wig, which were fully recognized by the honourable and illustrious professors of the healing art, who will please to excuse our indulging in a pleasant stave of an old song:
“If you would see a noble wig,
And in that wig a man look big,
To Ludgate-hill repair, my joy,
And gaze on Doctor Delmayhoy.”
The parson was as well found in wigs as the doctor. Mandeville says of a wealthy parson, “His wigs are as fashionable as that form he is forced to comply with will admit of; but, as he is only stinted in their shape, so he takes care that for goodness of hair and colour few noblemen shall be able to match ’em.” It is encouraging to know that the clergy look so closely to the goodness of the article they put before us. Warton wrote an “Ode to a Grizzle Wig,” which is not the worst ingredient in that pleasant miscellany of his, “The Oxford Sausage:”
“All hail, ye Curls, that rang’d in rev’rend row,
With snowy pomp my conscious shoulders hide!