"I can carry your umbrella and fan, your Ladyship."
Gay, addressing a gentleman, in his "Trivia, or the Art of Walking the Streets of London" (1712), says:—
"Be thou for every season justly dress'd,
Nor brave the piercing frost with open breast:
And when the bursting clouds a deluge pour.
Let thy surtout defend the gaping shower."
And again:—
"That garment best the winter's rage defends
Whose shapeless form in ample plaits depends;
By various names in various countries known,
Yet held in all the true surtout alone.
Be thine of kersey tine, though small the cost,
Then brave, unwet, the rain, unchilled, the frost."
These passages lead us to the belief that the Umbrella was not used by gentlemen for a long time after its merits had been recognised by the fair sex.
The following lines from the same author have often been quoted:—
"Good housewives all the winter's rage despise
Defended by the riding-hood's disguise:
Or underneath the umbrella's oily shed
Safe through the wet on clinking pattens tread.
Let Persian dames th' umbrellas rich display,
To guard their beauties from the sunny ray,
Or sweating slaves support the shady load,
When Eastern monarchs show their state abroad,
Britain in winter only knows its aid
To guard from chilly showers the walking maid."
—Trivia, B. 1.
Dean Swift, also, in the Tatler, No. 228, in describing a City shower, thus alludes to the common use of the Umbrella by women:—
"Now in contiguous drops the floods come down,
Threatening with deluge the devoted town:
To shops in crowds the draggled females fly,
Pretend to cheapen goods, but nothing buy:
The Templar spruce, while every spout's abroach,
Stays till 'tis fair, yet seems to call a coach:
The tucked-up sempstress walks with hasty strides,
While streams run down her oiled umbrella's sides."