coif-cap may still be
seen in the wigs worn by sergeants at the present day. The black blot
which marks the crown of a sergeant's wig is generally spoken of as his
coif, but this designation is erroneous. The black blot is the coif-cap;
and those who wish to see the veritable coif must take a near view of
the wig, when they will see that between the black silk and the
horsehair there lies a circular piece of white lawn, which is the
vestige of that pure raiment so reverentially mentioned by Fortescue. On
the general adoption of wigs, the sergeants, like the rest of the bar,
followed in the wake of fashion: but at first they wore their old coifs
and caps over their false hair. Finding this plan cumbersome, they
gradually diminished the size of the ancient covering, until the coif
and cap became the absurd thing which resembles a bald place covered
with court-plaster quite as much as the rest of the wig resembles human
hair.

Whilst the common law judges of the seventeenth century, before the
introduction of wigs, wore the undiminished coif and coif-cap, the Lord
Chancellor, like the Speaker of the House of Commons, wore a hat. Lord
Keeper Williams, the last clerical holder of the seals, used to wear in
the Court of Chancery a round, conical hat. Bradshaw, sitting as
president of the commissioners who tried Charles I., wore a hat instead
of the coif and cap which he donned at other times as a serjeant of law.
Kennett tells us that "Mr. Sergeant Bradshaw, the President, was afraid
of some tumult upon such new and unprecedented insolence as that of
sitting judge upon his king; and therefore, beside other defence, he had
a thick big-crowned beaver hat, lined with plated steel, to ward off
blows." It is scarcely credible that Bradshaw resorted to such means for
securing his own safety, for in the case of a tumult, a hat, however
strong, would have been an insignificant protection against popular
fury. If conspirators had resolved to take his life, they would have
tried to effect their purpose by shooting or stabbing him, not by
knocking him on the head. A steel-plated hat would have been but a poor
guard against a bludgeon, and a still poorer defence against poignard or
pistol. It is far more probable that in laying aside the ordinary
head-dress of an English common law judge, and in assuming a
high-crowned hat, the usual covering of a Speaker, Bradshaw endeavored
to mark the exceptional character of the proceeding, and to re