In a similar way we find that certain schools are called grey-coat or green-coat schools, and we have blue schools—for instance, one for boys and another for girls at Wells.
Then there is the Red Maid School, which was established in 1627 at Bristol, and in accordance with the founder’s will the girls are dressed in red frocks, with white aprons and tippets and plain straw bonnets, trimmed with blue ribbon. In connection with this foundation it may be said that £50 is set on one side each year for the award of marriage portions to girls who have left the school.
Our public schools afford us very interesting cases of special dresses. Perhaps no other coat which a boy wears is so well known as the Eton jacket. This is accompanied by a tall silk hat.
King’s scholars who are on the foundation and live “in College” also wear an academical gown of fairly ample proportions. The Eton jacket was not always black, and originally the head-dress was a mortar-board, and there was a broad lace collar or bands round the neck (see page [47]). The black coats and top hats were introduced in 1820 as mourning for King George III, and have been worn ever since. The broad collar which takes its name from Eton is probably a survival of lace bands, and is worn over the jacket in the same way.
Very similar coats are also worn by the younger boys at Westminster and at Harrow. In the latter case the jacket finishes off in a small point at the back, whereas the jacket worn at Eton is cut straight. The older boys at Eton wear a morning coat, a stick-up collar, and a white tie. This white tie is also worn by the masters, whether they be clerks in holy orders or not, and it seems to be a survival of a white choker which was wound round and round the stick-up collar, though, on the other hand, it may represent academical bands.
At Winchester the scholars wear bands, and this is no doubt connected with the use of academical dress, for it is usual for the boys on the foundation of public schools, as we have seen to be the case at Eton, to wear gowns.
The upper boys at Harrow, on the other hand, wear dress-coats with swallow tails; but should, however, a lower boy outgrow his short jacket, he is given what is called “charity” tails.
When speeches are made at Eton, those who take part in the performance wear dress-coats, knee-breeches, silk stockings, and buckled shoes.
Some costumes have probably been in existence since the foundation and endowment of the schools, and we can find parallel cases in the dress of some almshouses and hospitals for pensioners. Probably the idea originally underlying the wearing of a special dress is the same as is to be seen in modern charity schools, where all the boys or girls are dressed alike. It must simplify the tailoring and dressmaking arrangements, but at the same time it intentionally or unintentionally brands the children. Nevertheless, we see that the boys at most aristocratic and celebrated schools are in very much the same kind of boat.