We have seen that there was a great variety of colours in men's clothing. A little curiosity in colour must not pass unnoticed.
The City Prentices, those upstart Beaus
In short spruce Puffs and Vigo coloured clothes.[202]
—a colour which might puzzle for some time, were it not for the huge quantity of snuff captured at Vigo in 1702.
There were clothes of Drap du Barri and D'Oyley suits, so called after the famous haberdasher, whose name still survives in the dessert napkin. They were made of drugget and sagathay, camlet, but the majority of men wore cloth. It is scarcely necessary to describe the shape of the coat, for the illustrations show it better than any printed description. There is but one peculiarity I would point out—that in 1711 the coats used to be wired to make them stick out. 'The Skirt of your fashionable Coats forms as large a Circumference as our Petticoats; as these are set out with Whalebone, so are those with Wire, to encrease and sustain the Bunch of Fold that hangs down on each side.'[203]
The cheap clothiers lived in Monmouth Street, St. Giles (now called Dudley Street), and there was no love lost between them and their higher-priced brethren, as the following advertisement shows: 'Whereas the Monmouth Street Men and other Taylors in and about the City, have by divers Advertisements in the Postman and other publick Prints, and by Bills given from Door to Door, boasted what mighty Pennyworths Persons may have of them, in selling Sagathy and Druggit Suits, the smallest sized Men for 3 Guineas, and the largest sizes for £3 10s. and Men's Cloth Suits at £4 and £4 10s. This is to acquaint all Persons that have occasion for such Suits, if they please to make Tryal, may have the same as Cheap in Birchin lane, and as well and as fashionable made, and may be assured of seeing more choice both of broad Cloaths, Camblet, Druggits and Sagathys than many of those Upstarts can pretend to.'[204]
'4 PAIRE FOR A SHILLING,
HOLLAND SOCKS!'
A perusal of the advertisements of these 'Monmouth Street Men' confirms these prices, and one will serve as a type of all. 'At the sign of the Golden Heart in Monmouth Street in St. Giles' in the Fields. All Gentlemen and Others, may be Furnished with all sorts of Cloathes and chuse their Patterns and have them made very well and Fashionable, of Cloath, Druggets, or Sagathie, the first size Drugget or Sagathie at Three Pounds, the second size at Three Guineas, and the largest size at Three Pound Ten Shillings; with all sorts of Cloath Suits very Reasonable, and Cheaper than any hath yet pretended to make them: With all sorts of Plain Liveries at Three Pound Fifteen and Four Pound a Suit, and Laced Liveries proportionable; As likewise all sorts of Camblet Suits very Reasonable, and Campaign Coats at Fifteen or Sixteen Shillings a Coat; All sorts and sizes of Boys Cloathes very Good and Cheap.'[205] In reading these advertisements, and indeed in all quotations of price, the different value of money—then and now—should never be forgotten; three pounds being equivalent to seven or eight. So that, according to our ideas, clothing was dearer then than now.
In the country, owing to the very little correspondence between it and the metropolis, of course the fashions were some time in reaching remote distances, and were equally long in departing from thence, to make way for new ones. Addison humorously describes the fashions for men in Cornwall in 1711. 'From this place, during our progress through the most western parts of the kingdom, we fancied ourselves in King Charles the Second's reign, the people having made very little variations in their dress since that time. The smartest of the country Squires appear still in the Monmouth Cock, and when they go a wooing, whether they have any post in the militia or not, they generally put on a red coat. We were indeed very much surprised, at the place we lay at last night, to meet with a gentleman that had accoutred himself in a night cap wig, a coat with long pockets and slit sleeves, and a pair of shoes with high scallop tops; but we soon found by his conversation that he was a person who laughed at the ignorance and rusticity of the country people, and was resolved to live and die in the mode.'[206]
Of men's breeches, and the materials of which they were made, very little mention is made; but the stocking is frequently brought to notice. They were of cloth, knitted woollen, thread, and silk. The latter were of all colours, to suit the beaus' costumes, but black silk was the wear of your well-to-do citizen, professional man, or gentleman. Misson says 'The English Silk Stockings are one of its famous Merchandizes;' and solemn old Thoresby records how he and his cousin 'bought each a pair of black silk rolling stockings in Westminster Hall.' There is no mention of gaiters as a protection against cold, rain, or mud. Addison grumbles that 'another informs me of a pair of silver Garters buckled below the knee, that have lately been seen at the Rainbow Coffee house in Fleet Street,'[207] and considers it his mission 'to Correct those Depraved Sentiments that give Birth to all those little Extravagances which appear in their outward Dress and Behaviour.'