ions have been made. The most probable of these
is that which connects it with the peccadilloes or ruffs worn by the
gallants of Charles II.'s time. Pennant traced the name to piccadillas,
turnovers or cakes which were sold at Piccadilla Hall, at the upper end
of the Haymarket.

In Thomas Blount's "Glossographia" we read: "Pickadil ... the round hem
or the several divisions set together about the skirt of a garment or
other thing; also a kinde of stiff collar made in fashion of a Bande.
Hence perhaps that famous ordinary near St. James called Peckadilly took
denomination because it was then the utmost or skirt house of the
suburbs that way, others say it took its name from this, that one
Higgins a tailor who built it got most of his estate by Pickadilles,
which in the last age were much worn in England." There seems to be no
other foundation than Mr. Blount's lively imagination for "Higgins a
tailor."

There is as much confusion about the first date at which the name was
used as there is about its derivation. Whether the hall took its name
from its situation or the district from the hall will probably ever
remain in doubt. The earliest occurrence of the name is in 1636, by
which time the hall was built. The gaming-house was at a later time also
known as Piccadilly, which has increased the confusion. Some writers
have identified the hall and the gaming-house, but there seems to be no
doubt that these were two separate buildings. The former was a private
house standing at the corners of Windmill and Coventry Streets. The
latter seems to have been built by Robert Baker, and sold by his widow
to Colonel Panton, who built Panton Street. It was otherwise known as
Shaver's Hall, and had a tennis-court and upper and lower bowling-green,
and was a very fashionable place of resort. The secondary name probably
emanated from the proprietor's former trade, but it is said to have
stuck to the place after Lord Dunbar lost L3,000 at one sitting, when
people said a Northern lord had been shaved here.

Sir John Suckling was among the habitues of the place, and his sisters
will ever be remembered from Aubrey's pathetically humorous description
of their coming "to the Peccadillo bowling-green crying for feare he
should lose all [their] portions," as he was a great gamester.

The name Piccadilly appears to have begun at the east end, near the
circus, and spread over the whole, a fact which is in favour of its
being derived from the hous