Fig. 141.—A barrister’s gown showing the vestigial hood and its streamer. The buttons and braid which once temporarily looped up the sleeves now fix it permanently.
On the barrister’s gown there is a tiny hood on the left shoulder resembling that from which the chaperon was developed, and from the vestige runs a streamer which comes over the left shoulder and hangs down in front of the gown. (See Figure [141].) There is also a series of buttons as well as pieces of braid on the sleeves which are survivals, and we have not the hanging sleeves of the King’s Counsel, which are comparable to those seen in many academic gowns. Small falling bands are of course generally worn by members of the legal profession, and barristers and King’s Counsel when in mourning have a little pleat down the middle of each band. Perhaps the most curious additions to legal costume used in order to indicate mourning are the little white lawn or muslin cuffs, like those of widows, which the King’s Counsel wear on their sleeves when the Court is in mourning, or when they themselves have suffered bereavement.
[XXIV]
STATE AND COURT ATTIRE
CORONATION DRESS—PARLIAMENTARY ROBES—MISTAKES IN COURT DRESS—VESTIGES OF THE WIG AND OF THE CHAPERON—COURT CARDS
The English sovereigns are heads of the Church as well as of the State, and in connection with their coronation dress there are, as might be expected, many survivals from the past. The vestments used on the occasion in question agree almost entirely with those which we have described as being worn by a bishop at mass.[33] We may except, however, the amice and the maniple, while the sceptre and crown take the place of the crosier and the mitre. The first vestment to be put on is of linen, and is an albe or rochet, and up to the time of James II it was provided with sleeves—it is known as the Colobium sindonis. Over this is placed the tunicle or dalmatic. This is made of silk, and across it is worn the stole in the same way as deacons were ordered to do in the year 561. The custom is still followed in Greece and Rome, whereas priests generally put on the stole immediately after the albe.
Over the dalmatic comes the imperial mantle which seems to have been originally a chasuble, but is now slit up in front. This garment, which is of cloth of gold, is embroidered with eagles, that are interesting as probably representing the claim of the King of England to be Emperor of Britain and Lord Paramount over all the Islands of the West. In Charles II’s reign further ornaments occurred in the shape of roses and fleur-de-lys, and on Queen Victoria’s mantle there were roses, half red and half white, as well as thistles, shamrocks, and fleur-de-lys, while the eagles were embroidered in silver.