These shoes were called Cracows. Cracow was a town in Poland which was at that time within the dominions of Anne's father, and it is supposed that the fashion of wearing these shoes may have been brought into England by some of the gentlemen in Anne's train, when she came to England to be married. It is known that the queen did introduce a great many foreign fashions to the court, and, among the rest, a fashion of head-dress for ladies, which was quite as strange as peaked shoes for the gentlemen. It consisted of what was called the horned cap.
FASHIONABLE HEAD-DRESSES.
The horned caps.
Description of the horns.
These horns were often two feet high, and sometimes two feet wide from one side to the other. The frame of this head-dress was made of wire and pasteboard, and the covering was of some glittering tissue or gauze. There were other head-dresses scarcely less monstrous than these. Some of them are represented in the engraving. These fashions, when introduced by the queen, spread with great rapidity among all the court ladies, and thence to all fashionable circles in England.
Pins.
It is said, too, that it was this young queen who first introduced pins into England. Dresses had been fastened before by little skewers made of wood or ivory. Queen Anne brought pins, which had been made for some time in Germany, and the use of them soon extended all over England.
Side-saddles.