Q.D.
THE USE OF BEAVER HATS IN ENGLAND.
The notice from Fairholt's Costume in England, concerning the earliest use of a beaver hat in England, is not very satisfactory. Beaver hats were certainly used in this country long before Stubbes's time. They were originally, like many other articles of dress, manufactured abroad, and imported here. Indeed, this was a great source of complaint by the English artizan until a comparatively late period. The author of A Brief Discourse of English Poesy, n.d. (temp. Eliz.) says:—
"I merveil no man taketh heed to it, what number of trifles come hither from beyond the seas, that we might clean spare, or else make them within our realme. For the which we either pay inestimable treasure every year, or else exchange substantial wares and necessaries for them, for the which we might receive great treasure."
"The beaver or felt hats (says J.H. Burn, in his interesting History of the Foreign Refugees, p. 257.) worn in the reign of Edward III., and for a long time afterwards, were made in Flanders. The refugees in Norfolk introduced the manufacture of felts and thrummed hats into that country; and by a statute of 5 and 6 Edward VI., that trade was confined to Norwich, and all other corporate and market towns in the country."
"About that time (says a History of Trade, published in 1702) we suffered a great herd of French tradesmen to come in, and particularly hat-makers, who brought with them the fashion of making a slight, coarse, mean commodity, viz. felt hats, now called Carolinas; a very inferior article to beavers and demicastors, the former of which then sold at from 24s. to 48s. a piece."
In the Privy-Purse Expenses of Henry VIII., we read, under the date 1532:—
"Item the xxiij day [October] paied for a hatte
and a plume for the King in Boleyn [i.e.
Boulogue] ... xvs."
And again—