was at Dantzig, taking part in a public
ceremony, and feeling his head somewhat cold, he stretched out his hand,
and seizing the wig from the head of the burgomaster sitting below him,
he placed it on his own regal head. The surprise of the spectators may
be better imagined than described. On the Czar returning the wig, his
attendants explained that his Majesty was in the habit of borrowing the
wig of any nobleman within reach on similar occasions. His Majesty, it
may be added, was short of hair.

Wigs were not confined to men. At the commencement of the eighteenth
century little boys attended school in wigs and cocked hats. "Had I
lived in the reign of good Queen Anne," wrote Lord Lyttelton, "my baby
face must have been adorned with a full-bottomed periwig as large as
that which bedecks the head and shoulders of Mr Justice Blackstone when
he scowls at the unhappy culprit who is arraigned before him." We learn
from Miss Agnes Strickland that "Marie Antoinette was the first person
who broke the absurd fashion of dressing infant boys as droll miniatures
of their fathers. She attired the unfortunate Dauphin in a simple blue
jacket and trousers, for which she was reviled, as if little bag-wigs
and tiny cocked-hats, and all the paraphernalia of full dress, had been
points of moral obligation. There are noblemen yet in existence," she
says, when writing her history, "who can remember, at six years old,
joining the juvenile parties given by George III. and Queen Charlotte,
dressed after the models of their fathers' court costumes, with powdered
side-curls, single-breasted coat, knee-buckles, and shoe-buckles."

It will not be without interest to give a picture of a full-bottomed
wig, and we select as an example the one worn by the great Lord
Mansfield. It was made by Mr Williams, a noted barber in his day, who
had among his patrons many famous men, including Dr Samuel Johnson, but
he prided himself most on making the full state wig for Lord Mansfield,
and the one which is represented on his imposing monument in Westminster
Abbey. After the famous lawyer had been laid to rest, the wig which is
represented on his monument was the subject of a very odd litigation,
which was fully reported in the _Times_ for 1823. An action, it is
stated, was brought by Mr Williams, a barber, against Mr Lawrence, to
recover Lord Mansfield's full state wig, which had again come into the
possession of the perruquier after the death of his lordship.